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Asked by anon-257186 to Josh on 20 Jun 2020.
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Josh Wolstenholme answered on 20 Jun 2020:
I use a few different bits of kit, from the very high to the very low tech. To get a 3D representation of a river/landscape I’ll use something called a Terrestrial Laser Scanner – this sends out a laser pulse and measures how long it takes to bounce off the surface and come back to build what’s called a point cloud. The laser can’t see through water however, so I also use a Total Station, which fires a laser at a prism and measures the return rate to get a position. The prism is on a pole so we can add an offset and measure the bottom of the river. Sometimes I use a differential GPS, this is similar to what is in cars or phones, but calculates an error from a base station that gives sub cm accuracy. I also use computers in my work, drones to get aerial footage and a ruler/tape measure! At the moment I have some sensors installed in a river that record the river height every 15 minutes. A good notebook is a must too!
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Comments
Julie commented on :
I too use different pieces of equipment. For me what I use depends on the scientific question we want to answer. Sometimes we want to see what something looks like, so then I will use a microscope, either a light microscope typically at around x100 magnification, but more often a scanning electron microscope typically at x1000 – x10000 magnification. My favourite microscopes are the transmission electron microscopes which can give x800000 or x1 million magnifications. If we want to know what something is made of then I will use a mass spectrometer, ours has two detectors and several ways to generate the ions detected; so it’s complex to use. Of course we can also look at something with the light microscope, locate what we are interested in and then use the mass spectrometer to find out about the molecules present and then have a look in the electron microscope to collect images. I also use a fume cupboard, weighing scales, pipettes, petri dishes, lab glasses and coats just like at school!
Gareth commented on :
The 2 most important pieces of kit are my walking boots, and binoculars! The most exciting bits of kit I get to use are my trail cameras which I use to monitor/take photos of very rare and secretive species remotely, a thermal imager which allows me to “see” at night even when it’s pitch black, and an endoscope for looking in to small cracks and holes in trees for bats.