Reading past oceans in coral
Logan Brenner studies past oceans and climate at Barnard. She examines chemical traces in coral skeletons to investigate conditions such as sea-surface temperature. Her work involves using material made by living organisms as an indirect record of environments that researchers could not measure at the time.
Checking the natural record
To check whether coral chemistry tells an accurate story, Brenner explains, researchers compare modern samples with measured environmental conditions. That relationship may not hold in every location or throughout a coral's life. Disease or changes in growth can complicate the interpretation, so she stresses the need to avoid reading too much into it.
Questions as a starting point
Her interest grew from enjoying water, asking school science questions and later doing undergraduate geoscience research. She recalls meeting a prospective graduate adviser and mistaking his question for a test. In her telling, he did not know the answer either: he wanted to explore it together. She encourages students to ask questions and try different kinds of science, while acknowledging that this advice is easier to see in hindsight.