Oceanography | March 2018
On this gray winter day, I look out my family room window at the suet
feeder I just filled. Although I set this wintertime feeder out for the birds—
and even make my own suet (please contact me if you’d like the recipe)—I
know that the main beneficiaries of the food are the squirrels. With that
knowledge, I devise my own pitiful defenses against these clever and dex-
terous rodents, using twist-ties to prevent the squirrels from opening the
feeder, and slathering hot-pepper-infused shortening on the line from
which the feeder hangs to provide a lasting mouthful of fire. In the end, the
birds and I are the losers. The squirrels always prevail.
Watching the birds and squirrels leads to thoughts about observation
and experimentation. Those tools are the basis of conducting science, but
non-scientists use those same skills in solving everyday problems at work
and at home. A driver looks at the fuel gauge that is near empty and calcu-
lates whether she can make it to the next gas station. A shopper compares
prices and features on a new refrigerator to decide which one to purchase.
A vacationer checks the weather at his destination to know what clothes
to pack. A cook finds substitutes for missing ingredients when preparing a
recipe. A homeowner investigates the source of a leak when she sees a stain
on the ceiling. And yet, the same people who solve problems every day in
their work and home lives somehow reject the results of the same process of
observation and experimentation when those results are generated by uni-
versities, government agencies, and other components of Big Science. Why?
One of the great challenges of our time is educating the public that they
are scientists and mathematicians and engineers each and every day, and
that academic and government scientists aren’t strange people who pos-
sess some set of magical skills and work in secret laboratories. Along with
that understanding may come less fear and more appreciation of science
and less resistance to policy solutions that may involve short-term sacri-
fice for the sake of the long-term health of our planet. If people saw them-
selves as problem solvers, and saw scientists as fellow citizens who are just
trying to determine, on a larger scale, whether the fuel gauge is nearing
empty, we might be able to tackle pressing social and environmental issues
in a more congenial manner. Perhaps we can start by together solving that
knotty problem of keeping squirrels away from bird feeders, and then con-
tinue our collaborations on thornier issues.
Ellen S. Kappel, Editor
QUARTERDECK
The
Squirrelly
Thing
About
Knowledge
June 2018
Ocean Warming
September 2018 — Double Issue
1. Mathematical Aspects of Physical
Oceanography
2. Gulf of San Jorge, Patagonia, Argentina
December 2018
Scientific Ocean Drilling:
Looking to the Future (tentative)
In addition to the special issues articles,
Oceanography solicits and publishes:
• Peer-reviewed articles that chronicle
all aspects of ocean science and its
applications
• News and information, meeting reports,
hands-on laboratory exercises, career
profiles, and book reviews
• Editor-reviewed articles that address
public policy and education and how they
are affected by science and technology
• Breaking Waves articles that describe
novel approaches to multidisciplinary
problems in ocean science
Special Issues
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