Craig is temporarily a post-doctoral fellow at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who is looking for a permanent position. He spends most of his time balancing his overwhelming geekdom with normalcy so he can function in the real world. Luckily his wife likes his geekiness.
Peter Etnoyer is a Graduate Research Associate at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He studies deep corals and ocean fronts, and he loves to be on the water.
Kevin Zelnio is a Graduate Student Researcher at Penn State studying the ecology of hydrothermal vent and methane seep communities. He raises awareness of the plight of the spineless through folk music.
One of my back up plans for early retirement is to start a consulting business for Hollywood special effects (SFX) studios. My crack team of marine invertebrate biologists and kinesiologists will advise big studios on new scary creatures for space-based and terrestrial monster movies.
The first one's free. The picture of the amphipod Phronima sp. above would be a good biomechanical model for an update of say, the Imperial AT-AT Walkers from "Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back". The picture comes from the Norway-based MAR-ECO project and the global Census of Marine Life program initiative. National Geographic ran a story on the expedition here. My team will retrieve these alive for you, and keep them in an aquarium, so your SFX animators and your actors can study them.
The second one's free, too. A prime candidate for space monster would be the amazing microscopic elephantine creature known as the tardigrade, or water bear. Folks over at Kristianstad University put these hardy little animals into space and brought them back again as part of the Tardigrades in Space (TARDIS) program. The script is practically written for you already, but we could translate. We have people on staff that speak Astrobiology. The problem with the tardigrade is that it's lumbering, like the Stay-Puft marshamallow man. Not scary, like Phronima sp..
Wait, wait... my phone is ringing. "Hello. Hollywood?"
Comments
Wait, wait... my phone is ringing. "Hello. Hollywood?"
It's got my vote for scariest creature ever! I would hate to meet that in a dark alley, underwater or otherwise! LOL!
Dave Briggs :~)
Posted by: Dave Briggs | December 31, 2007 9:48 AM
Speaking of Tardigrades, see Disney's "Lilo and Stitch". Before Stitch 'disguises' itself by removing his extra set of limbs, it looks JUST like a tardigrade. :)
Posted by: Jonathan | January 2, 2008 5:15 AM