beginning

"Everybody’s a mad scientist, and life is their lab. We’re all trying to experiment to find a way to live, to solve problems, to fend off madness and chaos." ~ David Cronenberg, Canadian filmmaker

When we hear the word 'scientist' we often get an image of a wizened old man in a stained lab coat, crouching over his notebook at a darkened lab bench, surrounded by grotesque specimens and miles upon miles of intertwined glassware and equipment. We imagine him carefully measuring out odd-colored liquids, distilling volatile substances, and at every turn walking a fine line between eureka and a massive explosion, all in the name of science.

But what, one may wonder, is science? How does one go about doing science? What is this whole scientific process all about anyway? So many people feel that science is beyond them, something only geniuses are capable of having any success with.

For this project I have attempted to decode the scientific process and make it more accessible to people, scientists and non-scientists alike. Using the rocky-intertidal community found at Northeastern University's Marine Science Center on Nahant, Massachusetts as my scientific playground, I investigated the distribution of blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) and the effects of density on mussel size. Which is a fancy way of saying I went to the beach and looked at tidepools. I have used my mussel research as a tool for walking you, the reader, through the scientific process. In this webpage I have attempted to give an account of my scientific experiences and discoveries in such a way as to explain the why's and how's behind the rather intimidating term of "scientific research." What I have discovered is that science really is a process. It is a never-ending cycle of question asking and creative problem solving. As far as mussels are concerned, I found that they seem to have the highest density in the upper-mid intertidal, in conjunction with the ascophyllum cover (a type of seaweed), and that mussel density does have some effect on their size. While my results indicate a positive interaction between density and shell size (higher density = larger mussels) the majority of other scientists have evidence that supports a negative interaction (higher density = smaller mussels).

Through this website I want to add to the scientific community not only a resource of information about blue mussels, but more scientists. It is my hope that people will discard the notion of the "scientific community" being limited to wizened old men in stained lab coats, and begin to see themselves as members. Anyone who finds themselves asking questions and searching for answers should consider themselves something of a scientist.

"For the scientist the formulation of questions is almost the whole thing. The answers, when found, only lead on to other questions." ~ D.W. Winnicott, U.S. psychoanalyst.

Check it out! Twelve more people with inquisitive minds. My classmates in the Ecology of Atlantic Shores class offered this past semester (Fall, 2004) at Clark University make up one of my mini-scientific communities. They've got some awesome webpages too.

The Cycle of Science

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The shoreline at Nahant, Massachusetts