Breaking News: Science isn’t actually magic

Post date: Jul 6, 2013 6:34:24 PM

Well, my worst notions have been thoroughly solidified in these past few weeks with proof that science, is in fact, boring. Just kidding, but the beauty of success and innovation that is coined with the word “science” that we all grow up fascinated by is a tad misinformed- but in a very good way. We all know that science is really the foundation of the complexity and progression of life as we know it, and to be quite frank, most of the time it really does seem like magic. As students, we glorify science (as we should) as this ‘thing’ that some how comes up with such magnificent and crucial information and breakthrough that runs our modern day world. But through my experience here at Stanford (especially in these early weeks,) I’ve been enlightened and kindly introduced to the other, not so glamorous, side of science- the simple, long and often tedious, work aspect. (It’s not magic!)

Let’s back up a bit and cover the particular question I, myself, and my intern Gabriel are trying answer and hopefully shed some light on. Although the logistics kind of flew over my head the first time Gabriel tried to explain it to me (phosphorus, cover crops, nitrogen fixation, what?!,) the overall idea and purpose is actually surprisingly simple. We have these cover crops which are basically crops that are plowed back into the soil (for multiple purposes, but for simplicity’s sake that doesn’t matter.) Our main focus regarding these cover crops, however, is whether or not they increase the availability of nutrients for the uptake of the next plant (specifically phosphorus.) Basically, we’re trying to see what effect cover crops have on phosphorus cycling, which is a key nutrient for plants. Specifically, we’re trying to determine if legumes can increase phosphorus availability, which would allow for less phosphorus input yet still keep steady yield. Less phosphorus required could lead to a much more efficient and economical way of farming. This is the broad overview of our focus and we are studying multiple aspects of these cover crops, but the more complicated details aren’t particularly important to overall understanding and our primary question.

So, the project itself, the question and the possible implications of successful phosphorus cycling as a partial result of cover crops is pretty awesome and has potential to become a glamorous new discovery that could lead to important innovations in agriculture. Of course I thought the project was pretty cool, but it didn’t really hit me that in order to get this kind of important data (as with every important discovery,) some work (and I mean not some crazy, awesome science related work) had to be put in. And thus, my journey began in the hopes of helping Gabriel with a project that I kept telling myself could be revolutionary (well, more so a failed attempt at trying to motivate myself to do the work.)

My days consisted of dividing out soils from our various plots (cereals, fava bean, vetch and bulk) and transferring, un-transferring and retransferring these soils into various different containers and envelopes so they could be dried, shaken, ground, weighed and eventually measured for phosphorus (eventually.) I did have Gabriel to joke around with and thankfully, he could relate to the “excitement” of grinding and cheered me up, reminding me that even the best of scientists had to do this kind of work at one point. And that really is the beauty of science. Of course, the inventions and discoveries are usually unbelievable and it’s hard to understand how someone could possible come up with them, but through my first weeks as a “scientist,” I’ve come to the comforting realization that science is real and feasible. By real, I mean that it’s not some insanely smart human that just randomly knows what’s happening, and it gives kids like us the idea that hard work actually pays off and it historically has for all of our revolutionary scientific inventions (my teachers weren’t lying to me!)

We haven’t gotten much data at all yet, and I’m not saying that I particularly enjoy grinding material, but this experience as been pretty enlightening to me, as cheesy as it sounds. The work is worth the glory that is soon to be revealed to us. It really does take step by step, straightforward and boring work to be able to acquire the data and get to the point where something amazing can be concluded. I still can’t help but giggle at the thought of Einstein or Darwin grinding wheat plants or dividing out soils (but hey, they must have done something along those lines!) I’m very excited to see what my tedious grinding brings, and although I don’t have much scientific data and this point, my work will pay off, I swear! Until then, I will take pride in the hours I spend grinding, shaking and scooping and take advantage of this experience as a real scientist, and take comfort in the fact that even something as impossibly complex and far fetched as science takes hours of hard and not so glamorous work (and a little bit of crazy human intelligence.) Even the best of things are reachable, one step at a time.