It Came From the Sea

BREAKING NEWS FROM TWO WEEKS AGO: Where did all those Alaskan snow crabs go? Some say climate change, others say UFOs, can science ever really know?

And what all these eels? We know they end up in European rivers as adults, but no one has ever seen two eels in the wild boning down UNTIL NOW.

More at 11.

References:

https://www.livescience.com/billions-snow-crabs-vanish-from-bering-sea

https://twitter.com/Unpop_Science/status/1581660268555251712

https://peer.org/alaska-red-king-crab-dethroned-by-scientific-fraud/

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-track-eels-to-their-ocean-breeding-grounds-in-world-first

https://www.livescience.com/47333-155-year-old-eel.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eel_life_history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brantevik_Eel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_eel#Life_history

https://www.embrc.eu/newsroom/news/ernst-johannes-schmidt-detective-solved-eel-question-little-bit-help-good-carlsberg

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ancient-mystery-of-european-eel-migration-unravelled-to-help-combat-decline-of-critically-endangered-species

Remember when we talked about deep ocean circulation? Well, today we're going to talk about how one determined nerd with a bachelor's in Astronomy was the first person to figure out what was going on down there. Henry Stommel solved an ocean mystery, using math, decades before data would exist to support this prediction, and he didn't even have a PhD.

Sources:

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/oceandepth.html

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_currents/05conveyor2.html

https://stommel100.whoi.edu/background/

Finishing out Ch. 1 of Dr. Naomi Oreskes 'Science on a Mission' we discuss how the petty rivalries and perceived slights of the previous episode would level up from workplace tension to matters of national security for Harald Sverdrup. Also, we find out Roger Revelle was a babe.

Resources:

Oreskes, Naomi. Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don’t Know About the Ocean. 2021. Chicago University Press.

https://svenhedinfoundation.org/biography/sven-hedin-biography/

For humans, gender and sex expression are complicated and intensely personal parts of our identity and understanding of self. For a lot of fish, it's more of a vibe.

Happy Pride <3

Resources:

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep35461

https://evolution.berkeley.edu/fisheye-view-tree-of-life/gender-bending-fish/

https://marinemadness.blog/2020/02/04/parrotfish-the-gender-fluid-narcoleptics-that-poop-out-beaches/

https://www.karger.com/Article/Fulltext/449297

In the first chapter of Dr. Naomi Oreskes Science on a Mission we are introduced to some of the most iconic names and places in Ocean Science lore. Today, we're looking at pre-WWII oceanography to get a feel for where we started and how we get to a future that sees the US Navy as the biggest source of funding for ocean research in the middle of the 1900s. We'll also be getting a first look at how all that office drama you hate so much somehow looks even dumber when it's coming from accredited science researchers.

References:

Oreskes, Naomi. Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don’t Know About the Ocean. 2022. University of Chicago Press.

https://scripps.ucsd.edu/about/history

https://antarctic-logistics.com/2010/08/28/harald-sverdrup/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-020-0866-0

A link to the slides can be found on our Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/fromtheseapod

With the blessing of its author, Dr. Naomi Oreskes, Sarah and Sam will be spending some time digging into Science on a Mission. We'll be exploring ocean science in the cold war and how military funding (particularly from the US Navy) impacted the science that was being done and the questions that were being asked.

Feel free to find a copy and read along with us, or stick around to listen and learn as we dive into future chapters.

Buy it here:

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo59258933.html

No slides or notes this week as we're just talking about Dr. Oreskes and going through the intro.

Last time we learned that neuston exist and are grossly under appreciated. Today, we take a closer look at a few of these floating friends and ask that age old question: Can I Lick This? Will I Die?

Sources:

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/portuguese-man-o-war.html

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/portuguese-man-of-war

https://aquarium.org/tag/velella-velella/

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/marine/colonial-creatures/wind-sailor

http://sio-legacy.ucsd.edu/zooplanktonguide/species/velella-velella

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJGO_bSsR3w

https://www.jellywatch.org/velella

https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2020/10/05/paper-nautilus/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/argonaut

https://oceana.org/marine-life/blue-glaucus/

https://www.americanoceans.org/species/blue-glaucus/

https://academic.oup.com/jcb/article/24/4/558/2670390

Sometimes the most interesting and bizarre life is hiding right in front of us. Sam and I are back to learn about the creatures that survive, and dare we say thrive, in the most visible and least studied part of our oceans.

Research for this episode by me, Sarah @barnacle_btch

Production for this episode by the lovely Sarah @hikkikonormie

Sources:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/01/ocean-cleanup-project-could-destroy-neuston/580693/

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31822023868631;view=1up;seq=320

https://www.marineinsight.com/environment/what-does-the-term-ocean-biome-means/

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001046

H.G. Marshall, M.I. Gladyshev, Neuston in Aquatic Ecosystems, Editor(s): Gene E. Likens,Encyclopedia of Inland Waters,Academic Press,2009,Pages 97-102,ISBN9780123706263,https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-012370626-3.00220-9.

https://theoceancleanup.com/

You know how plate tectonics are definitely real and the oceans are full of seamounts and shit? Yeah, well, no one else did until 1959.

Josie from A Hill to Die On joins Sarah to talk about Marie Tharp and how she provided pivotal insight into the seafloor morphology and seafloor mapping that allowed scientists to bring their understanding of how the Earth works into the 20th century.

Resources:

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/marie-tharp-maps-plate-tectonics-seafloor-cartography

https://www.whoi.edu/who-we-are/about-us/people/awards-recognition/mary-sears-women-pioneers-in-oceanography-award/award-recipients/marie-tharp-biography/

https://www.science.org/content/article/once-honored-racist-ocean-science-pioneer-now-rejected

https://biography.yourdictionary.com/marie-tharp

https://theconversation.com/marie-tharp-pioneered-mapping-the-bottom-of-the-ocean-6-decades-ago-scientists-are-still-learning-about-earths-last-frontier-142451

https://www.whoi.edu/news-insights/content/marie-tharp/

Did you miss us? Sarah and Sam are back to take things slow and kick off a new year by talking about sea ice, land ice, fast ice that doesn't actually go anywhere, and also mushrooms a bit. Why not.

References:

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/SeaIce

https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/seaice/characteristics/formation.html

https://www.whoi.edu/know-your-ocean/ocean-topics/polar-research/sea-ice/sea-ice-glossary/

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/iceberg.html

https://www.britannica.com/story/whats-the-difference-between-a-glacier-and-an-ice-floe

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/sea-ice-climate.html

https://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/09/frozen-ice-balls-of-lake-michigan-and.html