AGU Report and Holiday Reading

Dear Sediment Experimentalists,

The week in San Francisco at AGU 2013 was busy, and we learned a lot at both the scientific session we co-hosted (link) and the Sediment Experimentalists Network Town Hall. Thanks to ALL participants, presenters, and colleagues who did anything SEN related, you are helping us to build our network!

We leave you at year’s end with a brief Town Hall summary and some holiday reading.

1. Town Hall highlights: Building a Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN)
2. Recommended book: Users Guide to Physical Modelling and Experimentation
3. Recommended post: The Vast Majority of Raw Data From Old Scientific Studies May Now Be Missing [smithsonian]
4. Recommended game: Play Delta Shuffle to help scientists understand what controls the shape of deltas

1. Town Hall highlights: Building a Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN)

On Wednesday, Dec. 11, we described our NSF-funded project for building a Sediment Experimentalist Network, with the three legs of SEN-KB: a Knowledge Base for sharing methods and data, SEN-ED: EDucation and enabling discussions about data and metadata management and guidelines, and SEN-EC: Global Experimental Collaboratories connected through a webinar system for real-time sharing and interaction.

After a demo of the new Knowledge Base (soon launching at sedexp.net!), the conversation hit upon several issues, including:

• Data storage of multiple TB of data is important and needed
• Quality of the data shared is a big concern - we should think about peer review of datasets or some other type of quality control
• There are existing vocabularies from GeoSciML and CSDMS standard names that our community should consider using

2. Users Guide to Physical Modelling and Experimentation: Experience of the HYDRALAB Network (IAHR Design Manual)

The book combines the expertise of many of the leading hydraulic experimentalists in Europe and identifies current best practice for carrying out state-of-the-art, modern laboratory investigations. In addition it gives an inventory and reviews recent advances in instrumentation and equipment that drive present and new developments in the subject. The Guide concentrates on four core areas – waves, breakwaters, sediments and the relatively-new (but rapidly-developing) cross-disciplinary area of hydrodynamics/ecology.

Read more...


3. The Vast Majority of Raw Data From Old Scientific Studies May Now Be Missing (http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/12/the-vast-majority-of-raw-data-from-old-scientific-studies-may-now-be-missing/#ixzz2o2gO5tPU%20)

One of the foundations of the scientific method is the reproducibility of results. In a lab anywhere around the world, a researcher should be able to study the same subject as another scientist and reproduce the same data, or analyze the same data and notice the same patterns.

This is why the findings of a study published today in Current Biology are so concerning. When a group of researchers tried to email the authors of 516 biological studies published between 1991 and 2011 and ask for the raw data, they were dismayed to find that more 90 percent of the oldest data (from papers written more than 20 years ago) were inaccessible. In total, even including papers published as recently as 2011, they were only able to track down the data for 23 percent.

Read more...


4. Play Delta Shuffle to help scientists understand what controls the shape of deltas

Spotted at the AGU NCED Booth:

Calling all Citizen Scientists! Help scientists understand what controls the shape of deltas! PLAY TODAY!

DeltaShuffle.umn.edu

Sediment Experimentalist Network October News

Dear Sediment Experimentalists,

It’s the end of October and there’s plenty of news for experimentalists.

1. New video about the Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN)
2. New data journal - Nature Scientific Data
3. Sediment Experimentalists at AGU - Town Hall and Scientific Session

1. New video about the Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN)

The Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN) has been funded as part of the NSF EarthCube initiative. Watch this 2-minute video to see what we are planning to do over the next few years, then watch more EarthCube project videos.

 

2. New data journal - Nature Scientific Data

The Nature Publishing group has announced a new journal, Scientific Data, for descriptions of scientifically valuable datasets. Scientific Data “introduces a new type of content called the Data Descriptor designed to make your data more discoverable, interpretable and reusable.”

See their examples of Data Descriptors and think about how to apply it to sedimentary experimental data! [Sample Data Descriptor 1]  [Sample Data Descriptor 2].



3. Sediment Experimentalists at AGU - Town Hall and Scientific Sessions

If you are attending AGU, mark Wednesday December 11th as Sediment Experimentalist Day. We are co-convening scientific sessions and a Town Hall. Hope to see you there!

EP31D and EP32B. Connecting Natural Landscapes to Experimental and Numerical Models of Earth and Planetary Surface Evolution I and II
Wed 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM; 2010 (Moscone West)
Wed 10:20 AM - 12:20 PM; 2010 (Moscone West)

EP33A. Connecting Natural Landscapes to Experimental and Numerical Models of Earth and Planetary Surface Evolution III Posters
Wed 1:40 PM - 6:00 PM; Hall A-C (Moscone South)

Town Hall TH32D. Building a Sediment Experimentalist Network
Wed 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM; 2005 (Moscone West)
We’ll give an update of our activities and share resources and information about best practices experimental methods and data storage, archiving, and dissemination.

