This story originally appeared on Groundwire.org, a Seattle-based non-profit organization helps environmental organizations connect, inspire and mobilize their communities. (Disclosure: There are actually 6.0221415 x 10^23 ways to make science less sciency, but that would have defeated the point.)

Science. So not boring.

Take a moment and think of something that doesn’t involve science. (Hint: it’s impossible)

Science is integral to every aspect of our lives. Yet, for as long as we’ve had scientists trying to make sense of the universe, the scientific community has struggled to find an effective way to communicate those stories to the general public.

While it may be of little consequence that the average person doesn’t fully grasp the formulas of quantum mechanics, many areas of science — like climate change and renewable energy — represent our most pressing public policy challenges. Without the ability to communicate in a way that is meaningful and accessible to any audience, scientists risk alienating themselves from the discussion altogether.

Environmental non-profits face a similar challenge in trying to communicate their message to their communities. Whether an organization is focused on tar sands or storm water pollution, it must be able to communicate complicated information in ways that mobilize people and inspire them toward action.

Below are three strategies from the scientific community that can help your organization frame its work and help people understand why it matters.

1. Turn your experts into expert communicators

One of the best ways to help people learn about complicated topics is to send them right to the experts.

The U.S. Department of Defense’s Armed with Science project uses web technology, such as blogging, podcasting, and Twitter, to create one-on-one dialogs between its scientists and members of the public. The project aims to demonstrate the value of science and technology, while making scientists first-hand communicators of their own work. Rather than rehashing mission statements, scientists share their personal experiences and provide insight for those who might be interested in pursuing similar careers.

For the Dispatches from Antarctica series, Air Force Lt. Col. Edward Vaughan blogged for 50 days during his deployment to Antarctica, providing an inside look at scientific research conducted by the U.S. Antarctic Program. During his time on the ice, he took photographs, conducted video interviews, and even fielded questions from children at elementary schools around the world.

Identify a few subject matter experts in your organization who are interested in engaging stakeholders on important issues. Then, choose the appropriate forum to create authentic discussions with your community. If you’re feeling adventurous, try a real-time Facebook Q&A or a video chat in Google+ Hangouts.

2. Provide opportunities for people to contribute

As much as we all love textbooks and lectures, it’s certainly a lot easier to learn about something when you’ve got a stake in the outcome.

For decades, scientists have looked to volunteers from the public, known as “citizen scientists,” to contribute to real scientific studies — from frog monitoringto comet hunting to measuring noise pollution. Scientists are able to gather information that was previously unavailable, and volunteers have the opportunity to learn about and participate in scientific endeavors that are important to them.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Nestwatch project uses citizen science to help study the relationship between nesting birds and climate change. Volunteers collect important data on bird nesting behavior, which scientists use to study population trends and breeding behaviors across different landscapes. In return, volunteers learn to make observations and collect data, an important part of the scientific process.

Identify opportunities to get input from your community. This can include simple feedback about your website, observations of certain phenomena, or user-generated videos and images. Acknowledge these contributions on Facebook and Twitter, and write a blog post that demonstrates how input from your community has improved the way your organization does business.

3. Collaborate with like-minded organizations

Though scientific research papers may not be the most palatable reading material, they do represent one of the core values of the scientific community — collaboration. For your average scientific paper, it’s not uncommon to have six or more authors, each with different skills, training, and expertise. By combining their resources and investing in common goals, scientists are able to answer questions and solve problems that might otherwise have been out of reach.

In the same way, collaborations can play an important part in achieving your communications goals. Small or emerging organizations can partner with large organizations to share their accomplishments and messages with a broader audience. This can be an effective way to build more awareness, while improving brand credibility through association with a better-known organization. Conversely, large organizations might partner with smaller organizations to communicate with local or niche communities. By highlighting their synergies, the collaborating organizations can provide the appropriate context to engage people on related but perhaps unfamiliar topics.

Identify organizations that have similar goals or work in a related field. This could include non-profit partners, potential donors, community groups, or a local newspaper. Demonstrate your interest in collaboration by mentioning them on your social media accounts or linking to their website in your newsletter. Determine how your resources, employees, and brand can be used to support their interests, and vice verse. Initiate a meeting to discuss how to collaborate in ways that benefit both organizations.

I am proud to share that the U.S. Department of Defense’s Armed with Science project won 2nd Place for Social Media Outreach/Communications at the 2011 National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC) Blue Pencil & Gold Screen Awards.

Armed with Science connects Defense scientists and engineers with the general public by empowering subject matter experts to communicate through blogging, social media, and other Internet technologies. I’ve had the opportunity to serve as project lead for the past two years.

