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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement (2018)

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SUGGESTED CITATION National Research Council 2018. Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25027.

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Research • Innovation • Social Engagement Conference Summary Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center, Irvine, California November 9-12, 2016

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001 Funding for the activity that led to this publication was provided by the W. M. Keck Foundation. Based in Los Angeles, the W. M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 by the late W. M. Keck, founder of the Superior Oil Company. In recent years, the Foundation has focused on science and engineering research; medical research; undergraduate education; and southern California. Each grant program invests in people and programs that are making a difference in the quality of life, now and for the future. For more information visit www.wmkeck.org. The contents for this publication came out of the activities and discussions held during the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Conference titled Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement held at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center in Irvine, California, November 9-12, 2016. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views any organization or agency that provided support for this project. For more information on the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative, visit www.keckfutures.org. International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-47219-7 International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-47219-9 Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/25027 Additional copies of this publication are available for sale from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street, NW, Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313; http://www.nap.edu. Copyright 2018 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.17226/25027.

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

The National Academy of Sciences was established in 1863 by an Act of Congress, signed by President Lincoln, as a private, nongovernmental institution to advise the nation on issues related to science and technology. Members are elected by their peers for outstanding contributions to research. Dr. Marcia McNutt is president. The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences to bring the practices of engineering to advising the nation. Members are elected by their peers for extraordinary contributions to engineering. Dr. C. D. Mote, Jr., is president. The National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) was established in 1970 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences to advise the nation on medical and health issues. Members are elected by their peers for distinguished contributions to medicine and health. Dr. Victor J. Dzau is president. The three Academies work together as the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation and conduct other activities to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions. The National Academies also encourage education and research, recognize outstanding contributions to knowledge, and increase public understanding in matters of science, engineering, and medicine. Learn more about the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine at www.nationalacademies.org.

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Consensus Study Reports published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine document the evidence-based consensus on the study’s statement of task by an authoring committee of experts. Reports typically include findings, conclusions, and recommendations based on information gathered by the committee and the committee’s deliberations. Each report has been subjected to a rigorous and independent peer-review process and it represents the position of the National Academies on the statement of task. Proceedings published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine chronicle the presentations and discussions at a workshop, symposium, or other event convened by the National Academies. The statements and opinions contained in proceedings are those of the participants and are not endorsed by other participants, the planning committee, or the National Academies. For information about other products and activities of the National Academies, please visit www.nationalacademies.org/about/whatwedo.

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative NATIONAL ACADEMIES KECK FUTURES INITIATIVE The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI) was launched in 2003 with generous support from the W. M. Keck Foundation. It is a 15-year experiment to catalyze interdisciplinary research across the fields of science, engineering, and medicine. NAKFI creates opportunities to cross both disciplinary and professional boundaries, which is of paramount importance in making scientific progress today. Together, the National Academies and the W. M. Keck Foundation believed that advancing this common goal included catalyzing successful communication among the “best and brightest” who otherwise live in different worlds and speak different languages; conducting meetings that surface the best questions; and providing seed grants to bridge the gap between new ideas and sustained funding. NAKFI is designed to enable scientists from different disciplines to focus on new questions, upon which they can base entirely new research, and to encourage and reward outstanding communication between scientists as well as between the scientific enterprise and the public. NAKFI includes three main components. Futures Conferences NAKFI accomplishes its mission by harnessing the intellectual horsepower of the brightest minds from diverse backgrounds who attend an annual “think-tank” style conference to contemplate the real-world challenges of our day, having been prepared for deep conversations though preconference tutorials. Futures conferences are intentionally crafted to allow multiple ways for attendees to interact. Some of the conference components are familiar, such as poster sessions and plenary sessions, but the expected gives way to the unconventional at a Futures conference. The format of Futures conferences evolved from a traditional program of lectures and panel discussions to a meeting focused on providing a variety of venues for conversation. The foundation of this approach is the appointment of conference participants to task groups charged with finding solutions to real-world problems. In addition to working in these concurrent groups—each of which reports on its work mid-way through the conference—participants have many opportunities for informal conversations and collaboration during “free” times and meals. NAKFI has inspired its diverse network to “think big” at the frontiers of science, engineering, and medicine. This is just the first step in its role as conversation shifter, idea incubator, career changer, and venture science funder. Futures Grants Futures grants are awarded to conference participants to enable the further pursuit of new ideas and inspirations generated at the conference, conceptualized as “venture science,” similar to start-up capital in the business world. v

