Survive
this! — Research scientist Julie Robidart
from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography gives the
thumbs-up sign as she models a U.S. Coast Guard-approved
survival suit on board the R/V Atlantis. Safety
training is one of the first orders of business for the
expedition team aboard R/V Atlantis. All crew
members receive a thorough briefing on man-overboard
and other emergency procedures.
Made of rubber-like neoprene, the survival suit — one size fits
all — weighs about 10 lbs. and is designed to provide upright
flotation, with face and head out of the water, as well as protection
in life-threatening cold water. Survival suits are brightly colored
and sport patches of reflective material to aid rescuers in spotting
survivors in the water. |
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| During Extreme 2003, researchers
launched "Artie," named after the person who designed and
built it -- Art Sundberg, the assistant director of marine
operations at the University of Delaware. The device's technical
name is RNA Later Preservation Chamber System. It has chambers
that are able to preserve organisms (like the Pompeii worm)
and their genetic coding when
they are brought to the surface. |
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| Art
Sundberg (left), after whom the "Artie" is named, and Dr.
Craig Cary examine one of the device's components. You
can see Art preparing for his first Alvin dive,
during Extreme
2001. Look through the rest of the page to see what
happened to him during his Alvin initiation rite! |
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| The
Large Volume Water Sampler (LVWS) was
first deployed during Extreme 2001 to collect large volumes
of vent water (and hopefully, viruses). It was lost during
the expedition! A new LVWS was deployed during Extreme
2003 and will be used again during Extreme 2004. Take a
look at a video clip of the deployment of the LVWS during
Extreme 2003. |
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| During Extreme 2003, scientists used the NanoDrop ND-1000 Spectrophotometer -- a novel design of spectrophotometer that requires only tiny water sample volumes of 1.5 µL. Molecular biologists use spectrophotometers to determine the concentrations of DNA and RNA in a sample. A solution will absorb light based on its concentration -- the more stuff present in the sample, the more light is absorbed. A spectrophotometer has a light on one side and a detector on the other, and the sample goes in the middle. The detector measures how much light passes through the sample -- if some is absorbed, then less light passes through it. By knowing what is in the sample and what its absorbance is, scientists can calculate the concentration of the sample -- how much stuff is in it. |
 For
Extreme 2003, Dr. Alison Murray's lab group from the Desert
Research Institute was fortunate to receive this microarray
scanner, the GenePix
4000B, a $50,000 piece of equipment on loan from
Axon Instruments, Inc. DNA is usually in two strands -- each
has what we call "complementary sequences," meaning
they match each other. Matching DNA will stick together.
Scientists use this feature of DNA in a microarray, a glass
slide with thousands of different tiny spots of DNA printed
on it. To analyze a sample on a microarray, scientists
use its RNA
or DNA and label it with a fluorescent dye so it is visible
to the lasers on the scanner. Then they incubate the labeled
DNA or RNA with the microarray, and labeled bits will stick
to their complement on the microarray. The Axon scanner
uses lasers to detect the spots of fluorescent DNA or RNA.
The results tell scientists which sequences of RNA or DNA
were present in a sample and tell them about "gene expression" --
which genes were turned on and working. This was the first
microarray scanner to go to sea!
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During
a briefing
on the submersible Alvin’s
Emergency Breathing Apparatus (EBA), every
scientist on the research team had to practice
putting on an oxygen mask and breathing oxygen
from a portable tank. |
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On
the deck of the R/V Atlantis, marine scientists
examine the deep-sea sub Alvin’s stowage
basket to make sure it is ready for tomorrow’s
dive to vent sites over a mile below the surface.
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Using Alvin’s highly
maneuverable arms, scientists can collect biological
and geological specimens from the deep sea to analyze
back in the lab. The specimens are placed in the stowage
basket affixed to the sub (see above). |
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This
apparatus is called “The Sipper” because it is
used to take small water samples at deep-sea hydrothermal
vent sites. Each of the 12 syringes, marked by the orange
tape, can be connected by tube to a wand deployed by the
submersible Alvin. Scientists in the sub can control
when they want the tube to open and sip a water sample,
which fills up one of the syringes. Once brought into the
clean lab aboard the R/V Atlantis, the samples are
analyzed to determine their chemical composition.
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| This
device is called the Autonomous Larval Sampler (ALS). Once
deployed on the seafloor by the sub Alvin, it
sucks in deep-sea water and filters it through different-sized
meshes. It is used to collect tiny organisms such as baby
vent crabs. |
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During Extreme
2001, scientists used this sophisticated piece of
equipment, the MegaBace 1000 DNA Analysis System, to
perform the first DNA sequencing to ever be conducted
at sea. The
device was used to sequence just under two
million base pairs of DNA from different microbes and organisms that
live in and around the vents. |
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| This
is a standard piece of oceanographic equipment known as
the "CTD." The abbreviation stands for conductivity
(which is a measure of the water's saltiness or salinity),
temperature, and depth. The CTD is connected to a steel
cable that has an electrical wire in the center of it.
As the device is lowered from a research ship into the
sea, it transmits salinity, temperature, and depth readings
up the wire to a computer aboard ship. Scientists analyze
the data and if they need a water sample to be taken at
a particular depth, a signal is sent down the wire and
the device closes one of the sampling bottles. |
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| Dr.
Eric Wommack (below) of the University of Delaware has
designed this specialized filtration system to capture
viruses from deep-sea vent water. The average size of
these viruses is 60 nanometers, which is 60 millionths
of a centimeter, or 23 millionths of an inch! He will
then use the equipment below to find out what kind of
viruses he's collected. |
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| Once
his hydrothermal vent water samples have been filtered
(see above), Dr. Wommack will use the electron microscope
shown here at his lab at the Delaware
Biotechnology Institute to examine the marine viruses,
characterize them by their shape, and count them. |
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| Deep-sea
organisms live under the crushing pressure caused by the
weight of the vast ocean above them — it’s some
250 times the pressure we feel here on land! Pressurized
holding tanks on board R/V Atlantis are used to
keep organisms such as vent crabs alive and well for laboratory
study. |
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| This
is a close-up of the "Bug Catcher" developed
by Dr. John Holloway, a researcher from Arizona State University.
It is designed to collect bacteria at vent sites. Each
of its chambers contain different minerals. During the
Extreme 2001 expedition, the "Bug Catcher" was
placed on a black smoker for 24 hours. Once the unit was
retrieved from the deep, the scientists analyzed each compartment
to see what kind of bacteria colonized the minerals and
how the minerals changed during the 24-hour period. |
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| This photo shows the Bug Catcher (above) at work on the seafloor. |
| Dr.
George Luther, a scientist at the University of Delaware,
has developed needle-like electrodes to take chemistry
readings of environments ranging from salt marshes to hydrothermal
vents. (The sensors used in coastal research are made of
glass, while the deep-sea probes are encased in protective
polymers.) Once connected to computers and deployed in
a protective wand from Alvin (see below), the deep-sea
sensors can provide instantaneous readings of the different
chemicals that spew out of the vents, providing clues as
to the kinds of microbes that inhabit specific vents. Some
microbes may contain enzymes useful in high-temperature
industrial applications such as pharmaceutical manufacturing. |
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This
wand extended from the deep-sea sub Alvin houses
a thermometer and electrodes
for taking precise chemical measurements at hydrothermal
vents.
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| In
the lab at the University of Delaware College of Marine
Studies, molecular biologist Craig Cary and marine scientist
Alison Sipe use an epifluorescent microscope to examine
deep-sea bacteria. |
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