--
Sediment Experimentalist Network

Blog: http://sedimentexperiments.blogspot.com/
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/sedimentexperimentalists/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sedimentexp

Sediment Experimentalist Network September News

Dear Sediment Experimentalists,

1. At the end of August, several of us participated in the Stratodynamics 2013 International Workshop at Nagasaki University, Japan.

• Many presenters have uploaded their talks and posters on the informative site www.stratodynamics.org on the Presentations page.
• Watch bedforms formed by supercritical density currents posted by H. Naruse: Video of bedforms formed by supercritical density currents
• Three photo albums of experimental set-up and the meeting are shared on the Sediment Experimentalist Google+ page. 

2. The SEN Challenge is still open! Help us grow our community presence through online sites and other networking activities. Most tasks only take a minute or two. SEN will award travel support to one of the highest-ranking student participants - all you need to do is complete as many tasks as you can, then email sedimentexp@gmail.com with your finished tasks.

• Take the SEN Challenge

3. For those of you attending the December AGU, keep your eye out for our Town Hall: “Building a Sediment Experimentalist Network”, it will likely be a mid-week lunch spot, but the official schedule will be published in October. We’ll give an update of our activities and share resources and information about best practices experimental methods and data storage, archiving, and dissemination.

Best wishes,
The Sediment Experimentalist Team

International Workshop of Stratodynamics at Nagasaki University

Dear Experimentalists,

From August 28-30, we plan to webcast the Stratodynamics Keynote talks from Nagasaki University. Each day starts at 9a local time (8p EDT in the United States)

Aug 28 (Aug 27, 8p in US EDT)
Astrid Blom, Stratigraphy formed by river dunes and Gilbert deltas (45 min)

Aug 29 (Aug 28, 8p in US EDT)
Michael Lamb, What sets the size of river deltas (45 min)

Aug 30 (Aug 29, 8p in US EDT)
Miwa Yokokawa and Norihiro Izumi  (TBD) (90 min)

We will also plan to webcast some of the collaborative experiments, although these will be at 3p local time (2am EDT in the US), so we will try to make some highlight videos to post.

The connection link is as follows:

1. Please join my meeting.
https://global.gotomeeting.com/meeting/join/779601301

2. Use your microphone and speakers (VoIP) - a headset is recommended. Or, call in using your telephone.
United States: +1 (312) 878-3078
Access Code: 779-601-301
Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting
Meeting ID:779-601-301

Sediment Experimentalist Network August News

Dear Experimentalists,

We hope your summer has been a fun and productive one. Here are a few news items before the Fall begins!

1. Take the Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN) challenge
2. Follow Sediment Experimentalists on Twitter
3. Stratodynamics workshop keynote talks to be broadcast online (August 27, 28, 29 in United States time zones)

1. Take the Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN) Challenge

Complete as many of the data-related tasks as you can, then email sedimentexp@gmail.com by Sept 1, 2013, with a record of what you completed.
We will choose randomly from the highest-ranking student participants for support to a future SEN activity.

The tasks range from creating Investigator IDs, to short surveys, to joining NSF communities that are talking about data and cyberinfrastructure. Everyone on the mailing list has already completed task #1!

https://sites.google.com/site/sedimentexperimentalists/sen-challenge

2. Follow Sediment Experimentalists on Twitter

The Sediment Experimentalists have joined twitter!

Follow us @SedimentExp  (http://www.twitter.com/sedimentexp)

3. Stratodynamics workshop keynote talks to be broadcast online

The Keynote "Review" talks at next week's Stratodynamics Workshop at Nagasaki University will be broadcast online.

The talks begin at 9:00am on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (August 28, 29, 30) local time. (Nagasaki time is GMT/UTC + 09:00 hour, which is US Eastern Daylight Time +13h, so the talks begin at 8:00p on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for the East coast of the U.S.)

We will post more information here when we have it.

--
Sediment Experimentalist Network

Blog: http://sedimentexperiments.blogspot.com/
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/sedimentexperimentalists/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sedimentexp

AGU 2013 Session: Connecting natural landscapes to experimental and numerical models

Dear Sediment Experimentalists,

We are excited to announce a session at the AGU Fall Meeting that brings together experimentalists, modelers, and field practitioners. Please contribute to the session to show the strength of our experimentalist community.

