Ocean Archives - By John Roach

Microsoft’s undersea datacenter helps the hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine

John Roach — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 05:20:30 +0000

An experimental Microsoft datacenter submerged beneath the sea in Scotland’s Orkney Islands is processing workloads for a global, distributed computing project to understand the viral proteins that cause COVID-19 and design therapeutics to stop them. Distributed computing projects harness otherwise idle computer processing power to perform specific tasks for big science research. Ongoing projects include... Read more »

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Penguin Decline in Antarctica Linked With Climate Change

John Roach — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 05:20:27 +0000

Emperor penguins like it cold. Now, scientists have determined that the penguins’ susceptibility to climate change accounts for a dramatic decline in their number over the past half century. Over the past 50 years, the population of Antarctic emperor penguins has declined by 50 percent. Using the longest series of data available, researchers have shown... Read more »

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Group of Microbes Change Dissolved Gold to Solid

John Roach — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 05:20:26 +0000

Breathing is a rich experience for a group of unusual microbes that typically live deep beneath the sea. A microbiologist has found that microscopic organisms known as extremophiles breathe in dissolved gold and out comes the stuff of gold rings, necklaces, and earrings. The finding may explain how some gold ore deposits formed.

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Study Calls Into Question Quotas on Bluefin Tuna

John Roach — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 05:20:26 +0000

Not all Atlantic bluefin tuna are homebodies, scientists have learned. That means officials will have to rethink present management plans designed to prevent overfishing of the species, say the authors of a study that provides the best knowledge so far about the Atlantic bluefin’s migratory and spawning patterns.

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Rich Coral Reefs in Nutrient-Poor Water: Paradox Explained?

John Roach — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 05:20:25 +0000

Coral reefs are the rain forests of the oceans, teeming with a biological diversity that boggles the mind. Just how did such profusion of life come to thrive in crystal-clear–and thus nutrient poor–water? The question has eluded scientists since Charles Darwin took his famous voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle in the 1830s. Now, a team... Read more »

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Snapping Shrimp Stun Prey with Flashy Bang

John Roach — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 05:20:25 +0000

Among the fascinating creatures of the deep is a finger-size shrimp with an oversize claw–resembling a boxing glove–that it uses to stun its prey by snapping the claw shut. The snapping produces a sharp cracking sound. When colonies of the shrimp snap their claws, the cacophony is so intense that submarines can take advantage of... Read more »

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Newfound Octopus Impersonates Fish, Snakes

John Roach — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 05:20:25 +0000

Scientists have discovered what may be the ideal partner for a game of charades: A long-armed octopus that mimics poisonous creatures of the sea to avoid its predators. The clever creature is a brown octopus about two feet (60 centimeters) long that slithers along the muddy bottom of shallow, tropical estuaries where rivers spill into... Read more »

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U.S. Navy Looks to Bats, Dolphins for Better Sonar

John Roach — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 05:20:23 +0000

The ability of bats and dolphins to see at night and navigate the murky depths of the sea has long garnered the interest of the United States military. “We would like to emulate this capability for the quick, accurate detection and classification of buried mines,” said Harold Hawkins, a program manager with the biosonar program... Read more »

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Earth’s Bulging Waistline Blamed on Glaciers, Oceans

John Roach — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 05:20:23 +0000

Scientists have identified a few suspects behind the Earth’s sudden weight gain around the Equator: glacial melt and shifting ocean mass. “It is quite striking that we are able to explain the [change] with oceans and glaciers,” said Jean Dickey, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

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Do Fish Use Cold Current To Cross Tropics

John Roach — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 05:20:22 +0000

A big, old Patagonian toothfish found thousands of miles from home is bolstering the theory that large fish can take advantage of very deep, cold ocean waters to cross the tropics from one polar region to the other, swimming under warm water in which they ordinarily could not survive. The Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichtus eleginoides) is... Read more »

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