Why This Blog?
I've been working as an engineer in Earth science for more than 20 years.
It's been really fun, exciting, fulfilling. I have had the best of all possible careers: I love what I do every day, and I believe it's really important and helpful to all people. So what more can I ask?
One of the benefits of my fantastic job(s) is that I have gotten familiar with many different scientific instruments.
In practice, science results are checked every which way - especially surprising science results. If a scientist comes out with some startling discovery, you can bet that the next day, hundreds of other scientists around the planet will try to get the same results.
This applies to Earth science as well. The raw data are all available. So are the papers that describe the math needed to turn instrument data into science results. But there is a very wide variety of instrument available. There are hundreds, or even thousands, of different Earth science instruments.
Each scientific instrument is worthy of study and appreciation. In this blog, I will try and show some of the beauty of the modern scientific instrument.
It's been really fun, exciting, fulfilling. I have had the best of all possible careers: I love what I do every day, and I believe it's really important and helpful to all people. So what more can I ask?
One of the benefits of my fantastic job(s) is that I have gotten familiar with many different scientific instruments.
Who Cares?
Maybe if there was a better understanding of all the many instruments that go into Earth science, there would be a little less skepticism about the scientific results. Perhaps if there was a wider knowledge of the different ways that scientist check their model results, there would be a greater respect and appreciation for their results.It's All About Trust
Scientists don't ask you to trust anything. Every datum can, and should be, independently reproduced. If I can build and run an experiment, so can you, and we can both get the same results. Science has a built-in skepticism which is part of the process.In practice, science results are checked every which way - especially surprising science results. If a scientist comes out with some startling discovery, you can bet that the next day, hundreds of other scientists around the planet will try to get the same results.
This applies to Earth science as well. The raw data are all available. So are the papers that describe the math needed to turn instrument data into science results. But there is a very wide variety of instrument available. There are hundreds, or even thousands, of different Earth science instruments.
The Beauty of Instruments
Each successful instrument is a work of beauty in its own way. As an engineer I appreciate the precise suiting of form to function. As the universe is beautiful, as math is beautiful, so a scientific instrument is beautiful. It is a piece of math made solid - a piece of the universe made to serve the almost mystical universe of math.Each scientific instrument is worthy of study and appreciation. In this blog, I will try and show some of the beauty of the modern scientific instrument.
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