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.
Speaking of explosives, the nematocyst, or stinging cell, is one character that binds all cnidarians together. The nematocyst is "high tech cellular weaponry", the unparalleled apex of organelle specialization (Boero et al 2007), and the fastest known biological structure (Tardent, 1995). From ScienceDaily, the discharge kinetics of nematocysts in Hydra to be as short as 700 nanoseconds, creating an acceleration of up to 5,410,000 g. Take that mantis shrimp! A dramatization is above, with narration in French.
References:
1. Boero et al. 2007. Cnidarian milestones in metazoan evolution. Int Comp Bio 47:5.
2. Tardent, P. 1995. The cnidarian cnidocyte, a high-tech cellular weaponry. Bioessays
17(4): 351- 362.
Life Science
Technology
Comments
What wonderful photography and thank you so much for letting us hear the commentary in French, without some annoying voice-over ruining it!
Posted by: Hilary Minor | May 2, 2008 1:54 AM
Yeah, I like to let the French just wash over me. Reminds me of good old Jacques Cousteau- "c'est tent-a-coool"
Posted by: Peter | May 2, 2008 9:26 AM
Yeah, well the smooth French commentary aside, I know a set up when I see it - that poor bloody goby was pushed & prodded into a certian death....Save Gobies from Exploitation!!
Posted by: Andrew | May 2, 2008 7:08 PM