Included on our award were several of my valued Armed with Science colleagues: U.S. Navy Lt. Jennifer Cragg, who helped launch the project with me in 2009; U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Ed Vaughan, who produced the Dispatches from Antarctica series; and Melody Cook, who produced the Office of Naval Research’s Distinguished Lecture Series.

Each year, NAGC recognizes superior communications efforts of government agencies and those who produce them. The NAGC Blue Pencil Awards are geared toward writing, editing, photography, and published products, while the Gold Screen Awards recognize audio-visual and multimedia products. According to the official NAGC Blue Pencil and Gold Screen Awards announcement, there were more than 430 entries in 38 categories. Awesome. Check out the Awards Program for the full list of winners.

Armed with Science was edged out by Challenge.gov, an online challenge platform created by the U.S. General Services Administration’s Center for New Media in partnership with ChallengePost. The site connects the U.S. Government and the public to help solve some of the nation’s most pressing challenges. I’ve had the opportunity to work with the team over the past year, and they are the real deal.

I also wanted to congratulation a co-former AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow of mine, Dr. Dan Stimson, whose ”Lobe-oratorium” entry took home 2nd Place in the Best Display category. For more info on Dan and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke’s “Lobe-oratorium” display, check out this recent edition of the NIH Record.

And, here is a giant copy of the Awards Program cover. I can promise you that clicking on it will result in you being magically transported to a glorious PDF version of the Awards Program.

I was recently interviewed by Michael Douma, Executive Director at Idea.org, about my role in the Defense Department’s Armed with Science project. The article covers Armed with Science’s origins and some of its core tenets, and relates the project to broader efforts aimed at boosting scientific literacy and improving attitudes about science. Read it. 

Idea.org is a non-profit organization committed to enhancing the public’s knowledge of science and culture. They have a pretty active blog, which I encourage you to visit at your leisure.

Below, I’ve posted an excerpt, but you can check out the full article over at Idea.org.

The idea of Armed with Science was conceived in 2008. Several U.S. Navy public affairs staff were thinking about new kinds of outreach using podcasts and social media, and Ohab was working in the department on a fellowship. The funding came from DOD’s public affairs department (the Defense Media Activity’s Emerging Media Directorate).

Ohab developed an online, weekly radio show which launched in January 2009. The show featured scientists, engineers, and other experts from DOD, other federal agencies, academia, and industry. It was broadcast live on BlogTalkRadio, taking questions via Twitter. There were 64 episodes, covering a wide range of sciences, and the podcast was downloaded nearly 200,000 times in 2009.

After Ohab’s fellowship ended, the Directorate hired him as a contractor via an existing contract with defense contractor OMNITEC Solutions. OMNITEC had prior experience with podcasts and social media, as well as ghostwriting and editing speeches and publications.

Inspired by the success of the podcast, in January 2010, additional staff were brought on, and the podcast evolved into a blog. In the blog, contributors to Armed with Science could share personal narratives, images, and videos. The Armed with Science team also posts headlines from their blog and related news to Facebook (2726 likes), and Twitter (8362 followers). In 2010, Armed with Science published 290 blog posts, 15 webcasts, and 45 YouTube videos. They had over 600k visitors and 250k YouTube views. The blog was the 4th most visited out of 80 Department of Defense blogs, a department that extensively uses social media (see list).

This week, my Defense Department (DOD) buddies, Lt. Jennifer Cragg and Elaine Wilson, wrote very nice stories about the Dispatches from Antarctica series that I’ve been working on for the past few months. The series features Air Force Lt. Col. Ed Vaughan’s first-hand experiences on OPERATION: DEEP FREEZE, DOD’s support of National Science Foundation research in Antarctica. In our effort to connect students to Lt. Col. Vaughan’s experiences, we had students from Arnold Elementary School in Maryland  and the DOD Education Activity Guam High School submit their top questions, and Lt. Col. Vaughan provided responses during his deployment in Antarctica.

To help get the word out, Lt. Cragg crafted a story for the American Forces Press Service and Elaine followed up with post on her popular Family Matters blog. If you’d like to read one of their stories, mouse over the giant screen captures below and click the appropriate button on your mouse.

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to give a lightning talk at the Gov 2.0 Expo Keynote Kickoff. All of the talks were 5 minutes and consisted of 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds. It was definitely a great experience.

The title of my talk was, “You’ve Been Scienced: Communicating Military Science and Technology with Social Media”. I would love to know your thoughts unless they aren’t complimentary.

