cmcclain | January 30, 2008...and put on my makeup I won't have to feel guilty about it*. At the continued pestering of Oceana both Unilever and L'Oreal have promised to stop using shark liver oil, also known as squalene, in their cosmetic products.
*You can figure out if I am joking or not
petnoyer | January 30, 2008
Aaaarh. The bottom fell out of my Scienceblogs coffee mug today! Don't fear, ya' scurvies. No one was hurt. For those so inclined, I provide a photo of the fracture and a brief analysis of the structural failure. You know, just for kicks. The details will of course be accompanied by fond reminiscence.
This was always a nice coffee mug because the handle stayed cool with hot liquids, even after it went through the microwave, which is something you can't say about every mug. Other favorite mugs from far away and special places like the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Burg Eltz in Germany can only…
cmcclain | January 29, 2008
This Sunday comes the second challenge! Do you remember what the first one was?
1a. Sign up at this post
1b. Keep reading DSN and participating in the Just One Thing Challenge
A quick additional request...please help spread the word on your blogs and websites (feel free to use the logo above)! So far we have 13 people signed up. Let's get 25 by Sunday.
1. Craig McClain
2. Kevin Zelnio
3. Peter Etnoyer
4. Sheril K.
5. Mike G
6. Farne
7. Jim Lemire
8. Kiki
9. Fish Guy Dave
10. CK
11. Karen James
12. Merisea
13. Keely
kevin z | January 29, 2008Dr. Van Dover was recently appointed the new director of the Duke University Marine Lab. Duke has put together an interesting article on her career and her research that is definitely worth reading. She's done a lot of amazing things, such as being the first female pilot of the Alvin submersible, and has been a prolific writer. I cite her work in almost every page of my dissertation. Below the fold is a video Duke produced asking Dr. Van Dover "What is it like in a submarine?"
cmcclain | January 28, 2008Much deliberation has occurred here behind the scenes at DSN about whether to air the following clip. After much debate we have decided to educate the public but let the viewers do so at their own risk. Note below the fold is the video and it is definitely NOT SAFE FOR WORK, because it includes profanity.
We the authors of DSN note we find it horrible that someone would ruin the beauty of nature by adding such childish obscenity to a nature documentary. We are only posting this as an example of how not to conduct public outreach. We also like the seastar sequence, but putting microphones…
cmcclain | January 28, 2008With three biologist on staff now our coverage tends to lean toward the biological. We do cover geology, technology, and the such but from our warped biological view. What we need around this joint is some more geology! Over at Clastic Detritus a graduate students pontificates about all rock and whatnot. His ongoing series Sea-Floor Sunday is one to keep reading. Number 9 covers the continental slope off Australia and "everybody's favorite topic" sediment transfer to the deep. Discussed is how near shore processes of sediment suspension and transfer are linked to slope processes to…
kevin z | January 28, 2008To boldy go where no man (or woman) has gone before...
Ok maybe we have been there, done that, but are doing it tomorrow? The Beagle Project is!
"In 2009, the bicentenary of Charles Darwin's birth we will launch a sailing replica of HMS Beagle. An icon of scientific progress, she will circumnavigate the globe in Darwin's wake, crewed by aspiring scientists and researchers. They will carry out original research both at sea and on land, updating Darwin's observations, breaking new scientific ground and relating the adventure of science to enthuse a new generation of young students."
This is an…
cmcclain | January 27, 2008George Bush this week declared war on sea mammals, officially adding whales to the dreaded Axis of Evil. The Bush administration stated whales are a threat to the American way of life, democracy, and of course freedom. Joking aside, Bush this week gave the official go ahead for the Navy to conduct sonar training off San Diego this week. The navy admits themselves that whales will be harmed by the exercise. This is occurring despite a recent win in the federal courts by environmental groups to restrict sonar use off the coast under the Coastal Zone Management Act. Bush simply issued an…
kevin z | January 26, 2008Got your attention? Good. Biodiversity is one of those words that gets thrown around a lot. Sometimes its meaningful, sometimes not. How does one measure biodiversity and what does it tell you about the ecosystem? In a compelling new paper, Danovaro et al. (2008) set out to understand how loss of biodiversity affects ecosystem processes in the earth's largest environment. But have we explored enough of the deep ocean to really get a handle on this problem?
Admittingly, no. The authors acknowledge this as well so why bother putting together a paper on the matter? The deep sea is possibly one…
cmcclain | January 26, 2008A trip to my local book store this morning was rewarded with an exceptional find, The Universe Below by Broad. I cannot wait to delve into this tasty treat. Broad reminds me of an often too forgotten concept, the deep sea is the largest of habitat on earth. Randomly place a point on our planet and it would be deep sea. In our daily activities so far removed from this environment, we begin to think all the earth is like our tiny, little corner. We begin to think this is all there is. Broad wonderfully places our lives and space into perspective with a simple diagram (recreated above).
