• Question: so what made u intrested about the marine zone

    Asked by ojay to Clare, Dave, Glo, Ozge, Sean on 13 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by supercalifishagelisticexpialidocious.
    • Photo: Dave Sproson

      Dave Sproson answered on 10 Jun 2011:

      Hi Ojay,

      That’s a difficult one to answer! I’ve lived by the sea since I was quite young, so I’ve always loved and identified with it. When I left school I really didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I just followed what I was interested in at the time, which was maths and physics. It wasn’t until I was in my early twenties that I realised that I could combine my interest in physics and the oceans and make a career out of it. I’ve not looked back since!

    • Photo: Sean Clement

      Sean Clement answered on 10 Jun 2011:

      I really enjoy talking to people about marine science, and when I saw that IAS were hosting a Marine science zone this time I around, I was really keen on getting invvolved. And here I am!

      Edit: Of course, looking at Daves answer, I probably didn’t understand the question right 1st time around. Sorry Ojay! Again, Like Dave, I lived by the sea when I was young and have never really felt right being too far away from it. I used to love going to aquariums and looking round rockpools in the holidays and searching for all kinds of interesting stuff in them. I’ve also been really fascinated by the deep ocean and what lurks down there totally out of sight…

    • Photo: Ozge Ozkaya

      Ozge Ozkaya answered on 10 Jun 2011:

      Hi Ojay,

      I understood the question the way that Sean did the first time, so will answer to that. When I registered my interest to “I’m a scientists” the zones were not yet decided. I only sent in a sentence description of my work as I was asked. I think I ended up in the marine zone because I work on krill.

      I actually work in a lab that studies biological clocks, and in particular the circadian (almost 24 h) clock. That’s what makes us get up/get hungry/go to sleep etc more or less at the same time each day- and also the reason why we are jet lagged when we travel across the time zones (if we go to America for instance). The reason why we are interested in krill is because they (huge krill swarms) move up and down the ocean in a 24 h rhythm. They are found close to the surface of the ocean at night to feed and they go back to the ocean floor during the day to avoid predators. Our lab has shown that this behaviour is under the control of the circadian clock. 🙂

    • Photo: Gloeta Massie

      Gloeta Massie answered on 11 Jun 2011:

      Well – if you’re asking about the “Marine Zone” specifically – I didn’t choose this zone – they put me here! Help! Have you seen the other scientists in this zone – they’re mad! Who wants to be stuck in a zone with people who all study the ocean?!? Oh. Wait. Hmm.

      On second thought – I suppose that the best place for me was the Marine Zone – I happen to mad crazy in love with the ocean. Why? I haven’t a clue. I grew up in Missouri. The closest ocean to Missouri is ~740 miles away. (By comparison, that’s basically the same distance you would cover if you drove from the far north of Scotland to the far south of England.) According to my mother, I have loved the water since I was born. Apparently, I learned to swim before I could walk. (She has pictures of me crawling out on the diving board to prove her point. As far as I’m concerned – that proves nothing. Maybe I was just scared of heights? There’s a saying in science, “correlation does not equal causation” – which basically means – just because something happens at the same time, doesn’t mean that one event causes the other. Classic example of this is the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s graph regarding climate change and the decline in global piracy: . )

      All in all, Ojay, I can’t honestly say why I became interested in the ocean – I just know that there is nothing that makes me happier to be around or under. 🙂 I say – pursue what you love (be it the ocean, mountain bike racing, pastry design, spelunking), and be amazed by the life that follows!

    • Photo: Clare Woulds

      Clare Woulds answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      My parents have a sailing boat, and I spent my childhood being scared whenever the boat heeled over in the wind. I remember my mum once saying just for a joke ‘I bet you’ll become an oceanographer or something!’. I remember thinking ‘No way!’. I studied geology and environmental science at university because I found the environment so interesting (that started off with picking up gemstones and fossils on the beach), and I really enjoyed field trips. When it came to choosing a PhD there was a project on offer that involved going to sea in the Indian Ocean for three months, and that sounded really exciting (tropical sunshine, exotic places…). The rest of the project involved a mixture of chemistry and biology, and I liked them both so much that it was good not to have to choose between them. And that was that, I ended up being a marine scientist.

Comments