Why isn't there a NASA for the oceans?
Because, I suppose, the oceans are about life, while sending astronauts into space is simply a politically-correct way of perfecting a method to send a payload of bombs from one side of the world to another. Bang, you're dead. We win. You lose.
And yet, for all you Star Trek fans out there, what would we be saying and doing if we knew these creature were out there in space?
Would we not be advocating spending vast sums of money to explore and understand their way of life?
This video clip is from David Gallo's TED lecture on the work of Edith Widder at the Ocean Research & Conservation Association, and Roger Hanlon at the Marine Biological Lab.
This is the alien world off-shore that we continue to do too little to explore and understand. This is Star Trek ... on Earth.
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I think this would be the appropriate place to say that I deeply miss SeaQuest DSV. At least before the scientific writing team got replaced by hacks who couldn't cut it on X-Files.
ReplyDeleteChild Prodigies, Talking Dolphins, Roy Schneider on a ship that didn't get eaten by a giant shark. The stuff of pure gold.
Right you are. Out of sight out of mind is how we think of the deep.
ReplyDeleteWhat happens if we make it anoxic with global warming. We get what we deserve.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoxic_event
WH
And because by studying the ocean, politicians would have to admit to how poorly we've cared for our natural resources!
ReplyDelete