cmcclain
Posts by this author
January 2, 2007
From The Daily Review...
It is amazing what you find lying around the bottom of the ocean, as St. Mary's College professor Douglas Long has discovered. Long was part of a team of researchers who this year identified two new species of deep-sea fishes, unusual-looking sharks that broke off on their…
January 2, 2007
Fox News discusses the years best in science. I was excited because two of these are deep-sea related, the Yeti Crab and the recent capture of the Architeuthis. DSN was there when these stories cracked bringing you "a fair and balanced coverage". Most of these findings are old news and were…
January 2, 2007
Biochemcial adaptations to temperature and pressure are essential for organisms to exploit the deep sea. The prominent physiologist, George Somero, whose work has repetitively inspired and defined several sub-disciplines of biology, published a review of these adaptations in 1992. Here I largely…
December 30, 2006
Go welcome Aardvarckology Ardvoloyg Arrdvarkeology Aardvarchaeology. Try not to let the eating of our cephalopod brethren upset you.
December 30, 2006
Frank A. brought my attention to this video on Marie Tharpe at the New York Times.
Other scientists dismissed her work as "girl talk," but she refused to back down -- and changed the way we see the planet.
You can also read more about her here. In the words of the late James Brown, "This is a man's…
December 30, 2006
A big welcome to Attleboro High School's AP Biology (I presume MA). There instructor, Mr. Lemire, linked to DSN from the course blog. Students please feel free to post comments and ask questions. Peter and I (and the other bloggers here at Sb) will be happy to answer your questions. For Peter…
December 29, 2006
Urged by a reader and previous buzz, I finally managed to watch the Calamari Wrestler. The movie is an over-the-top satire of Rocky with a Star Wars twist finish. Fortunately it is much better than the festering heap of movie, Rocky XXXIV. The plot is the tale of a wrestler and son of a geisha…
December 28, 2006
The first new 25 Things at Sb! So grab a cup-o-joe and read on!
The extremes of the physical deep-sea environment (temperature, pressure, and lack of light, low food) are more than a challenge for deep-sea organisms. Unfortunately, there is one more-disturbance.
In ecology, hypotheses for how…
December 28, 2006
Dolphins & silly little monkeys...thier smatter than you think. Actually...dolphins are dangerous and monkeys throw poo. Luckily, the latest addittion to Sb, Developing Intelligence, has a handle on intelligence. I guess I won't expect too many post on the GOP or "Intelligent" Design.
December 28, 2006
The BBC higlights a January expedition of Southampton Oceanographic Centre's (SOC) ROV Isis to the Antarctic. The project is to explore the sediment and organisms of Marguerite Bay. SOC aquired Isis in 2003 from a colloboration with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI). Isis is largely…
December 27, 2006
Peter McGrath, one of the project's founders, brought my attention to the Beagle Project. The goal is to build a replica of the Beagle and sail it in 2009 along Darwin and Fitzroy's original route. The mission appears to be threefold: public outreach, education, and science. One of the…
December 26, 2006
I love being out to sea, 2 months on a research vessel is heaven. I eagerly read about projects like Freedom Ship and Trilobis and await the days I can shed my terrestrial dwelling. I tried to convince my wife that we should live in an houseboat...we still live on land. With forward politics and…
December 25, 2006
You may remember from high school or college chemistry that temperature affects the rate of chemical reactions. A reaction between two molecules can only occur if those two molecules collide with sufficient energy (collision theory). Heating causes molecules to gain energy, increasing their…
December 24, 2006
At one of this holiday's events, someone asked when I knew I wanted to be a marine biologist. It was college when I realized I could make a living by 'playing' in the ocean. However, I have always wanted to explore new frontiers both intellectually and physically. A quote from my favorite movie…
December 24, 2006
The series continues! Chris Mah and Peter's recent and wonderful posts have goaded me into next segment of the 25 Things You Should Know About The Deep Sea (the last post in this series links to all the previous). The beginnings of deep-sea science in the late 1800's was dominated by two ideas…
December 23, 2006
I personally love doing this series because it allows me to explore and solidify a variety of ideas I mull over on daily basis. Previously in this series I have discussed the difficulty of sampling, the variety of habitats, linkages to the oceans surface, body size, conservation, undiscovered…
December 22, 2006
How separated is Architeuthis and Kevin Bacon you ask?
