TheGoddess.ca

One of my secret loves is learning about the ocean.  Knowing that there is a place so close to home about which we know so little (we know more about the surface of the moon than the deep ocean floor) is enticing.  And deep sea life is alien- tiny creatures hiding inside metre-wide filters of mucus, long floating scraps of jelly with myriad stomachs, fish which use lit lures to capture prey …  I am fascinated.  

All this to say that when I found out that one of the pre-conferences at BLC this year was to be held at Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute, I was crazy excited.  The subject focus was global warming, but that didn’t matter.  To be in one of the foremost ocean research facilities in the world was something I couldn’t pass up.

The day began with an address on global climate change which highlighted the evidence  but ended with the reminder that we have the knowledge and technology to mitigate and adapt to these changes.  Check out carbonfootprint.com, climatecounts.org, and climateproject.org for more information.

Next, I attended a session on the Encyclopedia of Life and bio-diversity at the aquarium, which was sadly closed for the day.  If you aren’t familiar with the Encyclopedia of Life, go there now.  This project plans, as one of its stated goals, to never be completed, as their aim is to catalogue all living things- plants, animals, fungi, bacteria…  The amazing thing about the EOL is that you can view the same article with simple information in layman’s terms or in full scientific mode, so elementary students and scientists may all make use of the same resource.  So neat.

The afternoon session was equally neat, with talks by two scientists who are both studying the very small- one studies micro-organisms and is doing longterm site surveys in the oceans at 13 sites around the world.  Microbes are the most abundant life form on earth, and there are more of them in your body than human cells by a full order of magnitude!  Check out http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/  and http://starcentral.mbl.edu/microscope/portal.php 

Microbial population data sets and tools which could be used in math and science classes are available at vamps.mbl.edu.

The second scientist shared her work studying phytoplankton, which are single celled organisms which utilize photosynthesis.  These organisms are hard to study seasonally, so her team built a portable version of the tool used to identify and use them, called a flow cytometer.   Water is sucked into the machine, run very slowly through a tube and past a laser which triggers a camera when it identifies living organisms.  The images are sent back to shore over a cable where they are analyzed.  This information is of interest to scientists but can also be of immediate practical use- for example, using this tool, they were able to identify an unusual toxic algae bloom off of the Texas coast and close the harvest to prevent any illness just days before a local oyster festival (the festival went on with oysters from another state, in case you were worried).  A tour of the lab was a great way to end the session and see two flow cytometers being built.

At the end of the day, there was time to wander Woods Hole, which is a pretty little spot (the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket departs from here) and enjoy a cup of tea and croissant from a great local coffee spot- thanks, Sam!  All in all, I loved every moment of the day, and my understanding of the oceans got a little deeper.