A wise person once said, "Wisdom comes from experience, and experience comes from making mistakes."

One of the great things about being on board the Thompson, is the opportunity to participate in science as it is happening. As a middle school teacher, I try to design lessons that let my students feel what it is like to do experiments and experience the thrill of discovery. However, there are many times when experiments do not work, or data is difficult to interpret. At these moments the thrill turns to frustration. Today, I had the chance to experience, first hand, the frustration that comes with exploration, and scientific investigation.

During the first week of this cruise, I have become fascinated with the many types of bacteria found in the deep ocean, particularly the chemosynthetic ones, that do not need light to produce their own food. I have spent some of my time on board, reading about these bugs, and discussing them with Jon Kaye, a microbial ecologist from the University of Washington. After one late night talk, we decided that it would be interesting to sample the water column using a device called the CTD, and to use this water to see what types of bacteria we could find. The CTD (which stands for Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth) can carry a variety of instruments, depending on what kind of data is desired, and is also set up to take water samples. Information from the CTD is continuously fed to a computer in the Thompson's main computer lab, as it takes a two-hour, winch-powered journey to the ocean floor and back.

Chemist Eric Olson collects water sampled by the CTD

Our opportunity to grab water came early this morning, when a CTD cast was scheduled in order to gather accurate depth measurements for fine tuning the ocean floor navigation systems. With coffee cups in hand, we stationed ourselves in front of the CTD monitor to watch the trip to the Mothra Vent Field, nearly 2,300 meters below us. At a depth of 2,000 meters, the instruments detected an increase in the number of particles in the water. Observers familiar with the area recognized this as the plume of effluent from the Main Endeavor Vent Field located 2 km away from us. Working with a technician from the Thompson, we closed two bottles, trapping the water that was flowing through them. The CTD continued its decent. At 2,100 meters another increase in particles was detected. I was informed that this was the Mothra plume and we closed two more bottles. The cast was stopped at 2,260 meters, and the engineers took time to gather their navigational data. As we waited for the trip to the surface to begin, we carefully plotted the depths we wanted to take water. We closed a bottle at the bottom and, as the CTD made its journey to the surface, we closed bottles at regular intervals along the way. As the CTD neared the surface, we hurried into the main science lab to ready petri dishes filled with nutrients, which would tell us what kinds of bugs were in our water samples.

New York teachers Omi Escayg (right) and Dave Randle (middle) help microbiologist Jon Kaye culture bottom water collected in the CTD.

We were eager to begin work with our samples as the CTD unit was guided out of the water and secured to the deck. But even the simplest tools do not work perfectly all the time, and to our dismay, half the bottles in the rack remained open, and contained no water. Apparently one of the other technicians had set up a simpler system for tripping the bottles, but had neglected to tell the person on duty during our cast. Therefore, some of the bottles did not fill as planned, and there was no way to tell the depth that the other bottles had closed.

We quietly drained the bottles, and put away the culturing tools, disappointed at missing a chance to culture the vent water, but secure in the knowledge that we will be ready, with a clear design for our experiment, the next time the CTD enters the water.

Dave Randle bringing the CTD back on deck

Television and newspapers report successes in science when they occur, and make the process of discovery look and sound easy. We are not often privy to the process of trial and error, and the inevitable failure that occurs in the process of discovery. When our students see it in their science classes, they need to know that is not something to be ashamed of, but a necessary part of the scientific process.