By…
kevin z | January 26, 2008Arrgh! Hello thar ye Deep-Sea scurvy. My name is Kevin Zelnio and it is my great pleasure to be a part of the Deep Sea News team and a member of the ScienceBlogs network. I've read DSN for a while, before I knew what a blog was. I always thought it was a news website for the deep-sea. The inclusion of 'News' into the title of the blog is important. Craig and Peter feel like they have an obligation to report on the happenings of the deep-sea, often before they are made known in more traditional media outlets, and without regard to any specific scientific discipline. They have set strict…
petnoyer | January 25, 2008When I was invited to join Deep Sea News two years ago I must admit I hesitated. I took a deep breath and held it for like 45 seconds in a simulated free dive. Then, I said "yes, wow, what an amazing idea". Craig's passion for the deep-sea is obviously contagious. Who would have thought we could fill 5 pages a week with Deep Sea News?
Here we are 2 and a half years and almost a thousand posts later. Readership has increased by an order of magnitude, and we're bringing on a third guy. The addition of Kevin Zelnio to the Deep Sea News staff is a sign of growth in the blogosphere.
Like Craig…
cmcclain | January 25, 2008We are the onlyhottest blog on the deep sea! The saltiest marine blog! Nobody can top our skillz. But I told you before in 2008 we were going to be bigger and badder. Now the time has come. cue maniacal laughter
Some of the more observant of you will notice that we've added a new banner in rotation. Those of you mathematically inclined will note three ghost heads and not two in the banner. That third floating head belongs to none other than DSN's old whipping boy, Kevin Zelnio. Kevin is now officially blogging at DSN. Don't worry he will still be the whipping boy. Keys to the DSN…
cmcclain | January 24, 2008This picture seems timely as I long to return to the Big Island. It's a photo I took of a green sea turtle, Chelonia mydas that I latter snorkeled with. Punaluu Beach Park on the east side of the island is popular beaching spot for C. mydas. Currently the species is listed by the IUCN and CITES as endangered. Juveniles, rarely encountered, are believed to spend their time in deep, pelagic waters feeding.
cmcclain | January 24, 2008I'm a huge Seinfeld fan and predictably this is my favorite episode. The second clip is a wonderful animated version of the same episode.
petnoyer | January 24, 2008The New York Times has a nice investigative piece on mercury levels in your local urban sushi parlors that briefly restored my faith in mainstream science journalism. The Times performed what you might call a guerilla science action, hiring a pair of local professors to help to analyze bluefin tuna samples from 20 sushi places around Manhattan. Every city should do this. It's a great way to support local science labs, buying them lunch and funding research at the same time.
Researchers from Rutgers and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School found 5 of the 20 metropolitan restaurants serve tuna…
cmcclain | January 23, 20081960: The diving submersible Trieste descends to the floor of the Mariana Trench, the deepest known place on earth. via Wired
Some pictures from Kevin sent along awhile ago from a "old" submersible chapter from Hill's The Sea from 1963. The chapter itself is authored by Dietz and covers bathyscaphs and other deep submerisbles for oceanographic research. You can read and see more of the Trieste here. Also check out Sphere and Cheerios & Alvin
cmcclain | January 22, 2008Fig. 1 from Miya et al.
It's easy to be a new species, even easy to be a new genus. You got to be just a little different. Yes...yes...we are all unique and special snowflakes. But to get your own order, you got to be really different. If you are the taxonomist erecting a new order, you got have big cojones and strong evidence.
Currently there are about 70 odd fish orders. Scratch that...70 odd plus one. Miya et al. erect a new order based on both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA. The new order centers on the monotypic family (only one species in the family) Stylephoridae. The single…
petnoyer | January 22, 2008Marine sciences were in full effect at the 2008 North Carolina Scienceblogging Conference this past weekend at the Sigma Xi building in Research Triangle Park. Kevin Zelnio of the Other 95% headed up a session on real-time blogging in the marine sciences. The session included Karen James of the Beagle Project; Rick MacPherson of Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea lice, and Sunsets; Jason Robertshaw of Cephalopodcast, and me as Deep Sea News representative. The session was fantastic, very interactive. Most of the audience was well-versed in the subject of blogging the marine sciences, typical of an "un-…
cmcclain | January 21, 2008You may remember Peter's sobering post on the Plastic Expanding Inevitable, a wonderful part of the Pacific where plastic particles outnumber plankton. According to a post at the Oyster's Garter, a great joint blog between a journalist and a marine biologist, the ORV Alguita has set off on a new journey to the North Pacific Gyre to examine marine debris. Algalita Marine Research Foundation has a blog for the trip and school-themed blog to boot. Miriam comments about the size of the A-frame. Hey, it's not the size that matters it's how you trawl. Maybe I'm spoiled but I can't imagine…