A day in the life of a Principal Science Officer ( PSO ) Geraint Tarling , January 18 , 2013
PSO is shorthand for Principal Science Officer . Mostly it is a senior scientist who has a strategic overview of science operations and also an understanding of how a science vessel is run . Their role is to coordinate daily activities , liaising between the scientists and the ship ’ s crew so that things run as harmoniously as possible . This is not my first PSO role but it is certainly the most complex , with many different types of activities carried out by a number of different working groups . My tasks are varied and multifarious and so far , each day has brought new challenges , some foreseen and others not . I thought I would take you through this particular day as my contribution to the blog , as typical or atypical as it may be .
01:35 My alarm goes off and I wonder for a few moments where I am and why I need to get up in the middle of the night . Then I remember it is a bioassay set up day . This is an activity we undertake every 5 days to bring water on board to incubate in our specialised containers . Setting up a new bioassay involves almost three quarters of all the scientists on board , and one by one , they start appearing , sleep heavy in their eyes . They set to their task soon enough , carrying ultra-clean water sampling bottles to the CTD ( a water profiling instrument ) which is waiting on deck .
Sampling with the Bongo nets @ Jeremy Young
My role here is to check that the location and conditions are suitable for sampling activities ( e . g . not too rough to be carrying heavy bottles around , or too icy to deploy the CTD ). I sometimes also make a few phonecalls to those whose alarm-clocks have been ineffective . When I see that everything is going smoothly , I leave them to their task and get a couple more hours sleep before my day begins in earnest .
06:00 Quick check that everything is still going OK with the bioassay set-up . This is the second time we have done one on this cruise and they have already shaved an hour on how long it took last time – practise makes perfect .
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