By her own merits, she is a researcher on the crest of the wave.Relevantly involved in a project with global impact that faces two challenges: knowing the most inaccessible geographical area, the bottom of the oceans, and analyzing whether or not its contribution to the balance of the planet is changing in the face of climate change.Friday, September 30 is a good day to get to know Elena Ceballos Romero up close.And she is very excited about her double public appearance.In the morning, at the Guadalcanal cinema-theater, his hometown, in the Sierra Norte de Sevilla, he participates in the scientific outreach conference 'Your face sounds familiar to me: the university world told by young people from your town', organized with the University of Sevilla.Along with her, Julio Nogales Bueno, Vanesa Guerrero Lozano, María Luisa Domínguez Barragán and Cristina García Arroyo intervene.In the afternoon, in the Plaza Nueva in Seville capital, she is part of the wide cast of participants in the European Night of Researchers to interact directly with the public and divulge in an entertaining and brief way what they do and what it is for.“I love these activities, I consider them essential.We are no longer in the era of scientists who only spoke publicly at expert conferences”.What are your biographical coordinates?I was born 33 years ago on Guadalcanal.My father is a civil guard and my mother has dedicated herself mainly to the florist.I have a brother, Daniel, 31 years old, who works as a teacher of Early Childhood Education at the French Lyceum in Seville.I spent my entire childhood in the towns of Navarra to which my father was assigned.First in Allo and then in Castejón del Ebro. When I was 17 we moved to Bormujos, next to Seville, where my parents still live, and I entered the University of Seville to study Physics.How did you opt for her specialty as a researcher?Since I was a child I have been a very curious person, and Physics tries to explain all the phenomena around us.In high school I had a teacher who left me open-mouthed when she explained that subject.During my degree, I really liked laboratory subjects and I felt a predilection for nuclear physics.My first contact with research was during the third year, I did an internship at the Citius of the University of Seville, they assigned me to the radioisotope service, where they were mainly dedicated to radioactivity in the environment.There I met Professor María Villa Alfageme, she is an enthusiast of the oceans and she transmitted that passion to me.I did a double degree at the University of Seville with the University of Münster (Germany), there I did a master's degree in nuclear detectors, and when I returned to Spain, María suggested that I do my doctoral thesis on radioactivity in the oceans as a means of understanding the climate change, which is the crucial issue today for the entire scientific community.What was her first experience on the high seas?In 2013, on a UK oceanographic research vessel, on a 6-week expedition to Antarctica, where they have a base.We flew from London and set sail from the Falkland Islands.In Antarctic waters I was taking samples at various levels, also collecting particles that sink into the sea due to the effect of gravity, what we call 'marine snow'.It was a time when I needed to broaden my training a lot, because in the oceans there are physical, chemical, biological, ecological processes, etc.How did you prepare to live for more than a month in severe conditions?I organized down to the smallest detail everything related to setting up a laboratory inside a ship where the greatest number of hours possible is used and not a day is rested.I prepared very well all my protocols, all my material, my chemicals, my reagents.To withstand a harsh climate, they gave us a survival 'kit' with all kinds of thermal clothing and special overalls.On a personal level, I was not very careful, on the ship I discovered that everyone brought their favorite foods and a lot of material to distract themselves in the few moments of rest: music, movies, series, books.I already took it into account in the following expeditions.On solid ground, where did you base your specialization?I did research stays in reference centers, such as Southampton in the United Kingdom and Bremen in Germany.I also wanted to try out in the United States and in 2018 I got a scholarship from the University of Seville to go do research from October to December of that year at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.From the beginning, the connection with Ken Buesseler, his chief investigator, was sensational.He told me that he was doing very well and offered me that after defending my thesis in 2019 I would come back and participate in a great project that was being considered with NASA.I have been at it since June 2021. I have funding from the University of Seville, and also a Marie Curie grant from the European Commission, and my base of operations is in Woods Hole until 2024. I return to Europe from time to time to participate in conferences and other activities.What does the joint investigation between Woods Hole and NASA consist of?The North American space agency is convinced that the analysis of the images of the surface of the oceans taken by satellites over the years can contribute to knowing and predicting what happens inside the oceans.Where the carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere and buried in the seabed (understood as depths below 1,000 meters) will take thousands of years to return to the surface, being 'sequestered' by the enormous pressure.This 'biological carbon pump' allows the level of CO2 in the atmosphere to be lower.It encompasses the set of processes by which carbon dioxide is consumed at the sea surface by phytoplankton, which incorporates it into its photosynthesis process to convert it into oxygen and nutrients, and transports it to the depths by the effect of gravity as that those plants die or are consumed by larger organisms.The 'Exports' research project