Noah's Ark
Told in Genesis Chapter 6+, I'm going to end on Chapter 8, just cause, and I'll paraphrase Chapters 6 & 7.Chapter 6: God identifies a problem. Man, it's a big problem, like a giant problem and the world is going to end. God looks at the problem, comes up with a generalized solution, and asks if someone will do it for him. Noah says, "Okay...."
Chapter 7: God gives more specific instructions. Noah says, "okay." Then the flood starts, waters rising, but Noah's safe because he was following God's instructions to build and maintain an Ark to save humanity and all of Earth's creatures. Everyone else perished. The flood continued.
Chapter 8: (here I'll quote directly below)
6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark
7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.
8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground.
9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark.
10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark.
11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.
12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
Scientific Writing
Told in NSF, NASA NSPIRES, etc... I'm going to use NASA as an example and paraphrase all but the last bit, as I did with the biblical account.NASA Science Plan: NASA identifies a problem. Man, it's a big problem, like a giant problem and the world is going to end. NASA looks at the problem, comes up with a generalized solution, and asks if someone will do it for him. Several research groups say, "Okay.... How about we do it this way?" The research groups propose some solutions, and NASA / NSF / NIH / whoever selects the one(s) they want to do it.
Grant Review: NASA gives more specific instructions. Research group says, "okay." Then the research starts, political flood waters rising, but the research group is safe because they are following NASA's instructions to build and maintain [something]. Everyone else perished due to lack of funding. The political flood continued. NASA demanded publication of data.
Data Management Plan: (here I'll avoid quoting directly because believe it or not legalese is wordier than Leviticus) NASA says: "Publish your stuff ASAP so the public will stop accusing us of conspiracy theories." (Totally paraphrased with intent definitely implied but could be close to accurate, who knows.) Typically this means sending a manuscript to a journal, seeing if it will stick, but it will come back, and then you send it again with revisions, etc... Eventually the little birdie will find a place to land permanently, and it will be published forever in the annals of scientific literature.