In case you hate watching videos, here is a picture from the event, courtesy of O’Reilly Media and James Duncan Davidson:

On Monday, the Armed with Science blog featured a story about Army scientists who are printing human skin cells with a modified inkjet printer. True story. Naturally, this led to my inclusion in an Delta Bravo Sierra military cartoon. Enjoy!

Katie Packard at AFCEA wrote this very thoughtful article on Armed with Science. Check out the original.

Defense Department Wants You to Get Scienced

SIGNAL Online Exclusive, January 2010 – by Katie Packard

The U.S. Defense Department’s weekly podcast series, “Armed With Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military,” emphasizes the important roles science and technology play in military operations by interviewing scientists, engineers, policymakers and other personnel. Not only does the series highlight cutting-edge technologies and capabilities, it also encourages information sharing and collaboration across the government and the military.

The series was launched in January 2009 through the Defense Department’s Emerging Media Directorate. It’s the only Defense Department podcast dedicated entirely to science and technology. Lt. Jennifer Cragg, USN, an operations officer in the directorate, explains that the concept was developed in 2008 after public affairs officers working in various commands in the U.S. Navy realized there was “a unique need to communicate effectively about science.”

Dr. John Ohab, a new technology strategist in the Public Web division of the Defense Media Activity, agrees. “We interview scientists, engineers, policymakers, teachers—anyone involved in science and technology in the government to have them talk about science in ways that are meaningful to the general public.”

The series has two goals, Ohab shares: to convey the Defense Department’s involvement in science and technology and to communicate science and technology in ways that are accessible to anyone. “We want to demystify science,” he says. “There’s often a disconnect between the general public, the government and scientists. We want to break down those barriers to show the scientists as humans.”

From the beginning, the series has been successful. The first podcast received 3,000 feed or download requests. Throughout the year, episodes have been downloaded 200,000 times. Because of its popularity, the series began to air every week instead of every other week.

“Everyone wants to be a part of this,” Ohab shares. “What started as a DOD thing has now become a government thing. We have 50 government agencies and PAOs looking to find the people who can best speak about [these topics].” The series features guests from the military, government agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs and NASA, and other organizations such as the Science and Entertainment Exchange.

The original focus of the series was on science and technology in relation to military operations, but that has expanded. Podcast topics include anything from applications to policy to high school science fairs.

Some of Ohab’s favorite episodes include a focus on substance abuse in the military with the Military Health System and a focus on cyber crime with Jim Christy, director of future exploration at the Defense Department Cyber Crime Center. “Here he’s talking about cyber crime, which is not necessarily the most pleasant thing, and we’re learning about him as a person. He’s [a retired special agent], he’s advised multiple presidents, he’s a retired college hockey referee. He developed the first forensic technique to recover data from a cut-up diskette. He’s a Little League baseball coach.”

This emphasis on the stories and people behind the science is a driving force behind the Armed With Science blog. “Every week, I ask people, ‘What did you do to get to this division? What’s your background?’” Ohab explains. “Their background and stories are often the most interesting part. That’s going to be the focus of the blog—first-hand accounts, people’s stories.”

Ohab also intends for the blog to serve as a test site of sorts. “We’re trying to use the blog to test out some of these new social technologies.” Ohab wants to see what works and what doesn’t work. Tools being considered include applications that allow users to choose which account they want to log into when leaving blog comments, for example logging in under their Facebook or Twitter accounts.

Lt. Cragg notes, “We’re trying to use as much social media [as possible] to get the information out there. I like learning about social media tools to inform people about science. It’s like walking into a science class every day.”

In addition to the blog, Armed With Science is also on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along and get scienced!

Drew Carey, host of The Price is Right, gives an Armed with Science shout-out during CES 2010.

The UCLA Alumni website will feature a recent UCLA Magazine story about Armed with Science to ring in the new year. The swanky banner will be live at the top of the page Dec. 28, 2009 – Jan. 3, 2010.  I like to think that the banner represents my internal struggles as a human-robot hybrid with a fragile sense of self.  It is also might just be a neat collage.

Here’s the teaser:

Did you know the Navy is going green? That the Army is working on an advanced battery that will power tanks? Or how atomic timekeeping works? You would if you listened to John Ohab Ph.D. ’07 on Armed with Science, a weekly audio webcast launched by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Check out this new story, Armed and Scientific, just released by UCLA Magazine. I was recently interviewed for the “Quick Takes” series, which highlights former students and their work since graduating from UCLA. Much of the article focuses on my experiences at the Defense Department, but the author did include a brief ditty about Science Cheerleader, describing it as “a web-based media platform that… aims to make science more fun and understandable to wider audience.”  Woohoo!

