Communicating Science

Science communication isn’t just for scientists; it’s for everyone. The discoveries made in labs and field studies only have a real impact when the wider public can understand and connect with them. But too often, science gets lost in jargon or buried under details. The key is learning how to translate complex ideas into clear, relatable messages that resonate with different audiences. Here are some tips I found helpful when breaking down my research, as I was often told early on that I wasn't using enough jargon in my research:

• The first thing is to know your intended audience. You cannot give the same speech you would to a group of scientists and then give the same speech to a public event. It's essential to understand who you're speaking to, so you can deliver the message effectively.

• Do not use jargon. Scientists often use terms like “direct relationship”, “bias”, and “positive trend”.

• Get to the point. You do not want to bore your audience with background information and details that they may not understand. This correlates to the first point of knowing your audience and knowing when to use extra information and when not to.

• Use analogies and metaphors. Using these techniques allows you to connect your work with real-life situations and makes your work relatable and easy to digest.

• Use social media. Social media can be a creative way to get people who wouldn’t usually indulge in science to understand the importance of science. Social media opens the door for people of all ages and backgrounds to learn more about science.

• Lastly, relate. You have to be able to relate what you're speaking about to something that is current and will grab your audience's attention. For example, politics, economics, pop culture, etc.

At its heart, science is about curiosity and discovering something we all share, whether we wear a lab coat or not. By breaking down language barriers and making science relatable, we can spark interest, build trust, and hopefully inspire action. Science becomes most powerful when everyone can understand it.

How do you like to make science more engaging?

2023 in a Nutshell

Hello beautiful Souls,

Since the last time we spoke, many beautiful things have happened to me. To recap where we left off, I established my Ph.D. committee and found a niche I am very passionate about. Since then, I have been nominated to apply for the NOAA EPP MSI GFP Fellowship, which extends a year of work in the NOAA line office of your choosing. Since September, I have worked with NOAA NEFSC (Northeast Fisheries Science Center) Sandy Hook lab. Within this internship, I will complete a chapter of my dissertation on blue carbon in Puerto Rico mangrove sediments and will complete this internship at the end of August. If you would like to know more about this internship and what it entails, you can lick this link: https://www.noaa.gov/office-education/epp-msi/csc/eppmsi-graduate-fellowship-program

There was also a press release done for me when it was announced I was the intern for the 2023 class, and you can find that here. Though I know there are a lot of naysayers regarding my capabilities, I am beyond excited to have this opportunity to become a better-equipped scientist by working with NOAA scientists directly during this internship. Through this internship, I could identify and solidify the last member of my Ph.D. committee, which has warmed my heart tremendously. Dr. Eagle is a USGS biogeochemist whose work focuses on the rate of change within coastal ecosystems using geochemical tools. She will serve as the subject matter expert during my time, and I foresee becoming one of the prominent people I speak with. She joins as a member of a wonder team that includes Dr. Pant, Dr. Merchant, Dr. Blake, and Dr. Hernandez. Through this meeting, I had a mini internship at the USGS hosted by Dr. Eagle this past week, where I learned a lot of technical skills and got guidance on the structure for my Ph.D. -related things. I am currently working on my first manuscript, and I am excited! 

Furthermore, besides research-related things, for the first time in a long time, I went on two vacations in 2023. First, I spent a week in Key West with my family and then went on my first cruise! The cruise was by far my favorite thing of 2023, and I cannot wait to go on the next one. The sunrise, sunsets, ocean views, and activities were very refreshing, not to mention being disconnected from the world for eight days due to no service on the ocean! Once I have completed my internship, I look forward to getting away again to recharge my batteries! 

Throughout the past couple of months, it has been very clear to me that the right support team will allow you to feel loved and guided and also allow you to grow as a person and a professional in your desired field. Remember that you are not growing and expanding if you are comfortable in your environment. As my mentor, Dr. Shakila Merchant, always says, “Mastering how to be comfortable in uncomfortable spaces is the key to life. You know that you are learning and growing.” 

Here’s a reminder that you will feel defeated, confused, and even unworthy with the wrong team, but with the right team, you will feel supported, loved, and boosted in confidence. You start to see things so clearly and truly begin to see how things tie together—your quality of life increases. Because of my team, my dad, Dr. Merchant, Dr. Hari Pant, Dr. William Hernandez, Dr. Blake, and the addition of Dr. Eagle, I have never been so confident in my work or myself.

Until next time, 

Embrace every part of your being.

Thank You, Dr. Shakila Merchant, for 22 years of Service!

