data and its discontents

wow. i've decided that somebody must be reading this -- and he/she/
it has some serious pull. Yesterday I asked for the ice, today the
sun. both were supplied the next day. Ice might be in the power of
the chief scientist, but the sun is beyond his control. What should
I ask for today (three trees make a row, you know)??

the sun's gone now, but it's OK -- better for sleeping. while it was
out, we were moving through the ice -- big floes but easily pushed
aside -- and it was scattered with amazing bergs and several tons of
blubbery crabeater seals, who took their time getting out of the way,
allowing us to get decent pictures even with my camera skills.

when i've been inside today, i've been thinking a lot about this data
which i am collecting. not much about the data itself, but the
amount of effort and time that I (and everyone else who's been
helping) have been putting into getting the data ready to use. Today
I put the nutrient info from yesterday's long day at the Lachat into
a cumulative spreadsheet and started to look at it. But even if I/we
see something interesting, it's not likely that we'll be able to do a
tremendous amount with it until we all get back and our schedules
return to normal. It's unlikely too that the data will be
particularly relevant to my long-term goals, and may be a diversion.
But I've put so much into collecting it, I don't really care -- I'd
like to be in charge of it.

I'm beginning to get a sense for how issues develop between
collectors of data and users of it. I know there are rules, waiting
periods for availability of data, etc, and I suppose I could read up
on policies and standards, but without this cruise, I wouldn't have
understood the nature of observationalists' attachment to their
data. In part it's so they can publish results, but I bet it's
mostly a sense that they truly understand the numbers. And that's
not just because they know how freaking cold the water really is --
when you put in 14 hours days taking water from the rosette, running
a cantankerous machine on a moving ship, and staring at a
spreadsheet, you do know it best.