Armed and Scientific

By Dan Frankel
Published Oct 1, 2009 8:00 AM

Did you know the Navy is going green? That the Army is working with industry and academia on an advanced battery that will power, among other things, tanks? Or how atomic timekeeping works? You would if you listened to “Armed With Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military,” a weekly audio webcast that the U.S. Department of Defense launched in January at blogtalkradio.com/ArmedwithScience.

Hosted by neuroscientist Dr. John Ohab Ph.D. ’07, the show features one-on-one interviews with scientists from a wide variety of government agencies discussing everything from electronic warfare to drug abuse in the military. A new media guru with his own weekly podcast, and nearly 2,400 followers on Twitter, Ohab’s mission is to make the broad topic of science accessible to the broader population.

“We’re primarily going after the non-science audience, people who have an interest in science but no science training,” he explains. “What it all goes back to is communication and information sharing. People say scientists can’t communicate. People say government can’t communicate. By and large that’s not true; we just speak different languages.”

Meanwhile, the program also serves the mandate of making the Pentagon more open and accessible to the tax-paying public. “People think of the Department of Defense as guns and missiles and tanks, and to some extent that’s true, but this is a great opportunity to understand the breadth of science operating within the federal government and to understand how it impacts society,” says Ohab.

Meanwhile, the peripatetic scientist/podcast personality is also fascinated by the ongoing media revolution, using just about every social networking tool he can find to expand his show’s audience. Besides his social network activity, Ohab seeks to expand on the “Armed With Science” dialog through his personal blog, and a key voice for the Science Cheerleader, a web-based media platform that, like Ohab’s podcasts, aims to make science more fun and understandable to wider audience. In fact, some of the questions Ohab asks his scientist guests originate among his Twitter followers.

“We’re sort of on the forefront,” he concludes. “To do something that no one else in the government is doing, that is to host a radio program that discusses controversial topics that have implications for our national security, is pretty neat.”

Last week, David Meerman Scott, marketing guru and author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR,” visited the Pentagon to discuss the importance of social media in the Defense Department’s communications arsenal.  He spent two hours with the All Services Social Media Council, comprised of people from across the Department (ten points if you can find my forehead in the image below), and led a very interesting discussion about social media strategy and brand journalism.

I had the opportunity to chat with David during a 30-minute car ride, and I couldn’t help but detail all of the social media strategies we use to operate Armed with Science, the Defense Department’s weekly science podcast.  He was so impressed with our efforts to provide meaningful information about science and technology through social media that he even mentioned us in a blog entry, Brand Journalism in US Military Humanizes Large Organization.

Click here to read it.

This Pentagon Channel report investigates whether neuroimaging techniques can be used to detect deception. Dr. Bhatt previously appeared as a guest on the weekly science and technology podcast, “Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military”. The report also features my award-winning acting skills and demonstrates the razor-sharp wit and decision-making savvy required to answer personal questions under pressure.

Dr. Bhatt: Were you born in 1980?
John: Yes.

Virtually no hesitation.

Anyway, the neuroimaging report will air on the Pentagon Channel’s “Around the Services” program in the near future. In the meantime, some of the content was used as background footage in the above report on traumatic brain injury.

Check out the 2:20 mark for my world famous B-roll performance in the MRI scanner. Also making a guest appearance: my brain.

My latest video blog entry for Science Cheerleader featuring more awesome music from Princess Ladyfriend.

On Saturday, July 11, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA), the Defense Agency responsible for protecting the Pentagon, conducted an operational response test to a simulated outdoor airborne biological attack on the Pentagon grounds. The study consisted of the release of a harmless gardening powder into the Pentagon parking area, where nearly 100 citizen volunteers were positioned, followed by subsequent decontamination and surface sampling of the volunteers. The results will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of various emergency personnel and guide future operational responses to attacks on the Pentagon.

Best of all, Pentagon security relaxed its usual restrictions on photography and permitted media to film virtually all aspects of the operation. I had an opportunity to interview various subject matter experts, including Mr. Paul Benda and Dr. Christina Murata, Director and Deputy Director of the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives Directorate at the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, as well as some of the volunteers for a SciCheer video report.

If you’re interested in learning more about the operational response test, check out “Armed with Science”, the Defense Department’s weekly science podcast, this Wednesday at 2pm ET on Pentagon Web Radio. I’ll be interviewing Mr. Benda and Dr. Murata live, and anyone can submit questions before or during the show by posting to the Armed with Science podcast or the Twitter page.

Protect THIS!

