All the numbers inside parentheses are less than or equal to 26, so there could be a correspondence to letters.

The letter number looks like a spreadsheet entry; could be a coordinate system. 

I assume from the question mark that the message forms a question; so each "word" of the message could be an English word.  s8(9) could mean something like, go to a certain book, section 's', the 8th page, 9th word.   Or maybe sections of the perplexus website, science section, 8th problem, 9th word.

Sorry for the rambling, but that's all I have right now, someone must've sunk my battleship.   My compliments to the cryptkeeper on what looks like a very difficult puzzle.