Bike Ride to Chateau Cormatin (June 19th, 2011)

Today is Sunday, and it is a free day on our schedule. So Dr. Haggblom and a few of us decided to rent bikes to go for a 26 km bike ride to see Chateau Cormatin and its gardens. As usual, we planned a delicious picnic with breads, meats, wines, and of course, oodles of cheeses. We packed our backpacks with foods, plates, glasses, etc. and hopped on to our rented bikes en route to the chateau! This was a glorious ride through the country-side on which we saw multiple farms, pastures, old towns,and of course, the chateau itself!
We took an old train path to Cormatin as our bike path. After going up and down hills, we stopped by a pond to have our delicious picnic. With spreads ranging from foie gras to tapande, we had a ravishing lunch. After lunch, we stopped by a local café for our usual expresso en route to the chateau.
Chateau Cormatin was a home of an old lord from the medieval times. The chateau I believe dates back to the 15th century, and was restored, starting in 1984. As usual, there are many pictures below, since they probably describe the experience better than I can. We took a tour through the chateau and spent the day walking through the scenic gardens. What an amazing day!

Our picnic by the pond:

Group in front of the Chateau:

Chateau Cormatin:

The Gardens:

Riding through the country-side!

Dr. Max!

One of the bedrooms in the Chateau

Fresh baked bread!

An old bathroom

Gliders gliders everywhere!!!

It's been crazy busy working in the glider lab getting 5 gliders refurbished, tested, prepped a ready for deployment! Two of those gliders will specifically be used for my research project off the west coast of Australia. Let me give you a little more info about the 2 different types of gliders I'm working with!

As I mentioned in my last post, there are currently 3 main types of gliders, though there are several others that exist (they make up a minute percentage of gliders in existence). Of the 3 main types of gliders, 2 of them are the most widely used type, and are arguably the most advanced and proficient models. These are the two types of gliders I am working with!

One of these types is the Teledyne Webb Research Slocum Glider (see image below). These are the type of glider we own and operate at the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences (IMCS)at Rutgers. They come in different models, which are meant to operate efficiently in a given depth range. There are 50-meter, 200-meter, and 1000-meter models; effectively shallow, intermediate, and deep gliders, respectively. The number of meters defines the maximum operable depth each particular model can function in without being crushed by the surrounding pressure, as pressure increases greatly with depth in the ocean. Base-model Slocums cost around $120,000 each. We have over 20 of them at Rutgers. We've lost 7 :( but we've flown well over 200 missions! Considering how new of a technology this is, and how much Rutgers pushes the bar with our missions, that's a really good rate. :)

TELEDYNE WEBB RESEARCH SLOCUM GLIDER

The other of the 2 types is the iRobot Seaglider (see image below). iRobot happens to be the company that makes that little autonomous disc vacuum that vacuums your floors all by itself (it's called the Roomba)! They make many different kinds of robots, many being military and maritime grade robots. Unlike the Slocum glider, the Seaglider comes in one model that is rated to 1000 meters. The base-model Seaglider costs around $140,000.

iROBOT SEAGLIDER

Sounds like a lot of money, right? While obviously it is, in respect to other methods of oceanographic sampling, it's rather cheap! Or to use a better term: COST EFFECTIVE. To hire a large oceanographic vessel for a science cruise can cost $50,000 per DAY. NOT for the WHOLE CRUISE. NOT for a MONTH or a WEEK. $50,000 PER DAY. To put that in perspective: IMCS hired a vessel for a cruise that lasted about 2 months in Antarctica this past winter. Do the math. Gliders are WAY cheaper.

In addition, even though vessels are hired for long periods of time, they don't gather much data compared to a glider. A vessel has to get to a station, prepare the sensors, lower the sensors, get one reading (called a "profile"), raise the sensors, wait for other science teams to complete their tasks, and then haul to the next station. And so on. Not only does this take a lot of time, but The water is only sampled at one point ever x-number of miles. Which can sometimes be tens or hundreds of miles in between. That's a lot of space that's not being sampled that we have to make "guesses" about. And that's not the best way to try to understand our oceans, or anything at that.