Awesome: This morning, I attended the Pentagon Force Protection Agency’s “Urban Shield” Operational Response test. The test was conducted to improve the operational response of emergency personnel to an outdoor airborne biological attack and to evaluate the effectiveness of various personnel decontamination procedures. Test volunteers were positioned at locations inside and outside of the Pentagon, and a single release of a biological particulate tracer material, referred to as garden powder, occured along a nearby access road. Post-release, volunteers were transported to a decontamination station near the Pentagon Navy Annex, where test volunteers underwent surface sampling to evaluate their exposure to the particulate tracer followed by one of two water-based decontamination protocols. Post-decontamination, volunteers underwent another round of surface sampling to evaluate removal of the particulate tracer.

Awesomer: The event marked a rare opportunity to break one of the forbidden laws of the Pentagon grounds: no photography.

Infectious diseases, gene guns, and the military — all on this week’s Armed with Science!

LISTEN to Dr. Connie Schmaljohn, senior scientist at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, discuss research investigating vaccines against two types of hantaviruses, which are known health threats to U.S. troops stationed in Europe and Asia. The research team used small amounts of genetic material, or DNA, from the Hantaan and Puumala viruses to develop the vaccines. These DNA vaccines are potentially more cost-effective, and the needle-free vaccination method used to deliver them is less painful. She discusses the research that led to the development of these vaccines and the path that lies ahead. Both vaccines are now in Phase I clinical testing, the first step toward licensure by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

​U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID)​
​​American Society for Microbiology

RSS | iTunes | Armed with Science | On Twitter

Listen to the first Armed with Science show covering the Defense Department’s efforts to leverage social science.

Drs. Ivy Estabrook, program officer for the Human, Social, Cultural and Behavioral Science program at the Office of Naval Research, and Elisa Bienenstock, Chief Human Science Officer at NSI, Inc., will discuss the Defense Department’s efforts to understand how theoretical and methodological approaches from social science can benefit the warfighter. They will discuss several programs sponsored by the Director of Defense Science and Engineering that aim to refine and scale empirical, quantitative and computational methods to meet the needs of the Department of Defense.

Office of Naval Research
National Security Innovations

RSS | iTunes | Armed with Science | On Twitter

Check out Bioephemera‘s very thoughtful blog post about the Defense Department’s new audio webcast, Armed with Science, which I host every Wednesday at 2pm ET. In her post, she discusses this week’s interview with former AAAS Fellow, Dr. Mark Drapeau, a researcher at National Defense University’s Center for Technology and National Security Policy, who is studying how social technologies are impacting the way government agencies share information, collaborate, and communicate with the public. After reading her post, you should visit Pentagon Web Radio by clicking here and listen to our interview with Dr. Drapeau, as well as our previous shows. They are really interesting.

Bioephemera also mentions in her post the soon-to-be world famous send-off, “You’ve been SCIENCED,” but she incorrectly gives me credit for inventing the term. Indeed, I take full credit for bringing this phenomenon into popular culture, but it was Bioephemera herself who actually turned “science” into a verb. What a concept!

There is no limit to the number of ways in which you can use “science” as an action word. Feel free to come up with your own and post them in the comments section. Let’s try a few to get things started. This is fun!

“If you’re not busy for lunch, I’d like to science you.”

“I got scienced four times this morning on the way to work.”

“Science THIS!”

“Don’t mind him. He inadvertently sciences people all the time.”

“Stop sciencing me. No, seriously, I’m not kidding. Stop.”

Check out this new flash player I downloaded from the Armed with Science page on BlogTalkRadio.com. You can embed your own flash player by visiting Armed with Science and clicking on the big icon to the right that says, “PROMOTE THIS SHOW”. You will be really happy with your decision.

Despite doing no advertising, we managed to get picked up by Popular Science. Check out the article and all of its hyperlinked glory here.

Listening In on the DoD: A new military radio show probes science
By Laura Silver
Posted 02.05.2009

The Department of Defense has a new voice.

It’s a little tinny at times, but the twice-monthly web radio show, “Armed With Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military,” packs an informational punch. And it’s not just targeted to stealth-bomber savants and jet propulsion professionals.

In the latest 22-minute episode of “Armed With Science,” Navy hydrographer Michael Jeffries details his work on underwater surveys and nautical charts. And of course, tides. His focus is global.

That information is just a drop in the bucket. To find out more, listen to Episode #2: Hydrographic Surveys and the Fleet Survey Teams or download a full transcript.

The show has been in the works since last summer, says Lieutenant Jennifer Cragg of the New Media Directorate of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Defense Media Activity. Cragg is one of the show’s alternating co-hosts, along with John Ohab, who holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA and is currently an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the Department of Defense. But don’t let all those fancy titles scare you away. “Armed With Science,” originally conceived of by Cragg and Robert Freeman of the U.S. Naval Observatory, is designed to showcase Web 2.0 and modern military contributions to science.

