The Science of Seaweed
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Dr. Frithjof Küpper cites one of his research interests as lying in the "chemical ecology of marine algae and microbes." Basically, Dr. Küpper researches seaweed. However, as Radio 4's recent Material World programme on the subject indicated, the science of seaweed is a highly significant research area.
In a co-authored paper entitled "Iodide Accumulation Provides Kelp with an Inorganic Antioxidant Impacting Atmospheric Chemistry," Küpper and his collaborators published their finding that large brown seaweed releases a form of iodine to protect itself from sunlight or low-lying atmospheric ozone. Consequently, iodine emissions may cause localised clouds to form. Harnessing this effect may make it easier to seed rain clouds in drought-ridden areas, and appreciating the global extensiveness of this biospheric feedback loop may have implications in understanding and tackling climate change.
My reason for this brief post is to highlight the anarchistic nature of scientific discoveries. For whilst the public may respond positively to news about breakthroughs in cures for cancer (the Daily Express carries headlines about one nearly every week) or more fuel efficient cars, they probably care little about the science of seaweed. However, the story admirably picked up by Material World indicates that the majority of science is not headline-grabbing stuff. It is often conducted in niche areas, that may at first glance appear to have no relevance to human society, with the science itself being done purely to satisfy the curiosity of those involved.
This, then, exemplifies one of the myths of scientific research. For asked which project they would prefer to fund, I expect most lay people would choose the cancer cure option. However, science is a holistic enterprise. You cannot necessarily have the cure for cancer, or the solution to the climate change crisis, without understanding esoteric processes in apparently unrelated fields. Although with a limited pot of money funding bodies necessarily prioritise and exclude some research proposals, it is not always possible to predict from which area vital findings are going to emerge.
Indeed, one suspects that many people will have been balked at the $8 billion cost of the new Large Hadron Collider at CERN. What need for an expensive camera designed to take pretty snapshots of elementary particles? Sure, it may provide newspaper editors with impressive photos of small men standing in giant machines (The Guardian recently ran a supplement feature on the LHC), but surely there are cheaper ways to spark the imagination than by producing particulate fireworks? Well, probably the same questions were raised in 1990. Then a chap called Tim Berners Lee came along and, faced with the need to share data among research groups, invented the World Wide Web, by which you are reading these very words. The sciences of seaweed or particles indicate that whilst some sciences may not be appreciated in anticipation of great discoveries, their inestimable value often emerges through hindsight. I suspect that when it becomes operation in August, along with its terabytes of data the LHC will continue to prove this one, vital rule.
In a co-authored paper entitled "Iodide Accumulation Provides Kelp with an Inorganic Antioxidant Impacting Atmospheric Chemistry," Küpper and his collaborators published their finding that large brown seaweed releases a form of iodine to protect itself from sunlight or low-lying atmospheric ozone. Consequently, iodine emissions may cause localised clouds to form. Harnessing this effect may make it easier to seed rain clouds in drought-ridden areas, and appreciating the global extensiveness of this biospheric feedback loop may have implications in understanding and tackling climate change.
My reason for this brief post is to highlight the anarchistic nature of scientific discoveries. For whilst the public may respond positively to news about breakthroughs in cures for cancer (the Daily Express carries headlines about one nearly every week) or more fuel efficient cars, they probably care little about the science of seaweed. However, the story admirably picked up by Material World indicates that the majority of science is not headline-grabbing stuff. It is often conducted in niche areas, that may at first glance appear to have no relevance to human society, with the science itself being done purely to satisfy the curiosity of those involved.
This, then, exemplifies one of the myths of scientific research. For asked which project they would prefer to fund, I expect most lay people would choose the cancer cure option. However, science is a holistic enterprise. You cannot necessarily have the cure for cancer, or the solution to the climate change crisis, without understanding esoteric processes in apparently unrelated fields. Although with a limited pot of money funding bodies necessarily prioritise and exclude some research proposals, it is not always possible to predict from which area vital findings are going to emerge.
Indeed, one suspects that many people will have been balked at the $8 billion cost of the new Large Hadron Collider at CERN. What need for an expensive camera designed to take pretty snapshots of elementary particles? Sure, it may provide newspaper editors with impressive photos of small men standing in giant machines (The Guardian recently ran a supplement feature on the LHC), but surely there are cheaper ways to spark the imagination than by producing particulate fireworks? Well, probably the same questions were raised in 1990. Then a chap called Tim Berners Lee came along and, faced with the need to share data among research groups, invented the World Wide Web, by which you are reading these very words. The sciences of seaweed or particles indicate that whilst some sciences may not be appreciated in anticipation of great discoveries, their inestimable value often emerges through hindsight. I suspect that when it becomes operation in August, along with its terabytes of data the LHC will continue to prove this one, vital rule.
Labels: Science and Culture, seaweed iodine
