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Google Hangout with the Team

Hello Oceans MOOCers! Welcome to the second week of "Exploring our Oceans", we have a shift in focus to physical oceanography this week and we will be looking at how and why the oceans move in the way they do. We are joined this week by Mark Brandon from the Open University, in addition to support from our three physical oceanography PhD students, Cristian, Josie and Helen. Continue reading →

Red-Seeing Fish, Blue-Seeing Fish: Deep-Sea Vision Evolves

Talking about glowing sharks, here it is a very cool text published in the live science blog. "Fearsome-looking creatures that live in the near-dark to pitch-black waters of the deep sea, dragon fish wouldn't seem to have much need for eyes, let alone the ability to see color. However, some dragon fish have rapidly evolved from blue-light sensitivity to red-light sensitivity, and then back to blue again. Continue reading →

Life on the high seas – Equatorial Pacific

I imagine most people would say if they had the chance to work at sea on a state-of-the-art research ships that it was a great opportunity… to miss the Great British winter! Clear blue skies and temperatures never below 27°C in January, it was bliss. We sailed from Balboa adjacent to Panama City on 28th December southwest into the Pacific and then headed north for the seas off Guatemala. Continue reading →

Our colourful oceans

You might have wondered why the sea is blue. Or if you spend a lot of time at British coastlines, you might have wondered (longingly) why it isn’t! Both questions are interesting because the answers draw from our knowledge of physics, chemistry and biology. On the most basic level, water is blue because of the way it interacts with light. When light hits the surface of the ocean, three things can happen to it: 1. Absorption. Continue reading →

Glow In The Dark Sharks

Are you afraid of the dark? Are you afraid of sharks? If, so you might think that the cold, dark depths of the deep-sea would be a nightmare. With predators such as the goblin shark, the knifetooth dogfish and the viper dogfish lurking in the shadows, you might be right. It gets creepier still. Some of the sharks that live down here have come up with an incredible way to go about their pitch black business. Some of the sharks down here can....glow in the dark. Continue reading →

Join us on Twitter

Welcome everyone to the first week of "Exploring Our Oceans". It's so great to have so many of you on board and we all really hope you take a lot from this experience. The use of social media in science is becoming increasingly important. Twitter offers an accessible and free medium in which to share, discuss and report on scientific topics. You simple "follow" the people you are interested in and you will be able to see everything that that person posts about. Continue reading →

My Research: Millie Watts

Hello MOOCers! I am currently a second year PhD student at NOC working within the Geology and Geophysics research group on the Arctic Landslide Tsunami Project. This is a five year long consortium project involving 14 different research institutions across the UK. My role within it is to assess the occurrence of very large submarine landslides in the context of climate change. Continue reading →