cmcclain
Posts by this author
April 11, 2007
Vulcanoctopus hydrothermalis (Mollusca: Cephalopoda: Octipodidae)
Octopus are one the most fascinating and intelligent of the invertebrates. Yet, little is known about their role in the deep sea, even less is known from methane seeps of hydrothermal vents! In fact, only one species has been…
April 8, 2007
Hope over at Benefits of Seawater suggests my original debunking of Original Quinton Marine Plasma was not "logical". First, who is 'Hope'? She is a freelance writer who is paid by Quinton to generate an internet buzz.
Just started up two blogs for a new client on the benefits of…
April 6, 2007
Sue Falconberg over at the American Chronicle lambastes scientists in her writeup Anderson Cooper.
...the reporters back home showed footage, at the tail end of the night, of a giant squid recently yanked out of its home and killed for 'scientific reasons' and then the reporters joked about it…
April 5, 2007
Scanning electron microscope image (x 25000) of the coccosphere (Acanthoica acanthifera) collected in the North Atlantic. From the British Natural History Museum
April 5, 2007
Cortunix tagged me with a meme. To digress I am not a fan of the word meme or blog. Both make me sound like an internet geek which I am but don't want to necessarily convey to others. Why do I blog?
Communication is essential to science. Most scientists interpret this as communication with other…
April 4, 2007
Kevin's wonderful post on the Giant Isopod inspired me to post on a topic I have long pondered. Frequent readers of DSN know that I am fond of Sylvia Earle and the topic of body size. Honestly, it is not just body size is all matter of size related issues. A roadside trip can be quickly…
April 4, 2007
Greenpeace map suggesting that areas proposed for clousre by the NZ Seafood Industry are unfishable and thus not under threat.
Back in over a year ago the New Zealand Seafood Industry Council proposed the establishment of 30 Benthic Protection Areas (BPAs). The combined area of these would be…
April 4, 2007
Bathynomus giganteus (Arthropoda: Crustacea: Isopoda: Cirolanidae)
You know those cute little roly-poly bugs you found under rocks as a kid? You poke at them and they curl up into a little ball? Well, magnify that times 1000, take away the functional role of the eyes, head to the deep-sea and…
April 4, 2007
Ransom Myers' sister, Susan Myers, has started a blog Fans of Ram that has great information about his life and work.
April 3, 2007
At the high end of invertebrate intelligence is the almighty Cephalopods, but maybe an additional 512mb of free memory would help. Makes me want to learn Japanese over the weekend so I can decipher this page and order one.
April 3, 2007
Coming off an unbeaten road trip and with one of their star players frozen, it would have been easy for the Invertebrates to have a letdown against the lowly Photosynthesis. Instead, Invertebrates continued its strong play and rallied to win in the final moments its third straight game - 260th of…
March 31, 2007
Several news agencies are reporting today about an interesting phenomenon occurring in the Mississippi River.
The Memphis Flyer reports...
In the last two years hurricanes have ravaged the Gulf coast causing millions of dollars of damage to property and the loss of numerous lives. More…
March 30, 2007
[The Theme from Chariots of Fire playing]
Craig: From 64 to 32 and now to the Sweet 16. In today's post, we follow the journeys of two strong teams, Invertebrates and Photosynthesis as they navigated the ranks of the Octopus Bracket to face off in the 3rd round of the Spring Science Showdown (S3…
March 29, 2007
A "living fossil" Desmophyllum, a solitary coral aged to 3000 years.
March 29, 2007
"My son loves hammerheads..I'd like to make sure they are around when he grows up." -R.A. Myers
Ransom A. Myers passed away this previous Tuesday. Coincidently, a reader recently asked how we know that shark populations are declining and what the affect this decline is on other marine…
March 29, 2007
An expedition to the 9N Overlapping Spreading Center that is going on right now! You can catch daily dispatches from Laura Preston, an educator from UNH/Salem High School in New Hampshire.
For a marine geologist, this sonar system helps us realize a fantasy - pulling the plug on the ocean and…
March 29, 2007
How to video on Giant Squid preparation from the British Natural History Museum. This is the same individual I had the pleasure to visit last year. Click on either image to view a larger version.
photos: Craig R. McClain (2006)
March 27, 2007
Alviniconcha hessleri (Mollusca: Mesogastropoda: Provannidae)
When you think of hydrothermal vents, what comes to mind first? Is it the gushing black smoke out of a chimney? Perhaps you envision the enormous tubeworms with their red velvety plumes sticking out of their white tubes. Some may…
March 26, 2007
Sunday night, cocktail in hand, I prepared myself for an anticipated 3 hours of glorious nature footage. The flash website, the advertisement at the top of this very webpage, and Peter Etnoyer managed to bolster my fervor for Planet Earth. Less than a year ago, at the Deep-Sea Biology Symposium,…
March 24, 2007
In case you missed Peter and I discussing this program, here is another reminder. DEEP OCEAN AIRS TOMORROW NIGHT ON THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL. The series is from the BBC. Last year at a deep-sea meeting a BBC representative presented some of the video. Even in its unformatted state, it was truly…
March 23, 2007
Today's Saipan Tribune reports on the growing support among Pacific Islands to ban bottom trawling. Palau President Remengassau has been the lead on rallying support for such measures.
During the {Pacific Islands Executive Chief] summit, Remengasau reported that the Pacific Islands Forum and…
March 23, 2007
Both Pictures from Igenious.org.uk
James Six (1731-1793) retired early from business to devote himself to the natural sciences. He is best known for the invention of the self-registering thermometer, first designed in 1780, which recorded the maximum and minimum temperatures reached. It was…
March 21, 2007
The University of Chicago Press just launched a Flash Website, complete with gallery, for The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss by Claire Nouvian. Fantastic site with some of the same pictures as in the book.
March 21, 2007
Perspective view of East Pacific Rise and the seismic velocity structure of the underlying mantle. Surprisingly, regions of magma storage in the mantle (shown as orange and red colors) are in many places not centered beneath the plate plate boundary. Courtesy Douglas Toomey
[Note from…
March 21, 2007
Perhaps unsurprisingly DSN's pick for Science Bracket Smackdown, Team Invertebrate demolished 9th seeded Surgeons with a final score of 158-37. Through an amazing dorsal heart defense initiated by the arthropods the Invertebrates quickly took an early lead. The open circulatory offense also proved…
March 20, 2007
Coming into the Spring Science Bracket Showdown, the pundits pegged the Invertebrates as the most powerful in the field. Coach Bufo when asked about Team Vertebrates chances stated "We're a powerhouse dominated by charismatic megafauna! We're unstoppable!" But stop them is exactly what top…
March 19, 2007
You can now see a life-size whale on the world wide web. That's not a typo either!
March 19, 2007
So I know what you are asking? Craig, when I am out collecting deep-sea corals what protocols should I use? Your in luck! A considerable amount of Peter's time has been to compile Deep Sea Coral Collection protocols which is "designed to build international capacity to document deep-sea coral…