“Part of our agenda is to use these new media tools and test them,” says Cragg.

It seems to be catching on, and not just within the armed forces. After the first show, there were something like 3,000 downloads and we had not promoted it anywhere,” says Jack Holt, the Chief of New Media Operations for Defense Media Activity. That was on January 14. Holt says there’s been a total of 7,400 downloads since, from blogtalkradio.com and iTunes. “Armed With Science” also has a phone component. Listeners can pose questions on a live call-in line, (866) 588-9257.

Future episodes will demystify SONAR and crack open the cranium as part of Brain Awareness Week (March 16-22, 2009, in case your neurons hadn’t registered that).

“Armed With Science” hits the web radio waves again on Wednesday, February 11 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time, with a cool focus on monitoring Arctic ice.

Last week’s Armed with Science featured me interviewing Michael Jeffries, a Navy hydrogarapher. Ten points to anyone who knew about hydrography before this Journal entry. The original article can be found here.

Navy Hydrographers Provide Critical Mapping of Ocean Floor
By John Ohab
Special to American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30, 2009 – Advanced ocean-bottom mapping technologies have enhanced the Navy’s ability to navigate safely throughout the world and have helped support disaster assistance and humanitarian relief operations, the Navy’s oldest active diver said.

Michael Jeffries, a Navy hydrographer and technical director of the Fleet Survey Team, was interviewed on “Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military” on BlogTalkRadio.com Jan. 28 about the science of hydrography and the tools and techniques used to develop precise nautical navigation charts.

Hydrography focuses on measurements and descriptions of the physical characteristics of oceans, seas and coastal areas, including lakes and rivers. The primary purpose of collecting hydrographic information is to support the production of nautical charts, graphical representations of the maritime environment and adjacent coastal regions.

The most important information contained on a nautical chart is the depiction of soundings, or the water depths.

“Whether the user is a fisherman or a captain of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, knowing the depths of the water you are navigating is paramount to maintaining the safety of the vessel and all of its crew,” Jeffries, a hydrographer for more than 30 years, said.

The Fleet Survey Team, a subordinate command to the Naval Oceanographic Office at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, supports Navy and Marine Corps global operations by conducting hydrographic surveys that provide critical nautical information, including water depth, tide levels, and the location of navigational aids like buoys, lighthouses, beacons, shipwrecks, rocks and reefs.

The team also conducts expeditionary hydrographic surveys using personal watercraft called “expeditionary survey vessels,” or ESVs, to identify underwater hazards during amphibious landing exercises.

“Teams conduct surveys in advance of our amphibious landing forces to determine the most suitable beach landings for the military exercise,” Jeffries said.

An estimated 89 percent of Earth’s waters have not been adequately charted, and some nautical charts still contain source data from the 19th century, Jeffries said. Furthermore, the marine environment and seafloor are constantly changing due to natural events like hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes, and manmade events like shipwrecks and construction. For these reasons, emerging navigation and positioning equipment play an important role in developing the most accurate and up-to-date nautical charts, he said.

“One of the most remarkable technological advances for the science of hydrography is the use of satellites for positioning and navigation,” Jeffries said. “With our current technology, we can refine [positioning] to less than 1 centimeter.”

The Fleet Survey Team employs a variety of high resolution sonar systems to define the topographic characteristics of the seafloor. Portable sensors known as “single beam echo sounders” can be outfitted on ESVs to provide depth information. A specialized sensor called “side-scan sonar” is the main tool used by the Naval mine warfare community to locate mine-like objects and other obstructions on the seafloor.

“The key to accurate hydrographic surveying is precise positioning of your vessel and the sensors that collect information about the seafloor,” Jeffries said.

Comprising 65 military and civilian personnel, the Fleet Survey Team plays a critical role in support of disaster assistance and humanitarian relief operations. After the 2004 tsunami that struck the coastal town of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, teams surveyed for underwater hazards and cleared waterways for relief ship traffic. Recently, it conducted joint hydrographic surveys with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers to ensure that waterways were clear in Texas and Louisiana after hurricanes Ike and Gustav.

“Whether here in the U.S. or anywhere else in the world, our ‘fly-away teams’ comprised of three or four Fleet Survey Team members hand-carry suites of sonar sensors with them,” Jeffries said. “Upon arriving at their mission location, the teams install these sensors onboard any platform that is made available to them.”

The Fleet Survey Team also supports joint hydrographic survey operations with more than 20 international partners.

“Partnership building with other countries contributes to the security and stability of the maritime domain, and this most certainly benefits all of us,” Jeffries said.

