I have only seen a hydrothermal vent once, during Dive 73 aboard the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s Doc Ricketts. Unlike many deep-sea biologists, I…
View More A Journey to the Hottest Place on Earth: Hydrothermal Vents and the Resilient Pompeii Worm
The ROV Global Explorer reaches bottom at around 9:01 am, nearly 3.5 kilometers deep in the Gulf of Mexico. The 1.5-ton machine flies nimbly through…
View More Surviving Toxic Havens
Osedax worms, or the ‘bone eating’ worms are little soft sacks resembling snotty little flowers. The “bone devourer” is not quite accurate as the worms…
View More Introducing a New Species: My Namesake, a New Bone-Eating Worm
A post in a nightmare fueled lifestyle in a nightmarish hell scape…or a nice story of parasitic nematodes find in fishes at hydrothermal vents over…
View More Parasitism at Hydrothermal Vents
Connecting the oceans to land are numerous carbon highways. These conduits bring food from land to the ocean, supporting an abundance of life. Our group…
View More Alligators in the Abyss: Part 2
You may not realize it but the video below is the video you never knew you needed. But yeah you need it. The video is…
View More The Video of Giant Isopods Eating an Alligator in the Deep Sea You Must Watch!
This story starts with my research team currently deploying alligators* (3 total, 2 – 2.5 meters in length) at three different sites 2000 meters deep…
View More Alligators in the Abyss
Armed with the lab’s trusty Ultimaker 3-D printer, our imaginations, and endless source of inspiration that is deep-sea life and science, my lab and I…
View More 3-D Printing the Ulitmate Deep-Sea Christmas Tree
I love that the internet can bring together collectives of people working toward a common goal on something for the greater good. In beauty that…
View More Photoshop Battles with this Image of a Hydrothermal Vent Polychaete Worm
Nearly two miles below the ocean’s surface, we are building new worlds. You might be surprised that these ecospheres are wooden—little log cabins hosting a…
View More Wooden Homes on the Seafloor Yield Insights Into the Impacts of Climate Change