Simard measured mycorrhizal carbon transfer by placing her own body inside the experimental system

Evidence

To measure the carbon transferred between trees through the mycorrhizal network, Simard injected radioactive carbon-14 isotopes into mature birch trees in experimental forest plots. To measure what came out of nearby seedlings’ root systems, she placed herself inside a sealed plastic tent over the root systems and breathed in the gas that emerged — measuring radioactive output while inside the experiment. She was simultaneously the experimenter and part of the experimental system. The procedure required her to place her own body in the measurement zone. She could not observe from outside without changing the variable she was measuring. … This methodological choice — placing herself inside the measurement — was not standard protocol. It was Simard’s own adaptation, developed because the standard measurement tools could not give her the resolution she needed. She solved a technical problem by making herself an instrument. The science required her physical participation to work. Her data was inseparable from her presence in the data-generating system. — Jamal Awil, The Whispering Archive, 595

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the chapter’s running theme of the observer as instrument — parallels Curie (628) and Jung (628) in this same book.