cmcclain
Posts by this author
May 5, 2008
When a scientist is writing a scientific paper we look for that one quintessential figure that tells the whole story. Other figures are ancillary to fill in the specifics but the 'cardinal figure' is where all the meat of the paper is distilled to one remarkable graph. A senior scientist once told…
May 5, 2008
Take a few moments to let the size of the Colossal Squid really sink in
In my absence for a body size evolution workshop and during Peter's coral week spectacular the media took the opportunity to spread disinformation about my favorite phyla-Mollusca. To bring you up to speed, a crack team of…
May 4, 2008
I would like to say I have never used any of these statements in my papers but...
Statement
Really means
It has long been known...
I haven't bothered to look up the reference.
It is thought that...
I think so.
It is generally thought that...
A couple of other people think so,…
May 1, 2008
Coral spawning occurs when multiple corals release their gametes at the same moment. The underwater love fests are triggered by the moon, temperature, and mood music (Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe). All this sexual activity underwater can trigger other organisms to join in. Basically little…
April 30, 2008
A deep-sea coral was collected at ~700m in the north-west Hawaiin islands. Back in lab, the lights were turned off and the scientists were excited to see how brightly the coral bioluminesced. Coral samples were collected by Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL) and the Pisces V submersible
April 29, 2008
Worldwide, corals generate $9.6 billion per year in money
April 29, 2008
Cephalopodcast points to the Florida Center for Instructional Technology website that has several beautiful illustrations for education use. Preeetttttyyyy.
April 28, 2008
Bubblegum trees and red tree coral from Georges Bank Nova Scotia.
April 27, 2008
A yellow stony coral courtesy "Mountains in the Sea" scientific party, NOAA, and the Institute for Exploration via Oceanus
April 27, 2008
Given the comments on the last post, I thought it time to give almost-a-religion-major Craig a work out.
The origin of the word coral is traced to Greek korllion and Latin coralium probably both derived from the early Hebrew goral meaning "small pebble". In the Torah goral occurs in reference to…
April 24, 2008
Reading over my morning blogs, Rick at MBSL&S reports news that is going to make Craig extremely cranky for the rest of weekend (and just plained pissed afterwards). In the backass wisdom that is the CNMI Legislature, they have adopted a resolution opposing the proposed Northern Islands Marine…
April 24, 2008
Figures. I am out of town for a week and someone feels the need to generate some gossip about me. The latest heinous character assassination comes from Rick at MBSL&S claiming that I broke MBARI's beloved Western Flyer. To bring you up to speed you can read this post. Now I whole heartedly…
April 16, 2008
The good news is...more ocean!
Svetlana Jevrejeva of the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, UK, says a new, more accurate reconstruction of sea levels over the past 2000 years suggests that the prediction of a an 18-59 centimetre rise by 2100 made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is…
April 14, 2008
The world below the brine,
Forests at the bottom of the sea, the branches and leaves,
Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds, the thick tangle openings, and pink turf,
Different colors, pale gray and green, purple, white, and gold, the play of light through the water,
Dumb swimmers…
April 14, 2008
The unexpected warmth this weekend made diving in the cold Monterey waters just a little more tolerable. Jim on the other hand believes 50 degrees, windy, and drizzly is a reason to load up the car and head to the beach with the kids. What do you expect of someone with questionable invertebrate…
April 11, 2008
Probably, in response to all the trash talk I've been dishing out, pontificating on the superiority of Molluks to echinoderms, Dr. Echinoderm himself started a blog. DSN has featured Chris Mah at least a few times in the past. Chris's new venture, Echinoblog, will be "an ongoing venue for…
April 11, 2008
A Blob Sculpin (Psychrolutes phrictus) from Davidson Seamount. Image from MBARI.
April 10, 2008
Jeff Vrabel discusses our octopod brethrenWhen possible, I like to keep close tabs on the world of octopuses, for two reasons: 1. Everybody has their hobbies, mine just involves cephalopod mollusks and don't you judge me, and 2. I often get the feeling that they're plotting something.
He moves on…
April 10, 2008
So obviously this challenge is easier for some. But don't hesitate to be creative! CK and MikeG have it easy. As CK notes this is a "photo on the walk back from lunch today. Don't hate us because we work here... (note this is one of our crappy beaches, so as not to make people up north or inland…
April 8, 2008
I hope everyone has completed (or will very soon) the last challenge. I myself finally built up the nerve to brave the cold water of Monterey to enjoy the local subtidal life. As a birthday present, I decided to pursue my dive master master and thus have been spending a lot of my time in the…
April 6, 2008
Several years ago as a young graduate student I was privy to gossip about a supposed site near Puerto Rico where pharmaceutical waste was dumped in the ocean. A senior scientist in my field told me that antibiotics in the waste killed off most of the natural microbes occurring in the water column…
April 6, 2008
I am so f'n excited that we funded two Donor's Choose projects with the last challenge. This week's challenge is more recreational than work. This week's challenge is is to enjoy the ocean. We are going to foster our connection with the ocean. Spring is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere and…
April 6, 2008
Adrian Glover, deep-sea scientist and polychaete expert, is live blogging his experience aboard the RRS James Clark Ross in Antarctica. Posts will cover the expedition with occasional rants about his research including that on whale falls communities. I have to say the British know how to…
April 6, 2008
The rights to name an Osedax species is up for grabs for $25,000.To set the prices, Scripps researchers considered several factors, including rarity, the species' importance to science and how expensive and difficult it was to collect. Also for $25,000, one's name can be on a deep sea worm…
April 3, 2008
The structure of the gastropod shell forms a logarithmic spiral first described by Descartes and later by Bernoulli. Good ol' Jakob called it the "marvelous sprial" or the Spira mirabilis. Those who believe in crystals also believe the logarithmic spiral is part of the "sacred geometry". Nothing…
April 3, 2008
Been awhile since we talked about Mollusks here at DSN. A couple of Friday movies to rectify that problem. The first one not so serious...the second serious (and in high res).
April 3, 2008
John Hocevar visited MBARI yesterday discussing Greenpeace's research on canyons in the Bering Sea. We've discussed this research before but a followup is worthy of another post. Greenpeace has been trying to convince the powers that be to protect deep-sea diversity from fisheries practices.…
April 2, 2008
If you can tolerate the obvious Echino-bias, personally it makes me want to puke, the latest Circus of the Spineless is up over at from Archaea to Zeaxanthol. Word on the street is that all Mollusk contributions were deleted.
In a very unsurprising post from I'm A Chordata, Urochordata!, there is…
April 1, 2008
Why Craig? Why Craig would you be posting about buses?Monterey police are investigating to find out how an empty tourist bus managed to roll away from its parking spot Saturday afternoon and crash into the front wall of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.The 40-foot Coach USA bus rolled downhill on David…