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<\/p>\nA DIY approach to automating your lab<\/p>\n
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Thomas studies the biogeochemistry of aquatic systems, including the role of microscopic algae and bacteria in the carbon cycle of sea ice. To investigate this, he and his team collect ice cores and samples of the salty brine that sits between the individual ice crystals. The brine collects at the bottom of the hole from which the core is taken, about half a metre down, and it can be difficult to retrieve. The hole is too deep to stick an arm down, and when the team tried using syringes, they clogged and broke in the extreme cold.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve found over the years that a soup ladle attached to a pole is the ideal thing,\u201d Thomas says, adding that once the brine is collected, another kitchen tool \u2014 a strainer \u2014 helps to remove lingering ice crystals that would otherwise dilute the sample. \u201cYou can get very technical sieves, of course, but the one in my kitchen is perfect in that it\u2019s robust, cheap and easy to sterilize.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a time when there seems to be a niche scientific \u2018unitasker\u2019 for every process, getting back to basics and repurposing, or even developing, simple tools offers a sense of freedom. With a little creativity, scientists are building surprisingly robust kits to aid tasks in fields from microscopy to oceanography. Their experiences highlight what research do-it-yourself enthusiasts have long understood: that compelling science doesn\u2019t always require the most-complex equipment, or the most expensive.<\/p>\n
A spirit of improvisation<\/b><\/p>\n
Thomas\u2019s work in polar systems is an extreme example, but the fact remains that fieldwork demands a certain level of thinking on your feet, particularly when working in remote areas with little support. \u201cWhen something breaks, you usually have to make do with what you have on hand,\u201d Thomas says. \u201cA spirit of improvisation is essential in a good field scientist.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a result, field researchers often travel with essentials such as bundles of zip ties and rolls of duct tape for on-the-fly repairs. But beyond these universal items, some researchers have developed or adopted common, low-tech solutions that are tailored to the specifics of their work.<\/p>\n
Creative workarounds<\/b><\/p>\n
Kristina Young, an ecologist at the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison, studies the soil of dryland ecosystems, which cover 40% of Earth\u2019s land area, excluding Antarctica. With little plant cover to break wind and water flow, the microtopography in these areas \u2014 or how bumpy the surface is \u2014 can be an important driver of processes such as dust deposition, seed sprouting and erosion. Young says that she\u2019s used a handful of seemingly strange tools in her work, including a BB gun and a jewellery chain. Shooting a pellet into the ground helps her to gauge the susceptibility of the soil to wind erosion, and draping a chain over the ground\u2019s surface and measuring its length provides an estimate of soil roughness. \u201cThese are pretty crude estimates,\u201d Young admits, \u201cbut they still tell us a surprising amount about the ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Modern tools, such as drones, can make the same measurements, sometimes with greater precision, but the chain is much cheaper and easier to travel with. Getting permission to fly a drone is often difficult, or even impossible in some countries, Young says. And drones can complicate reproducibility if collaborators don\u2019t have access to the same tools. Young is part of an international effort called CrustNet, in which researchers use shared protocols to study drylands, and the chain method is one of several simple metrics that have helped the project to expand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been able to launch a global collaboration purely by basing protocols around things that most people can access and learn to use quickly,\u201d Young says, adding: \u201cWe\u2019d love to study every site in really deep detail, but the reality is that we have to be practical about what works. For this project, the jewellery chain is the correct tool for the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
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David Thomas uses a soup ladle on a pole to collect brine samples in the Arctic.Credit: David N. Thomas<\/p>\n
Accessibility and reproducibility also form the foundation of Sa\u0161a Iskri\u0107\u2019s work as part of KAP Jasa, a non-profit kite organization in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The group isn\u2019t focused on science, but Iskri\u0107 says that they have sometimes assisted on research projects, such as an aerial survey of a newly discovered Roman villa, imaging remnants of medieval agriculture and assessing water pollution in the Ljubljanica River.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\nRapid 3D-printing method could be used on space missions<\/p>\n
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The group\u2019s most common kite for these studies is a rokkaku dako, a six-sided structure of Japanese design. Around 1.8 metres tall and 1.5 metres wide, these large kites can carry more than one kilogram, and Iskri\u0107 predicts that people will send microphones, meteorological equipment or even Geiger counters aloft to help answer research questions.<\/p>\n
Kites offer several benefits compared with drones, Iskri\u0107 says. \u201cA kite can stay aloft for hours, while a simple drone flies for half an hour before its batteries get depleted,\u201d he says, adding that this problem is greatly exacerbated once you start adding weight. \u201cAlso, one can\u2019t fly [drones] in urban areas, in national parks or over heritage or archaeological sites. But, one can fly a kite pretty much anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A basic toolkit can be useful for coming up with creative solutions to technological hurdles.Credit: skodonnell\/Getty For David…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1028773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[12309,27173,3965,3966,70,53,16,15],"class_list":["post-1028772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ecology","tag-environmental-sciences","tag-humanities-and-social-sciences","tag-multidisciplinary","tag-science","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116756109901643681","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1028772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1028773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1028772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1028772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1028772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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