Tools on the Cutting Edge

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.

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.

	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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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! He will then use the equipment below to find out what kind of viruses he's collected.

Once his hydrothermal vent water samples have been filtered (see above), Dr. Wommack will use the electron microscope shown here at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute to examine the marine viruses, characterize them by their shape, and count them.

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.

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.

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.

This wand extended from the deep-sea sub Alvin houses a thermometer, electrodes for taking precise chemical measurements, and an apparatus called “The Sipper” for collecting water samples at hydrothermal vents.

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.