intends, for six years, to better quantify the export of carbon to the oceans, if there are changes in the efficiency of this process, and to link the optical properties of remote satellite images with direct measurements within of the seabed.Because we still don't know everything we need to know about the interior of the ocean in order to use satellite images.How is the research process organized?Experts in many different subjects have been brought in and missions are carried out for two or three weeks on the high seas in areas of the North Atlantic and North Pacific that are highly contrasted as ideal areas for research (because a lot of phytoplankton blooms in spring, because there are no obstacles in the depths, etc.).I use an autonomous robot that we call Tzex, which stands for Twilight Zone Explorer, which in Spanish could be said as an explorer of the abyssal zone.We can send it up to 2,000 meters deep.It is equipped with tubes and containers to collect the 'sea snow' that falls, and it also has a high-resolution camera.It is a leading robot worldwide.I program it with all the commands about what I want it to do.As a precaution, we plan that it returns to the surface at least once a day to transmit the signal via GPS that it is operational.Explain it in more detail.We are currently using the third version of this increasingly refined robot.You have to calculate its buoyancy well so that the pressure does not take it down.Each zone of the ocean has a different temperature and a different salinity inside the water, it is what determines if it floats more or less.It is an incredible challenge, we have the help of wonderful engineers.We ask the scientific questions, we work with the engineers to see how we can work with the technologies to solve the parameter adjustment.With the robot's sophisticated camera, what do you see in the vast darkness of the deep ocean?It's amazing how much life there is.The food chain is very interesting.New species are constantly being discovered and the most amazing thing is the cellular capacity of some to generate bioluminescence, to emit light.It is also true that the shapes and physiognomy of some fish resemble some beings created in movies for horror plots.Do they have more than one ship for those missions?That of 2021 was the only one that has been done so far with three research vessels together.That isvery useful because if you set the sampling zone as a circle, you have one oceanographic vessel taking samples in the center of that circle, another one on the perimeter going around and the third vessel sailing between the perimeter and the center.The usual thing in these campaigns is to have only one or two boats, they are activities that are planned very far in advance and it is not easy to have so many resources, but an attempt is being made to change that inertia in order to be able to combine more resources, more technologies, and more open-mindedness.In one of the missions I had the satisfaction of working from the Spanish research vessel 'Sarmiento de Gamboa'.Do investigations have to be done inside ships?As much as possible, because we are collecting particles that are organic matter and over time it degrades.The samples are analyzed on the ship, sometimes it is just a preliminary analysis, and they are frozen for further investigation at Woods Hole, where the technical means are extraordinary.Not everything can be done on the high seas because we use microscopes, and when there are a lot of waves that is not feasible.What first estimates are consolidating on an area as unknown as the seabed?More and more it is being discovered that its role is much more crucial for the Earth's climate than we could imagine.Due to ignorance, our civilization has underestimated its importance.We are in a continuous learning phase, we need a perspective of at least five years to determine trends.We believe that there is evidence of the subtle changes that are taking place in the oceans as a result of climate change.Will NASA find an answer to its intuition about satellite images of the sea surface as an indicator of climate change?It will depend on what we find out about the rate at which the ocean changes.If the changes are gradual, the challenge will be solved.If they are very fast, it will take at least ten years to consolidate knowledge and reach conclusions.Does the University of Seville benefit from the impact of your research?Yes, it always appears in everything I post.As in my last published work, on the Pangaea tool that compiles all the data in the last 50 years on ocean measurements of the radioactive element thorium-234.It includes more than 56,000 thorium-234 data, as well as temperature and salinity records, from a total of 376 oceanographic surveys and more than 5,000 locations spanning the entire ocean.As concern grows about the effects climate change is already causing, is the pressure increasing for researchers like you to present results that lead to decision-making as soon as possible?I don't feel pressure, but an immense responsibility.Climate change is the great challenge of our time.We have public funding for research, and I want to ask myself big questions to help figure out the future.We must avoid the pressure to rush.The scientific method works well, it requires a lot of dedication, a lot of patience and it has its rhythms.Any scientist who appreciates it does not have the temerity to give big headlines if we do not have evidence and we are not sure about it.Scientific knowledge is and will be available to make decisions that are often difficult.What do you think of all this when you walk or swim on a beach?My favorite beaches are in the province of Cádiz, such as La Barrosa.Looking at the sea, or swimming, I usually feel like a very big thank you.It's like a very personal conversation with the ocean.See it through the eyes of a person who tries to understand and study it with the ultimate goal of protecting it.We owe him gratitude and we should treat him like a sanctuary for all he does for us.