Gliders are not only much more efficient in many ways, but are literally changing the type of data we can get about our oceans. Gliders can sample 24/7 along their track (or "transect"), which provides HIGH-DEFINITION, HIGH-DENSITY DATA. It's filling in all the gaps that previous technologies, such as vessels and moorings, couldn't achieve before. That means no more guessing. Just hard evidence. It's literally a miracle for ocean science.

Anyway - I digress. Where were we?...talking about the Slocum vs Seagliders. So now that you have a better idea as to the importance of gliders to ocean science: as you can see, while they both operate under the same principle of a buoyancy engine, they both look quite different. And they are. While some of their internal components are very similar, others a very different. However, they can both carry essentially the same science sensors and both have the some functional goal in mind: GET OCEANOGRAPHIC DATA.

So when it comes to gathering new data, the sensors are the same, and one could effectively interchange the vehicle (glider) upon which the sensors are carried on. But as aforementioned, the variances in the two gliders are enough for one to be preferable over the other to different users and groups.

Luckily, we don't even have to choose here at the Oceans Institute of the University of Western Australia! They operate BOTH Slocums AND Seagliders here! Which is awesome for Shannon and me, because we can continue working with Slocums as we have been at Rutgers, and along the way see the variances in how UWA operates their Slocums, as well as learn how to tech and operate Seagliders!

Last week, we refurbished and prepped a Slocum, U209, for a deployment off the coast of Mindarie, Australia, about 45 minutes north of UWA/Perth. Dennis (UWA's head glider technician...see picture below!), Shannon, and I headed out before sunrise on a local dive boat with a very friendly captain! Remember when I said I'd be sure to take some photos during the deployment? Well I did, but not as many as I had hoped to. To put it gently, the sea was rather restless that day ;) There was about a 3-5 foot swell and LOTS of wind chop, so it didn't make for the best picture-taking day. Shannon quickly became best friends with the bench with seasickness, and after a while of testing U209 staring at a computer screen, the wind chop got to me a bit too and I had to take my eyes off the computer for a little while too. But it's okay - it's all in the name of ocean science! However, despite the less-than-stellar conditions, the deployment was successful! And that's one of the reasons it's much better to have a glider out sampling rather than a human on a boat: humans get seasick, gliders/robots don't! Also, with seas much worse than what we went out in, we wouldn't be able to go out to sample the ocean. The safety of the scientists is paramount. However, gliders can stay out in the harshest of conditions, such as hurricanes. And these harsh conditions tend to be times that humans have never sampled before due to safety reasons - this, again, means NEW DATA.

SUNRISE HEADING OUT FOR U209'S DEPLOYMENT

DENNIS, THE HEAD GLIDER TECHNICIAN AT THE OCEANS INSTITUTE AT UWA!

There were a couple hiccups with U209, but that's part of game. One of which, the science computer went down while a storm hit, so we unfortunately didn't get data during that premium time. Also, the gilder wasn't flying as well as it should have been, so Dennis rendezvoused with U209 over the weekend to add a little more weight to the glider to allow it to fly better, and it worked well. A difference as little as 5 grams can make a HUGE difference in the way the 120-lbs (55,000 grams) glider flies. There's a LOT of science, physics, and math that goes into the technical and preparations of getting a glider ready for a deployment.

Now that the Slocum U209 is out on its mission, we've been prepping 5 different Seagliders for deployments in all different areas of Australia! Two of those will be the gliders that Shannon and I specifically use to gather oceanographic data for our research. As of now, it's looking like those two will be SG520 and SG516. But that may change as we continue the refurbishment and preparation.

We've mostly been working technically with the Seagliders so far, so that once we get into the operation and piloting we'll have a better idea of the internal workings of the Seagliders and know exactly what we are controlling. As you can imagine, technically working with robotics' internal components is difficult and time consuming. Our experience working with Slocums is helping a lot with diminishing the learning curve with Seagliders, but of course it's quite different.

Starting this week, we'll begin getting much heavier into the operation and piloting of Seagliders. Learning how to operate, pilot, and communicate with gliders is literally like learning another language. And that applies for each different type of glider (Slocums vs Seagliders)!

The surf hasn't been too great the past week or so, but a better swell is starting now! I'm excited to get some Aussie waves!

Shannon and I went to Fremantle ("Freo" for short) last weekend, which is a small historic port town just south of Perth. It was a cool little town! We got to take a tour inside an Australian military submarine!