Dear Shakila,

Thank you for all your endless work and dedication to your baby, NOAA CREST, which has turned into NOAA CESSRST. It’s hard to keep count of how many lives you’ve changed throughout your 22 years of service, and even after this, you’ll continue to serve because that’s just the person you are. You love seeing the transformation within your students and how they’ve grown. I’ve been most excited to see the metamorphosis you’ve embarked on in these past few years. You’ve started to center yourself, take care of yourself, and become your champion for your beliefs and for what you believe is right. Nothing is more motivating and empowering than a woman of color standing ten to toe for what she believes in while taking care of herself physically and mentally. Your continuous fight to be the best person you can be for your students reminds me of the most important lesson you’ve ever taught me: “When you learn how to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations, then you’ve mastered the key to life.” And I carry that with me every day. 

While others may believe that vinegar and malice are the way to push a student to show their skill set, you believe in using sugar and honey, which leaves a long-lasting impact on the lives of those you’ve touched and transformed. Because of this, you will breed success into anything that you touch. Thank you for being the giant for the student'’ past, present, and, most importantly, future. Everyone needs and should have a giant to help them reach their full potential, and you have dedicated your life to doing just that. 

Though most will be saying goodbye to you today, I won’t be, and I’m entirely grateful for you. Your dedication to seeing me for who I am and encouraging and lending a hand when I’ve needed guidance has been beautiful. You’ve been through all of it and never once decided that I wasn’t worth fighting for, so you’ll always have a rider in me. And I will show up for you in every way you need me to. When God prepares the feast in front of those who have doubted, degraded, and disregarded me. It fills me with the utmost pleasure that you will be seated beside me at the feast because of your undying love. 

In a field where there aren’t many women who look like us, in a field where everyone will try their best to provoke you because of your color, in a field where a woman has to work hard, women like us have to work 10 times harder. You are our Wonder Woman. Our Super Woman, our Statue of Liberty, shows what is possible. 

Any room you walk into will instantly be filled with abundance, joy, hard work, dedication, and success, so when you choose to walk out of a space you’ve occupied, it will forever leave a gaping hole that won’t be filled. You are the star in any room that you stand in. 

Thank you for your dedication and commitment to your students. The sky may be the limit, but there are footprints on the moon and three rovers on Mars. Your journey has only just begun. I love you! 

Aragonite vs. Calcite

Welcome, beautiful souls; today, we will discuss aragonite and calcite and why they are important yet different, especially regarding the environment and climate.

Calcite and aragonite are two calcium carbonate polymorphs. When exposed to seawater, calcium carbonate forms aragonite instead of its preferred state, calcite (Chandler, 2015). Aragonite can convert into calcite with time or when heated (Chandler, 2015). Calcite is the most stable and abundant of the carbonates (Tsai et al., 2011). Regarding solubility, aragonite is more soluble than calcite (White, 2019). The solubility of calcite depends on magnesium concentration. The higher the concentration, the higher the solubility (Plath et al., 1980). Isomorphic substitution is common for calcite and aragonite. The elements that tend to substitute for Ca in calcite are magnesium, iron, manganese, cobalt, zinc, cadmium, and nickel (Skinner et al., 2005). The elements substituting Ca in aragonite are strontium and lead (Skinner et al., 2005). Calcite crystallizes in the hexagonal/rhombohedral space (due to smaller cations) (Figure 1). While aragonite is crystallized in the orthorhombic space group (larger cations) (Figure 2).

Figure 1: Calcite crystal structure (Skinner et al., 2005)

Figure 2: Aragonite crystal structure (Skinner et al., 2005)

There is a difference between aragonite and calcite in its solubility. Therefore, the aragonite saturation state can be used to indicate ocean acidification. Carbonate ion concentration is measured by aragonite's saturation state (Friedrich, 2022).

Calcite is soluble in dilute acids but is barely soluble in water. As a result, calcite becomes significantly more soluble in water containing CO2 since carbonic acid is formed, which reacts to form calcium bicarbonate, Ca (HCO3)2 soluble in water (Butler, 1999).

A reaction shifts from left to right when CO2 is introduced into the system, resulting in calcite dissolution. Because of temperature, pressure, and acidity, calcite precipitates in the system when CO2 decreases (Butler, 1999).

Temperature: Since CO2 is less soluble in warm solutions than cold solutions, increasing temperatures significantly produce CO2. Calcite precipitates when equation [1] shifts to the left. CO2 dissolves more readily at lower temperatures, resulting in equation [1] shifting to the right and calcite soluble (Butler, 1999).

