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<\/p>\nFrom an outdoor stairwell of the Knight Oceanographic Research Center in St. Petersburg, the remains of the burnt Marine Science Laboratory next door can be seen below.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re looking at right now is kind of an aerial view of an 80,000 square foot two-story building. The fire consumed the roof \u2026 so the roof has been completely removed,\u201d said Tom Frazer, dean of the USF College of Marine Science.<\/p>\n
Workers in white hardhats and yellow vests are walking on a concrete slab where the roof used to be on one side.<\/p>\n
On the other side the roof\u2019s charred metal infrastructure is still intact \u2013 that\u2019s because it was a later addition to the building so it doesn\u2019t have the same concrete slab, and instead has a steep drop into the rooms beneath.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The remains of the USF Marine Science Laboratory in St. Petersburg after a roof fire in early May.<\/p>\n
The sounds of construction bounce off the Bayboro Harbor in the distance.<\/p>\n
Frazer works out of the Knight Research Center so he sees and hears the commotion from next door every day.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It\u2019s a] constant reminder,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The scientists are rejoicing, although it\u2019s unclear if some of the specimens are still viable after being exposed to smoke and water.<\/p>\n
So, they\u2019ll have to conduct experiments on their experiments. \u201cMost of those samples are being processed right now, or a lot of them are,\u201d said Frazer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll know in short order what\u2019s good and what\u2019s not, but I feel fairly confident that most of the samples that we retrieve from the building are going to be viable and useful for their intended purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lab contained a lot of local research, including servers holding lots of scientific data like how algae blooms move through water, and frozen specimen collected from Tampa Bay to test for contaminants.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the dirt collected a lot further from home.<\/p>\n
\u201cA majority of our samples are from Antarctica,\u201d said Amelia Shevenell, professor of geological oceanography.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s surrounded by towering stacks of boxes in the lobby of the Knight Research Center, where the recovered samples are landing.<\/p>\n
Shevenell couldn\u2019t shake hands because hers were soiled with presumed soot from the fire. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t as if these samples were very clean before the fire because a lot of it is dirt, so I\u2019m just dirty,\u201d she said, chuckling.<\/p>\n
Some of these samples were collected onboard a ship, and icebreakers which are no longer in service.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe literally can never get these samples again, and so it\u2019s been really wonderful to be able to get them out of the building,\u201d said Shevenell.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe end up with carbon dioxide gas that we\u2019re actually able to date, which is super cool, and so that can go into climate models,\u201d Kaiser said.<\/p>\n
This can tell the story of when glaciers melted and help to predict sea level rise.<\/p>\n
Kaiser said some of the first samples to come out of the scorched lab were in refrigerators, like the one storing some of her mud.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to see that fridge come out was really exciting for us, but we still have to see if we can even run these samples because they were without refrigeration for a little bit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Fellow PhD student Alejandra Aguilar got her boxes of samples back from workers digging through debris.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look at the guys who\u2019s like mostly Latino community doing this job, explain to them in Spanish how grateful I am. They\u2019re like, \u2018Why are you so excited about this?\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018You guys, this is the job that I\u2019ve been doing the past few years,\u2019\u201d Aguilar said.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s been studying local mangrove soils to see how long it takes for these tree forests to store carbon after being relocated, among other things.<\/p>\n
In fact, she plans to share her findings at an international conference in Okinawa, Japan next month, so the fire added a lot more pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to say I\u2019m like 50% ready because most of my samples, I send them to University of Florida to process them because we used to be able to do it here, but not any more,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The instrumentation Aguilar needs for her final step of radiocarbon dating was inundated with water. Tens of thousands of dollars of custom glassware, like valves, which made up that instrument are in boxes.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Brad Rosenheim, professor at the USF College of Marine Science, holding up an example of the intricate glass instruments which need to be checked for viability.<\/p>\n
Aguilar\u2019s advisor Brad Rosenheim said even if he had the space to start rebuilding the equipment today, it could still be six months to a year before they were able to tell if the glassware is up to their standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we just found out that the company that we bought them from to custom make them, they don\u2019t even make them any more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For now, they\u2019re working out of a small makeshift lab upstairs in the Knight Research Center, trying to do everything previously done in multiple rooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re used to challenges in this line of work, but \u2026 this challenge has been bigger than most because it doesn\u2019t just affect current students, it affects the legacy of your work, the samples that you have to share with future students, your ability to recruit good students as well to a facility that is now kind of half the size as it was,\u201d said Rosenheim.<\/p>\n
But since the fire, he\u2019s been impressed with his students\u2019 resilience.<\/p>\n
Aguilar, for example, set up a trip to collect backup mangrove soil samples, just in case the ones from the lab were unretrievable. She battled mosquitoes and stinky swamps.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see her just say, \u2018Let\u2019s do it \u2026 just keep moving forward,\u2019 was really key,\u201d Rosenheim said, choking up.<\/p>\n
Aguilar said she often gets asked how she\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019m like, I\u2019m doing science, and I\u2019m happy,\u201d she said, although she is mourning the loss of her daily routine on campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing everybody \u2026 all the things that I did from parking to starting my work \u2026 this is not gonna happen in that way again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Once the salvaging phase of the lab is over, insurance adjusters will have to quantify the loss of the building and its contents, which could take a few months.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still have a long road ahead of us,\u201d said Rosenheim.<\/p>\n
Jessica Meszaros is a reporter for WUSF, the bay area\u2019s NPR affiliate.<\/p>\n
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