(John Ohab holds a doctorate in neuroscience and works for the New Media directorate of the Defense Media Activity.)

Press release for the premiere of Armed with Science. The article was taken from DefenseLink.mil.

Naval Observatory Soon Will Track Time to 100 Trillionths of Second
By John Ohab
Special to American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15, 2009 – The ultra-precise timing technology that enables NAVSTAR Global Positioning Systems and high-speed Internet communication soon may resolve the measure of time to 100 trillionths of a second, according to the world’s authority in time-keeping and celestial observation.

“To know when an event occurred, you need a clock. We are that clock,” said Geoff Chester, public affairs officer at the U.S. Naval Observatory, the majority contributor to the international determination of time. He explained the development of this new timing technology during yesterday’s premier of the Defense Department’s “Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military” radio program on BlogTalkRadio.com.

For centuries, clocks have measured seconds through regular, rhythmic oscillations of a pendulum, a swinging weight susceptible to influence by factors such as gravity, temperature, and air viscosity. In the 1950s, scientists began investigating the oscillations of particular atoms as a more precise way to define the second.

“Atomic time is independent of what Earth does,” Chester said. “Atomic clocks define time scales in terms of a certain number of oscillations of a certain type of atom that take place in the course of one second. The master clock at the Naval Observatory is an ensemble of dozens of these devices, and we take a weighted average of all of them to determine our base-reference time scale.”

Standard atomic clocks measure microwave signals emitted from atoms as they change energy levels. Since 1967, the one-second time interval has been defined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 cycles of radiation corresponding to the transition between two energy levels of the cesium-133 atom.

“We guarantee that no two seconds that come out of here over the course of a year will differ by more than one billionth of a second,” Chester said. “Our clock is so precise that it will not gain or lose one second on the order of 3 million years.”

To meet the demands of technology and the needs of society, researchers at the U.S. Naval Observatory continue to develop more precise time-keeping systems. By 2010, they hope to release an operational version of their newest clock, known as a “fountain clock,” which uses laser beams to induce oscillations of the rubidium atom. This rubidium fountain clock will provide a measure of time accurate to 100 trillionths of a second, about 10 to 100 times more precise than the current master clock.

“Rubidium atoms are smaller and easier to manipulate,” Chester explained. “They allow us to keep a much better timescale than what we keep today.”

The U.S. Naval Observatory, one of about 50 scientific laboratories concerned with time-keeping, maintains one-third of the operational atomic clocks currently deployed around the world.

In addition to its role in defining and maintaining universal time, the Naval Observatory also acts as a reference point for navigation and communications technologies that affect people’s everyday lives. For instance, its ultra-precise time-keeping systems enable computer networks to rapidly and accurately transmit information, and the constellation of satellites used in GPS relies on the master clock to calculate locations on the Earth’s surface.

“People ask what time is about,” Chester said. “Timing is everything.”

(John Ohab holds a doctorate in neuroscience and works for the New Media directorate of the Defense Media Activity.)

Click here or read below. It’s your choice.

The Pentagon’s Far-Out Science Podcast
By Nathan Hodge
January 15, 2009

Stick this in your iPod and smoke it: The U.S. Department of Defense is launching a new radio show audio webcast, “Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military.”

I listened in to the first broadcast — an interview about atomic timekeeping with Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Master Clock — and it was actually pretty damn interesting. Chester discussed the history of timekeeping — from waterclocks and pendulum clocks to leap seconds — as well as the principles behind the atomic clock, which uses natural oscillation in specific atoms to define a timescale.

Chester also talked about the application of timekeeping to military operations.

“In our business, timing is literally everything,” Chester said. “An error of three nanoseconds in timing translates to a position error of one meter for a precision-guided weapon.”

Fluorescent Protein Holds Promise for Disease Treatment, Prevention
By John Ohab
Special to American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 2009 – A fluorescent protein discovered in jellyfish has enabled scientists to visualize molecular and cellular events in real time, a leading U.S. biochemical researcher said yesterday.

Roger Tsien, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, won the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his role in developing the green fluorescent protein known as “GFP,” and spoke about his research to “Dot Mil Docs” listeners on BlogTalkRadio.com.

Using this protein, researchers now can track processes that were previously invisible, such as the cell-to-cell transmission of HIV and the activity of cancer cells in a developing tumor.

“GFP gave us the first way to link molecular biology to something we could see,” Tsein said. “When genes or proteins are made, scientists can now see directly when and where these molecular biological events occurred. We can actually watch processes in continuous movies inside living organisms.”