Pressure: Gases become more soluble as the pressure increases. Consequently, equation [2] will increase the production of carbonic acid, and equation [1] will shift to the right, leading to calcite dissolution. The opposite is true. Gas solubility decreases with decreasing pressure, which forces equation [2] to reduce carbonic acid production. Calcite precipitates because equation [1] shifts to the left (Butler, 1999). 

Acidity: Hydrogen atoms increase as pH decreases. In response to increased acidity, equation [1] shifts to the right, causing calcite to dissolve. The reverse is true as well. By reducing the production of carbonic acid, equation [2] shifts to the right, and calcite precipitates as a result (Butler, 1999).

To summarize:

High Temperature= precipitation, Low temperature= dissolution

High pH = precipitation, Low pH = dissolution

High pressure= dissolution, Low pressure = precipitation

References

• Plath D. C., Johnson K. S., and Pytkowicz R. M. (1980) The solubility of calcite—probably containing magnesium—in seawater.Mar. Chem.10, 9–29.

• Skinner, H. “8.04 – Biomineralization.” Treatise on Geochemistry 8 (2007): 1-69.

• Tsai, T. W. T., & Chan, J. C. C. (2011, March 30). Recent progress in the solid-state NMR studies of Biomineralization. Annual Reports on NMR Spectroscopy. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780080970745000013?via%3Dihub

• White, W. B. (2019, May 17). Speleothems. Encyclopedia of Caves (Third Edition). Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128141243001175

• Chandler, D. L. (2015, March 2). Mystery solved: Why Seashells' mineral forms differently in seawater. MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://news.mit.edu/2015/why-seashell-mineral-forms-differently-in-seawater-0302

• Friedrich, T. (n.d.). Ocean Acidification. Outreach. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from http://iprc.soest.hawaii.edu/users/tobiasf/Outreach/OA/Ocean_Acidification.html

• Butler, J. C. (1999, July 11). Precipitation and Solution of Calcium Carbonate. Geoscience Resources. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://uh.edu/~jbutler/kunming/carbonates.html

Everything is Everything

Hello, my fellow scientists; I know it's been a while. Since we last spoke, a couple of milestones have happened to me. First, I graduated with my master's of science in earth and atmospheric sciences in 2020 and started my Ph.D. that year. One of the great benefits for me during 2020-2021 was focusing on just Ph.D. coursework during the first year and getting immersed in the work and knowledge. Though these are all great things, they come with painful experiences: racism. There are so many different forms of this in academia, especially those who hold "power." My experience taking my first-year qualifiers wasn't a good one due to this, and it took a long time to unpack that. Thankfully, a few people were there to help and assure me that I experienced exactly what I thought I was.

There will always be people who do not believe you deserve to be where you are. They'll often hide their thoughts about you and your abilities as "critiques." You don't "know" enough, you aren't "doing" enough, and your skills aren't "sharp" enough. They may even try to subtly convince you to quit what you're doing. Do Not. Not everyone who smiles means you well, and you must learn to keep pushing, even in adversity. As one of my mentors (Dr. Shakila Merchant) tells me, "When you've mastered being comfortable in uncomfortable situations, you've unlocked the key to life."

I aim to always show up as the best version of myself. Continuously improving, always learning, and this is a learning process. Recently, I've realized it doesn't matter who doesn't support me; it only matters who does. The trick is to figure out genuine support and what is disguised as that. If you're reading this, do not quit; keep moving forward because if I've learned anything, nothing meant for you will ever miss you, and that which missed you was never meant for you. So don't be discouraged, as I leave you with this from Psalm 23,

"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me! Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the lord. Forever!"

As my father likes to say, Everything is Everything.

Until next time,

Embrace every part of your being...

Exploring on Okeanos pt. 2

Good Morning, Everyone!

Welcome back to my Okeanos EiT Internship experience. The second half of the blog will talk about what I enjoyed most and the interesting things that I got to witness while at sea. When you're not on shift, you have a lot of downtime on your hands, where you get to explore the boat, and if you're lucky, you will get to see some interesting things as well. One of the best experiences I ever had was turning the boat on one of our survey lines. Brian (NOAA Corps Officer) was there with me, guiding me on what the equipment indicated, and to keep a steady hand. The second best thing was seeing all the sea creatures. I set out to see two things, dolphins and whales, and I saw both! I got to see bottlenose, Atlantic spotted, and spinner dolphins, pilot whales, hammerhead sharks, sea turtles, storm clouds, the constellations, and the moon at night, and the most beautiful sunsets every night. This was truly the best experience I have ever had, and I would gladly do another trip like it. I learned a great deal while on this expedition, and I am a better scientist and writer because of it. I have a better understanding of how data is collected and provided for us, ocean scientists, and I am grateful for everything I have learned. I will truly never forget this.