Other than seeing Fremantle and going to the beach, we haven't had too much time to venture out much since we've been so busy in the glider lab! But we have some fun things planned, including a hike or two (called "bushwalks" here!), a couple trips to Rottnest Island ("Rotto" for short) about 10 miles off the coast of Cottesloe Beach (where we're living), and a couple other things too! And don't forget we're spending a week in Cairns at the end of our trip on the east coast of Australia to scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef! :)!

That's all for now. Within the next couple posts, I'll get into more detail about our research project and exactly what we're going to studying about the Indian Ocean! Thanks for reading everyone! G'day mates! :)

Here's a couple more pictures!

-Dave

Departure and Arrival?

So I started off this morning, very early mind you, and thought I couldn't be more prepared. So far though I've gone through 2 mini freak-outs about forgotten items, 1 broken camera (you will notice the lack of pictures because of this), 1 friend with lost luggage and 1 delayed flight... but 14 hours later I am HERE! No more flights to catch for me, at least for a few weeks that is.

Aside from the rough time actually getting here, the place is BEAUTIFUL and the restaurant in the airport, I think it was the Hungry Horse(?) makes a mean jerked anything sandwich. :) I'm pretty sure you all would be jealous of me right now, as I type this entry with the sounds of the ocean outside the screen door. Seriously, the deck outside the door is right on the beach. I want to type more but the mosquitoes are really all over and I am beyond jet lagged!

(First day in the water is tomorrow! I'll have to let you know how that goes...)

Who stays at home on a Saturday morning?-Farmer’s Market (June 18th, 2011)

As usual, I went for my run Saturday morning at 7AM and was running through town-square till I bumped into the townspeople setting up farmstands, carts full of soaps, candles, vegetables, clothes, hats, shoes, meats, cheeses, and many other goods. As a class, we were not expected to be at the market till 9ish, but I was surprised by how many people were already out buying their week’s worth of groceries. There was a strong sense of community as I watched buyers and sellers greet each other with hugs as they were buying their groceries. The farmer’s market offered an intimate relationship between the town. I overheard a farmer talk to his usual customer about how he had a special batch of jelly made and brought it up to market just because his customer had shared a liking for that jelly once upon a time in the market.
As a class, we met Dr. Healy and Dr. Haggblom at the farmer’s market a few hours later. We split into groups and went out shopping. Below are pictures from today.
Later on that night, we went out for dinner as a group. Some of us tried escargot (snails) for the first time. Dr. Max claims that it is a good excuse to eat delicious garlic, butter, and parsley. I dipped my bread into the sauce and it was delicious indeed!



Farmer's Market Goods

Dinner!

Religion+Science=Great Cheese?! (June 17th, 2011)

Today we visited the Abbaye of Citeaux, which is actually a working monastery. There were about 10 brothers of this monastery, and they sustained themselves by making Citeaux cheese at their “factory”. The milk that went into making the cheese came from their own herd of Montbeliarde cattle (the brown and white cows) of this region. Ironically, they artificially inseminate their cows with prize bull semen based on the prized DNA sequence from this bull. I was flabbergasted with the amount of science that each of the monks knew and how heavily they incorporated science into their work. The philosophy that was central to monastic life is that hard work and worship. So in a way, science was part of making the work possible, and the combination of religion and science was working well since the French people love the Citeaux cheese. After eating the aged Citeaux cheese, I fully agree based on my taste buds.
After the milk is gathered from the cows, the cheese is made in a series of steps. We were lucky enough to be invited INSIDE the actual cheesemaking factory itself! They take a big risk in cheese fermentation by allowing any outside flora to enter the factory, so I really appreciate this privilege. Anyhow, back to the cheesemaking….The cows are milked in the morning, the milk is then heated to a higher and lower temperatures as two starter cultures of LAB (lactic acid bacteria) cultured exclusively in a BL3 facility (for maximum care) are added into the milk to outcompete any pathogenic bacteria. After the starter cultures, the rennet is added to the milk to coagulate the curd. This curd is then cut many times and pressed over so that the whey drains out. After the whey drains out, the curd is salted and pressed into molds. The molds are then stored and washed daily in separate, isolated room of the factory as they age. After production, the machines and the factory utensils are washed thoroughly. Each brother of the monastery helps out in each of the cheese-making steps and the whole production is made by a community.

