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Mysterious Lights
September 24 , 2008
Sailors on the sea have long told stories of oceans that glow bright as day during the dead of night. For many years, such stories were counted as mere folk lore, along the lines of mermaids and sea dragons. Even Jules Verne recounted the sight in the classic "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."
But now, the sight has been captured by scientists, even tough they really can’t explain what’s happening. Satellites have provided the first pictures of a milky sea and given scientists hope in learning more about the phenomenon.
The images from the Indian Ocean encompass an area about the size of
Connecticut , glowing three nights in a row. The glow was also spotted from a ship in the area.
"The circumstances under which milky seas form is almost entirely unknown," says Steven Miller, a Naval Research Laboratory scientist who led the space-based discovery. "Even the source for the light emission is under debate."
Scientists suspect bioluminescent bacteria are behind the glow. Such creatures produce a continuous glow, rather than the brief, bright flashes of light produced by "dinoflagellate" organims that are seen more commonly lighting up ship wakes and breaking waves.
"The problem with the bacteria hypothesis is that an extremely high concentration of bacteria must exist before they begin to produce light," Miller told LiveScience. "But what could possibly support the occurrence of such a large population?"
One idea, put forward by the lone research vessel to ever encounter a milky sea, is that the bacteria are not free-living, but instead are living off some local supporting "substrate."
The event occurred in 1995 and was finally analyzed and reported last week in the Proceedings of the
National
Academy of Sciences.
The mystery highlights how little scientists know about the ocean. Milky seas appear to be most prevalent in the Indian Ocean, where there are many trade routes, and near .
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Solar Powered Boat
September 24 , 2008
In this day and age of ‘green is better’ and emphasis on alternate energy sources, a solar powered boat out of is making waves! It may be slow, and you won’t get too far, but the designers and builders of the Serpentine Solar Shuttle claim it is the most advanced passenger ferry in the water! It’s maiden voyage was in London’s
Hyde Park in the lake.
At a breakneck speed of roughly 5 miles per hour (hold on to those hats!!!) it’s not exactly made for speed, but with the ability to carry up to 42 passengers, future designs are being created for a faster version that can carry more.
Beginning Saturday, operators will offer one-way tickets for the half-mile cruise at $2.75, per child and $5.50 for adults.
"This is the most technologically advanced shuttle in the world right now," said designer Christoph Behling, who also designed the world's largest solar boat in
Hamburg, .
"It is made of entirely stainless steel which means it never gets old. It will pave the way for future boats and trains and other means of transportation," Behling said.
The Serpentine Shuttle has 27 solar panels on its roof, and the energy generated by the sun is enough to keep the boat running for a distance of 82 miles (give or take). The design of the vessel makes it possible to sail even on overcast days. Saving nearly 5,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, the boat is the first of its kind.
When the ferry is idle, surplus electricity generated by the solar panels will be fed back into the national transmission network.
Designers are working on a 300-passenger solar-powered ferry to run on the
Thames , and hopes it could be ready in 2008. A 60-passenger solar-powered train for London's
Battersea
Park is also in the works.
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The Dying Ocean
September 09 , 2008
Black Sea waves
The oceans are full of life, right? So why are ‘Dead Zones’ becoming more and more prolific?
Areas known as ‘oceanic dead zones’ which are areas where marine life cannot survive have steadily increased over the past five decades and now include 400 coastal areas worldwide.
The number of these areas, in which aquatic ecosystems disappear due to lack of oxygen in the water, have "approximately doubled each decade since the 1960s," according to a study in the journal Science.
"The formation of dead zones has been exacerbated by the increase in (pollution) ... fueled by riverine runoff of fertilizers and the burning of fossil fuels," the study said.
The phenomenon, called eutrophication, is caused by industrial pollution as well as runoff of water containing phosphates and nitrates into the oceans.
Oceans react to the boost in pollution by growing more algae and vegetation in coastal areas. When the algae dies and sinks to the bottom, it decreases the amount of oxygen available in the bottom waters, a process called hypoxia, eventually wiping out fish and crustaceans that live there, as well as the foods they eat.
Dead zones tend to creep up in calm waters that see lower water exchange, but have more recently been affecting major fishery areas in the Baltic, Kattegat, and
Black
Seas as well as the Gulf of Mexico and
East China Sea , the study said.
The researchers said the expansion of dead zones in these areas threatens commercial fishing and shrimping near the coastlines.
Global warming is also likely to increase oceanic dead zones by increasing temperature, causing changes in rainfall patterns and changing discharges of fresh water and nutrients into the oceans.
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