Exploring on Okeanos pt.1

Good Afternoon everyone!

I am back to tell you all about my internship that I went on with NOAA Okeanos. I will break this blog into two sections. The first being the technical side of the trip, objective, what did I learn, etc.. and the second part will be what i enjoyed the most out of the experience and what the highlights for me were.

The internship that I embarked on from May 30th through June 14th was the Okeanos Explorer-in-Training (EiT) program, where you gain knowledge and understanding to the process of data collecting and how the data is cleaned and prepared for the public. The overall importance and objective of the mapping cruise and mapping in general is to provide information on the surveyed areas that leads to further exploration and research. The Okeanos Explorer engages in community driven exploration where information from the mapping cruises that they have completed will ultimately determine where the Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) dives will occur. The second and most important objective while aboard the vessel were cleaning and processing the data being collected by the sonar, located at the bottom of the boat, ashore. They were 4 EiT's and we had shifts where it was two or more people on watch where in my case i was one of two interns and 1 watch lead. Our duties consist of creating daily products of what we surveyed, subbottom profiling,check water column data and process it to see if there are any underground seeps etc. Our job is to make sure all data is cleaned and process and sent to shore before we reached port. Though all sonars on the boat is quite important, the ones that we focused on heavily where the XBT, EK 60 Singlebeam EM 302 Multibeam and the Knudesen Subbottom Profiler.

XBT , EK 60 Singlebeam, EM 302 Multibeam, Knudsen Subbottom Profiler, CTD

Invisible Chains

“Science means constantly walking a tightrope between blind faith and curiosity; between expertise and creativity; between bias and openness; between experience and epiphany; between ambition and passion; and between arrogance and conviction - in short, between an old today and a new tomorrow.”

— Heinrich Rohrer

Hi again!

I am back home from the Okeanos Explorer internship and I am currently
working on a few blogs to publish about it! However, I wanted to stop by and say that I will also be sharing my creative work on this blog page as well. Because even though I love science, I also love creative writing and would love to share that part of myself with my followers as well.

It is important that one embraces all parts of their creativity and passions in order to feel fulfilled in life in every aspect. My mentor, Dr. Shakila Merchant, taught me a very significant life lesson. She said to me, "when you have learned to be comfortable in uncomfortable places, that is when you've truly mastered life". I tend to shy away from sharing my poetry and creative writing because it is a very personal and intimate side to me that I don't often share with everyone. However, that changes today. I am stepping out of my comfort zone and embracing all my passions without feeling the need to show one side and hide the other. I  realized that as a woman, we are expected to be one dimensional and have the tendency to be boxed in, but only if you allowed it. Mark Twain once said, "a man cannot be comfortable without his own approval" and I am now understanding what he truly meant by this. It is time I stepped into the multi-dimensional woman I am and break the invisible chains set upon me by society and most importantly, myself. 

Until next time,

Embrace every part of your being...

“Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you’re passionate about something, then you’re more willing to take risks.”

— Yo-Yo Ma

Always Exploring..

Hey guys! I know it’s been a while since we last spoke, but I come with good news! The last time we spoke, a few things have happened. For starters, I graduated from undergrad !!! And I am now in a graduate program at The City College of New York. My area of interest is now in Coastal resilience and my major is Earth and Atmospheric Science (EAS). My project focuses on the coral-algal community and how using remote sensing can relate bleaching events to heat stress. My first two semesters of grad school are officially done, and I have one more year and a thesis to get through before I head into a PhD program.

While in my last semester, I applied to both Nautlius and Okeanos Explorer, explorer in training programs, and I got accepted to both! While both opportunities are once in a lifetime and amazing in their way, the cruise that I went on (and am currently on) is the Okeanos Explorer mapping cruise. Okeanos Explorer is the only federally funded program with exploration as its core mission. It is also a part of a global initiative to have the whole ocean mapped by 2030, as outlined The Nippon Foundation- GEBCO Seabed 2030 project. This project was created mainly for the reason that more than 80 percent of our ocean is unmapped, unobserved and unexplored. The mapping cruise I am on is expedition 3 of 2019 Leg 1. We left port on the 30th of May in Key West, Florida, and will be arriving in Port Canaveral, Florida, on June 14th.

I’m so sorry for ghosting you guys for a year! However, this year and forward will be different since I will be posting a blog post at. LEAST ONCE A WEEK.

P.S. Stay tuned for multiple blogs on the Okeanos Explorer Experience, being at sea, what I’ve learned, and much more!!!!