Tsien’s work with two colleagues, Martin Chalfie and Osamu Shimomura, has redefined molecular imaging and led to the development of tools for treating a variety of devastating illnesses. Tsien credited these achievements to his laboratory and collaborators, whose work over 40 years made GFP an irreplaceable tool in bioscience research. He said he was thrilled to be a part of the Nobel experience, which included talks at schools throughout Sweden and interesting discussions with fellow Nobel Laureates.

“The Nobel Prize is for Sweden what the Oscars or the Super Bowl are for Americans,” he said. “It’s on [their] national TV like the Oscar ceremony [here], and I got to sit next to the royal family. This is not something you experience in the ordinary research life.”

Currently, Tsien is investigating new ways to defeat breast cancer as part of the Breast Cancer Research Program, a congressionally directed medical research program funded by the Defense Department.

“We have funding to develop a new way of targeting synthetic molecules that could be used to identify tumors and eventually treat them,” Tsien said. “We wanted to do something that could be applied to real patients.”

Tsien has created a kind of “molecular nametag” that would be used for early identification of cancer cells in patients.

“This is a way to light up tumors for early detection and during surgeries, in particular, to help the surgeon hone in on a millimeter by millimeter scale exactly where the tumor cells are and where the boundary is for normal cells and actually do that at real time,” Tsien said. “We tried to use this biochemistry to actually make the tumor glow. That will guide the surgeon much more accurately than simply cutting out a hunk and waiting for the pathologist to declare whether you have a healthy margin around the dissected specimen.”

In addition, Tsien said, he hopes this research will provide tools for more focused chemo and radiation therapies and improve early detection of other diseases, such as stroke and atherosclerosis. He hopes to continue his pursuit of creative and innovative research endeavors that will ultimately impact human health.

“It’s a great thrill to win the Nobel Prize, but you have to come back to reality. I’ve still got the same research challenges and everyday [duties] as everybody else,” he said.

(John Ohab is attached to the New Media directorate of the Defense Media Activity.)

First of all, how good was the movie “Judgment Night” with Dennis Leary and Emilio Estevez!? So good…in a mid-90′s sort of way.

Anyway, it is now Day Four of preparation for our neuroanatomy final–and for all you keeping track, this is officially Day 10 of the No DSL Internet Chronicles–and with an exception of a few details here and there, I think it is safe to say that my brain cannot fit anymore information inside without squeezing already-learned information out the back.

Next, as sort of a therapeutic strategy to get rid of this foul mood I’m in, I thought I would tell a bunch of evil, stinking lies:

1. The first single from the new Linkin Park album is really good.
2. I’m really looking forward to the next Kevin Smith movies.
3. Jimmy Kimmel has really put together a hilarious late night show.
4. I really hope James Gandalfini resolves his contract dispute with HBO, so I can watch new Sopranos episodes.
5. I’m really excited about this new, aggressive approach George W. is taking with the Iraq conflict.
6. I think the Graduate Student Association should vote jean shorts, sandals with socks, and long-sleeve plad shirts as our “official” attire.
7. I hope the Lakers can pull it together for a stretch run.
8. I value the views and opinions of The Best Damn Sports Show Period.

Wow a few good fibs really go a long way! Time to get back to work.

* Movie Quote of the Day: “Timmy, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?”

There are three days left until my neuroanatomy final, and I’ve already developed that hopeless, apathetic feeling you get after the final night of cramming for a big exam. You know the one where you start to ask philosophical questions about the nature of exams formats and why we are required to memorize inordinate amounts of seemingly useless information if we are going to just forget it all over spring break? That is not to say that I’ve lost interest in doing well. But the big challenge is trying to stay focused, while the understanding and comprehension part comes secondary. Maybe that’s a good thing.

As sort of a study tool for the whole class, Brian and I came up with a few questions that are most likely to show up on the exam. If all else fails and you are feeling overwhelmed, just focus on these exam questions and you are bound to excel:

1. Name all nuclei that project widely to cortex.
2. Name all nuclei that receive input from a “grabbag” of sources.
3. Name all nuclei that control the level of gain.
4. Name all nuclei that are our old friends.
5. Name all nuclei that are “oddballs”.
6. Name all structures of Sylvius.
7. Name all “powerful” or “great” input systems.
8. Name all nuclei responsible for biting.
9. Name all nuclei responsible for “sexual smelling”.
10. Name all nuclei that were converted from English names to French names.
11. How many cells (to the nearest 10) are in the locus corruleus?
12. How many nuh-nameters are the following structures: microtubules, microfilaments, gray synapses
13. What is the difference between a moving and resting “treemor”?

* Movie Quote of the Day: “What could he be doing with that groundhog?” “I can think of a couple of things. Pervert.”