EP005. Connecting natural landscapes to experimental and numerical models of Earth and planetary surface evolution

Experimental and numerical modeling approaches in geomorphology provide distinctive insights that gain relevance through comparison to direct observations of natural landscapes. This session considers how to connect, validate, and benchmark experimental and numerical models alongside field observations. We seek contributions exploring how to link experimental, numerical, and field approaches across a range of processes, scales, methods, and model complexities. Contributions exploring all aspects of such linkages are welcome, including those focused solely on experiments, numerics, or field data.

Invited Speakers: 
Man Liang (University of Texas, Austin)
Mark Schmeeckle (Arizona State University)
Gary Parker (University of Illinois)

Convenors: 
Dan Hobley (University of Colorado)
Leslie Hsu (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory)
Raleigh Martin (University of Pennsylvania)
Nicole Gasparini (Tulane University)

The abstract submission deadline is August 6, 2013,
Abstract Submission : https://fallmeeting.agu.org/2013/scientific-program/abstract-submission-policies/

June News and Announcements

Dear Sediment Experimentalists,

Hope your summer months are full of experiments and experimental data. This month we've compiled a few items for you on data management, experimental method publication, meetings, and social networking.

1. How do you manage your data?

2. Want to share your experimental method

3. The International Workshop on Stratodynamics

4. Join the EarthCube Member Connections Site

---

1. How do you manage your data?We'd like to know, and we hope that you do too!  We've created a new page on our Sediment Experimentalists website to collect ideas.  Take a look!  Check out the examples already provided, or create your own and email it to us at sedimentexp@gmail.com.  More information is available on the website for how to do this.

2. Want to share your experimental methods, but feel that typical paper journals aren't cutting it?
Then consider submitting a manuscript to the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JOVE)!  JOVE is a peer-reviewed journal for experimental methods in disciplines across the sciences.  You submit a manuscript as you normally would to any other journal, but if accepted, JOVE will send a filming team to your lab to document the methods described in your paper.  In addition to the other traditional editorial functions provided by the journal, production of the methods film and video hosting on the JOVE website are included in the cost of publication ($2400 -- standard access, $4200 -- open access).  Starting this fall, JOVE will be publishing articles in the environmental sciences, and they are now open to manuscript submissions.  Click here for more information.

3. The International Workshop on Stratodynamics will be held August 28-30, 2013, at Nagasaki University in Japan.

The international workshop “Stratodynamics” aims to develop a new research framework for understanding sedimentary processes, geomorphology and genetic stratigraphy on the basis of morphodynamics of earth surface processes. The topics in the workshop will include experimental and theoretical studies of bedforms, geomorphological processes and the genetic stratigraphy. We also welcome research based on field measurement, computational modeling and coupled interdisciplinary works. Workshop discussion will focus on basic concepts, future research targets, and user requirements for accessing experimental data and advanced experimental technologies to address grand challenges in stratodynamics.

The workshop will include keynote speakers, small-group discussion sessions, community flume experiments, and oral and poster presentations from participants.

See the flyer for more information about the workshop agenda.

Registration

To register please contact the organizing committee at stratodynamics@gmail.com

Registration deadline: July 15th 2013

4. Join the EarthCube Member Connections Site

EarthCube is an initiative to build linkages among earth-science researchers, with a focus on discovery and access to data.  EarthCube recently created a social networking site, "EarthCube Member Connections," to build these linkages.  It's really important to get many people to join, as this will demonstrate the interest of our community to NSF, which will in turn affect funding decisions!  You can see the site here: http://earthcube.ning.com/page/earthcube-member-connections

Please take a few minutes to sign up!  Unfortunately, the sign up process is not extremely intuitive, so I've written some instructions based on my own experience.

1. First, you need to become a member of EarthCube.   Go the EarthCube site: http://earthcube.ning.com/, then click "Sign Up" on the right side of the page.

2. Once you've created an EarthCube page, this information should populate into the EarthCube Member Connections site.  Unfortunately, this process does not appear to be entirely automatic.  So, I suggest you send an email to ec_apps@sdsc.edu to ask them to populate your Member Connections card.  You may need to give this a couple of days.  NOTE: The Member Connections site requires Microsoft Silverlight (a free web app) to function properly.

3. Once populated, your EarthCube Member Connections card will only contain basic information.  To update it with information such as domain (i.e. your subdiscipline) and a statement about your research interests, go to the Member Connections site and search for your name.  Once you've found your name card, double click on it.  A pop-up window should appear (if not, I suggest trying another browser such as Firefox or IE).  Once your card appears in the popup window, click to "Create Account."  Once you've done this, you should be able to login and add your information / research interests to the card.