As you might remember although the Giant Squid had some cameos in previous B movies, it really was not until 1954 in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea that Mr. G. Squid hit the big time. In this movie, the Giant Squid shared the screen with Kirk…
December 22, 2006
I declare today all Kraken day! I bet Kevin Bacon is happy. In case you have not got your fill, browse these old post for fun.
Kraken Attack in Virginia
Known and documented attacks of the Kraken.
Giant Squid Popsicles
New Specimen of Giant Squid From Fishing Nets
Beg Your Pardon?
Father, Son…
December 22, 2006
The new squid diva is 24ft long. How does she measure up? I just happend to have data setting on my computer to address that issue. Don't ask...I lay awake a night thinking about the body size of marine organisms. Below is a histogram of every documented Architeuthis capture before 1997 (data are…
December 22, 2006
PZ beat me to the punch (I really think he should be penalized for the time zone difference). Japanese researchers, the same group that caught the photographs in 2004, have filmed a live giant squid. The research team, led by Tsunemi Kubodera, videotaped the giant squid at the surface as they…
December 22, 2006
Besides the typical divisions we make for deep-sea habitats based on depth, it is important to note that the deep sea is not a homogenous landscape. Rather a variety of unique habitats, each with a specialized set of organisms, create a mosaic across the seafloor.
1. Soft-bottom benthos is…
December 22, 2006
To say sampling an environment covered by 1000's of meters of water is difficult would be an understandment. Sampling requires creativity, technology, and luck (mostly the latter). Equipment must be designed to withstand both pressure and saltwater. Both design, deployment, and maintenance…
December 21, 2006
Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of Carl Sagan's death (check out Joel Schlosberg's Carl Sagan Memorial Blog-a-Thon). He was brilliant at motivating the passions of the public about the unexplored. In some sense Peter and I are trying to follow in his large footsteps to enspire this same…
December 21, 2006
From Science Online...
In April 2006, Maya Tolstoy, a geophysicist at Columbia University, received some good news and some bad news during a research expedition at sea. The submarine volcano that she and her colleague Felix Waldhauser had been monitoring for years had recently erupted. This was…
December 21, 2006
Light does not reach the deep-sea floor. This precludes photosynthesis and thus primary production (except in chemosynthetic communities like hydrothermal vents and methane seeps). The lack of primary production on the deep-sea floor results in these communities being intimately coupled to the…
December 20, 2006
Let's face it Peter Etnoyer is a handsome devil. With my bald head and his underwear model looks we might just be the sexiest bloggers at Sb. Peter is also humble and would never sing his own praises. Thats why I didn't know that our very own Petey is the star of several wonderful videos over…
December 20, 2006
In one of the earliest papers on the deep-sea fauna, Mosely (1880, p.593) noted, "Some animals appear to be dwarfed by deep-sea conditions." Almost a century later, Hessler (1974) noted that "individuals of certain taxa are routinely so small that they are of meiofaunal size." Thiel (1975, p. 593…
December 19, 2006
In the first wave attack ordered by the Squid Overlords, deep-sea microbes will invade the air. As you already know the second wave attack will be flesh eating sponges. Image from Octopus Pulp
December 19, 2006
Unlike other marine environments, the threats to the deep sea and it species are relatively new. Only recently has it been both economically and technologically feasible to exploit this environment. This means we have the unique opportunity to instigate conservation policy at the beginning, before…
December 18, 2006
I couldn't resist the invitation from PZ, Afarensis, and John. I actually look much better in an elf costume than this. Don't ask.