{"id":147,"date":"2015-10-17T12:31:28","date_gmt":"2015-10-17T19:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/?p=147"},"modified":"2015-10-18T17:37:47","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T00:37:47","slug":"deciphering-the-language-of-the-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/2015\/10\/17\/deciphering-the-language-of-the-universe\/","title":{"rendered":"Deciphering the Language of the Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_150\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/files\/2015\/10\/FGuerrero_15_WatershedLog.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-150\" class=\"wp-image-150 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/files\/2015\/10\/FGuerrero_15_WatershedLog-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"3 Minute Thesis Slide\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-150\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A diagram demonstrating how information in lake sediment can reveal natural history. Courtesy of Francisco Guerrero<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Scientists design experiments to answer a specific question, and usually they already have an informed prediction as to what the answer may be. They set up treatments and make measurements of specific variables that they think will contribute information for the understanding of the problem. In natural systems, however, there are innumerable variables that could also be informative for the system. For Francisco Guerrero, a PhD student in the Department of Forest Engineering, Resources, and Management, the leftover material\u2014the unused information\u2014is essential to the understanding of a natural system but may be overlooked by scientists after a specific outcome. Francisco wants to harness <em>all<\/em> the information in a natural system, identify patterns, and simulate a complete picture of a forest or a watershed. An application of Francisco\u2019s research in the lab of <a href=\"http:\/\/forestsoilslab.forestry.oregonstate.edu\">Jeff Hatten<\/a>\u00a0utilizes <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Information_theory\">Information Theory<\/a>\u00a0to create a mathematical tool that translates that information into a snapshot of a forest ecosystem as it is evolving, allowing scientists to predict where it is headed and past events that have lead to the current state.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_151\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/files\/2015\/10\/PA170486.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-151\" class=\"wp-image-149 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/files\/2015\/10\/PA170486-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Francisco With Soil Sample\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-151\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Francisco holds a soil sample to be processed in the lab. Courtesy of Francisco Guerrero<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Francisco&#8217;s\u00a0academic journey itself has evolved from early dreams of becoming a TV producer to ecologist to engineer. Passionate in his pursuits, our guest this Sunday loves to chase a challenge. To hear about about Francisco\u2019s research and his unique journey, tune in to 88.7 FM KBVR in Corvallis on Sunday, October 18<sup>th<\/sup> at 7PM PST, or stream the show live online at <a href=\"http:\/\/kbvr.com\/listen\">http:\/\/kbvr.com\/listen<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists design experiments to answer a specific question, and usually they already have an informed prediction as to what the answer may be. They set up treatments and make measurements of specific variables that they think will contribute information for the understanding of the problem. In natural systems, however, there are innumerable variables that could [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7039,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[745399,765633,1305519],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ferm","category-forest-engineering-resources-and-management","category-forestry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7039"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions\/157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}