Incubating in the freezing cold depths

The most interesting thing I learned today is on way that researchers learn about little life forms taking up carbon. All living things need some carbon to build their little bodies and shells, and the ones in the ocean get it from the carbon dissolved in the water around them. Some scientists are curious how fast they take up the carbon, or more specifically, how fast they'd take it up if there was plenty around. But of course the little guys can't be observed up here - bringing them up to such a bright and pressure-less world would certainly alter their behavior. So here's my understanding of what the scientists do:

They collect some water at depth, bring it to the surface and inject it with a special isotope of carbon (Carbon-14, actually, although here is isn't being used for its more famous purpose of dating things), and then lower it back down to its home depth. The tiny organisms can't tell Carbon-14 from any other carbon*, so they take some of it up into their little bodies. When the samples are brought back up (after 12 or 24 hours), some careful filtering, coupled with the fact that C-14 is radioactive, allows the scientists to figure out how much of the added C-14 is still floating free, and how much has been taken up by the little bugs.

*This is a little bit of a lie - the organisms treat different types of carbon slightly differently, but the scientists think they have a handle on that and can correct for it.

I also watched John (a CFC expert from UW) handle the glass syringes he uses to sample water. Imagine a large-scale syringe (perhaps to give a horse an injection?) where both parts are glass. It's very carefully made to ensure that seal, as you can imagine. I am not eager to touch one - I can't handle wine glasses in my stable kitchen - those delicate things on a bobbing ship seem like an accident waiting to happen. Luckily, John's fingers are not as buttery as mine.

Fridays are pizza dinners and they had a wide variety in the mess. Tomorrow, though, is a special July 4 celebration with a BBQ picnic in the open air. Silly, but everyone's really looking forward to it.

Aloha,
Patricia