The Montbeliarde Cows:

Cheesemaking

Regarding Landscape Architecture

Landscape Architecture, may very well be something you have never heard of,
or worse, something you associate with mowing lawns. Landscape Architecture
is a discipline, that, as one of my professors would describe it, as an exploration
in space. Space, in the way that we shape the space around us and we define the feeling
you experience as you interact with it. Now thats a bit esoteric and "spacey" in and of itself.
So really, landscape architects deal with problems on varying scales, from the private residence to large scale city planning and even to regional redevopment. And we deal with problems like sustainability, environmental footprint, storm water management, horticulture, construction detailing, project management and countless other things.
As Landscape Architects, it is important that we see as many works as possible to familiarize ourselves with different solutions to problems as they present themselves. By seeing as many parks, city scapes, and natural areas, we become better acquianted with how things work, and more importantly what actually works and what doesn't.
By knowing these things we are better conditioned to making spaces that people will be able use and enjoy while at the same
time contributing to the local ecology.
This trip to Germany is very important in that it provides me with the opportunity to see things that I would never would have had otherwise. To see a place and people that are different from those that I see on a regular basis. And ultimately to further my design education.

The Abbey of Citeaux

The fourth day of our excursion in Burgundy was an intense seven hour day of microbiology in our little lecture room at the hostel. So, seeing as how most people who may be reading this aren't microbiologists, I'll spare you that whole bit and go straight to the next day, which was our trip to the monastery of Citeaux. The monastery of Citeaux is an ancient monastery that used to be quite respected in its heyday, even receiving royal visitors. Now it is a high tech cheese producing facility that is still operated by the monks of Citeaux who take an oath of chastity, poverty, and humility. As we toured the cheese making facility we met some of the monks, but they didn't attempt to talk to us at all, which made us wonder if they weren't allowed to, or if they just didn't speak English.

After seeing the inner workings of the cheese factory, we went outside and got to the real beginning of the cheese, the milk. We walked into a large barn that housed in the area of a hundred cows that were feeding when we arrived. The cows were all the same type of cow, the Montbelier, which over time has proven to the brothers of Citeaux to make the best milk for making their cheese. We met the herdsman in charge of the monastery's herd and learned all about the life cycle of one of these Montbelier cows. While they were at the monastery they each produced around 30 kilos of milk per day for cheese production, and those who didn't were sold into surrounding herds. Those who got to be too old were sold for meat, which seems to be the fate of every cow in the area at the end of their lives. I thought this was very interesting, but at least they don't waste anything, right?

Professor Max

Brother Rafael on the left translating, and the herdsman in the center explaining the role of their herd in cheesemaking.

When we left the herd we explored the more scenic parts of the monastery and had a picnic on the grounds, which was even better than the last picnic we had two days before (which previously was the best picnic I've ever attended). After lunch and a nap under some of the trees at the abbey we took a guided tour of the older buildings like the library and dormitory which had been reconstructed. The life of a monk was quite dull, and still is in this modern age. They wake up at 3am, study old texts, pray, make cheese, have lunch, pray, work some more, pray, and then it's bedtime by 8 o'clock. I know that there's no way I could do that day in and day out, but some of the brothers didn't join the monastery until they were about 40 years old! I find that incredible because they had to have experienced modern life, and willingly giving yourself to something like a life of chastity, poverty, and humility after that is unheard of.

Again we found ourselves driving through the countryside on the way to another cheese tasting, life is just so difficult these days... haha. The next fromagerie, or cheese factory was much more modern and had been designed with tourists in mind. The whole cheese production area could be viewed from the large glass windows that give you a great view of the cheesemaking in action. Also, this fromagerie had a video explaining the various parts of the cheese making process in French, English, and German. I find it interesting that here in France agritourism is a huge part of their business, just as it is in the US. Today was the most hands-on day with cheese making that we've had so far and it was very interesting to see the cheese making process come to life in front of me.

Our cheese tasting

The way home was filled with chateaux and beautiful terroirs that we were almost too tired to appreciate! Imagine that! Hahah, but there's no time for sleep here in Cluny, were about to go hit the town in what is sure to be another exciting night. À bientot mes amis!