This is reposted from the Southern Fried Science Network’s newest project – Journeys.
Science begins in the field. Every year a vast migration occurs as biologist, ecologists, chemists, geologists, social scientists, anthropologists, physicists, oceanographers, and others leave the safe comfort or their laboratories and venture out into the field. They travel by foot, bike, boat, car, and plane searching for simultaneously the most abundant and most elusive prey – data. Some will return to the same foraging ground year after year, some will explore new worlds, never to return. For the veterans, who have participated in this great migration for decades, this is just another chapter in a long a storied career. For the young, who have just begun their training, this is a new adventure, one fraught with frustration, peril, perseverance, and discovery. These are their Journeys.