| Photo by Jane Scherr |
Roy Caldwell Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
| Photo by Jane Scherr |
Page 7 of 8
Let's get back to the Aquarius. You're going back there. This will be your third mission. On previous missions you've studied the play of light in the ocean. What are you going to do this time? Let's focus on the vision part of your experiment.
This is the first all-stomatopod mission, and we'll be looking at vision as well as mating behavior and larval behavior. The visual component will be primarily looking at polarized signals -- one group of animals apparently has a polarized signal. They live there, fortunately. So we'll be trying to figure out what they're doing with it. We'll be using models presented to animals in their natural environment. We will be altering polarized signals to see how that affects the interactions among them. We will also be measuring the transmission of those signals in that environment.
So, observing to see what is going on: How are they using this information? What are they doing with it?
That's where we'll start. We'll spend a lot of time just videotaping animals doing what they do. And then we'll try to introduce other animals that have been manipulated, that either have enhanced or no polarized signals, and then see how the reef residents react to them.
When you've gone on one of these missions before, has something ever turned out an entirely different way so that you've had re-think how you wanted to do your experiment on the spot, or is that not easy to do once you're there?
It's that not easy to do once you're there, because very often you don't have the technology that you need. If it's just behavior observation, it's pretty easy to change your behavior. But if you need instrumentation, you can't just call the surface and say send something down very easily. But on one of the missions, we just couldn't find any of the animals that we'd planned to work on. Fortunately, I went and found another one, a different species, and ended up doing some work on the evolution of monogamy. Otherwise you're going to sit down there for three or four days twiddling your thumbs. You have to have contingencies, and we do always have more work planned than we can do, and hopefully some of it will pan out.
How long have you been planning for this forthcoming mission?
I started planning for this during the last one, when I started realizing that there were things that I could do, that I just couldn't do otherwise. But the grant proposal went in about nine months ago, and we were told that we were going to go in December. So we've really been working now for about six months, getting ready for it. The next two or three weeks will be very hectic, getting all the material put together and getting everybody ready. And then there's a week of exhaustive training, and then a couple of days off, and then we saturate.
I assume you have to be pretty physically fit to do this.
I'm running every day. Yes, you do.
Have you always liked swimming and going in the water?
I detest swimming. It is a tool. It's not something I like doing. I like taking pictures underwater, but no, you would not find me swimming laps in a pool. It's not something I like doing.
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