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Futures grants serve as an incentive for attendees to collaborate after the conference and provide resources for start-up research projects. Grants can also be awarded for meetings that explore a facet of Futures conferences in more depth or with a different audience. The grant application process is straightforward and reporting requirements are kept to a minimum. Principal investigators have already been vetted by the conference steering committee for attendance at the conference and the grant selection committee looks for projects with the greatest potential to succeed. NAKFI encourages grantees to learn as they go and to make changes to their research plans as appropriate. Projects that experience unexpected delays or need more time can request a no-cost extension with a simple email explanation. Final reports cover a few key areas of interest to the program and encourage investigators to reflect on what worked, what did not work, and why. NAKFI Communications The Communication Awards are designed to recognize, promote, and encourage effective communication of science, engineering, medicine, and/or interdisciplinary work within and beyond the scientific community. Each year the Futures Initiative awards $20,000 prizes to those who have advanced the public’s understanding and appreciation of science, engineering, and/or medicine. The awards are given in four categories: books, film/radio/TV, magazine/newspaper, and online. The winners are honored during a ceremony in the fall in Washington, DC. Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research Study During the first 18 months of NAKFI, the National Academies undertook a study on facilitating interdisciplinary research. The study examined the current scope of interdisciplinary efforts and provided recommendations as to how such research can be facilitated by funding organizations and academic institutions. Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research (2005) is available from the National Academies Press (www.nap.edu) in print and free PDF versions. About the W. M. Keck Foundation Based in Los Angeles, the W. M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 by the late W. M. Keck, founder of the Superior Oil Company. The Foundation’s grant making is focused primarily on pioneering efforts in the areas of science and engineering research; medical research; undergraduate education; and Southern California. Each grant program invests in people and programs that are making a difference in the quality of life, now and in the future. For more information visit www.wmkeck.org. National Academies Keck Futures Initiative 100 Academy, 2nd Floor Irvine, CA 92617 949-721-2270 (Phone) 949-721-2216 (Fax) www.keckfutures.org

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Contents Introduction: A Deep Dive with NAKFI   1 at NAKFI 2016   12 Dipping Our Toes in the Water   19 Seed Group: MESOS   25 Participant Profile: Lillian McCormick: Connecting with the NAKFI Community   32 Participant Profile: Hans G. Dam: From the Surface to the Deep   34 The Trouble with Jellyfish: An Exhibition by Mark Dion and Lisa-ann Gershwin   36 Participant Profile: Tempest van Schaik: Outsiders Bring Insight   40 Participant Profile: Q&A with Kelsey Bisson   42 Participant Profile: The Mysterious Eel Larvae: A Brief Look at Larry Pratt’s Research   44



Seed Group: Memory in the Deep Sea   46 Seed Group: Virtual Reality   51 Roll of Twine   56 What Is Science? What Is Art?   60 Seed Groups: Summary   62 Participant List   68

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Introduction

A Deep Dive with

NAKFI By Kathleen Raven

Consider a nearly-filled-to-the-brim white, enameled bathtub of a roadside budget motel. Inside the tub, a North American beaver sniffs a chrome faucet and stands on its webbed hind feet. As your mind begins to reconcile familiar hotel surroundings with a wild semi-aquatic rodent, something might happen. Perhaps you see the beaver from a new perspective— as if for the first time. This scenario, which occurs in an excerpt from American artist and filmmaker Doug Aitken’s 35-minute film, accomplishes what art does best: it nudges humans to contemplate what they don’t understand. Why is the beaver alone in a human environment? Aitken likely wanted to inspire double-takes when he showed clips of his film, called migration(empire), to attendees during the opening session of the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI) 14th annual conference.

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The 14th annual National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI) brought together 170 marine scientists, professional artists, engineers, biomedical researchers, oceanographers, music professors, and undergraduate design students. The charge issued to this group was no different from previous conferences, whose history stretches to 2003. Attendees collaborated to find solutions to overarching social and scientific research problems tied to a burgeoning science topic. In previous years, researchers chewed over genomics, smart prosthetics, nanosystems, and synthetic biology, to name several. The 2016 meeting, which took place at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center in Irvine, California, November 9-12, tackled “Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement.” Over three intense days, attendees brainstormed ideas around five sub-topics: aquaculture and energy; technology; climate-related change; biodiversity; and communication, adaption, and resilience. For the first time in conference history, NAKFI organizers invited 14 undergraduate students from the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena to problem-solve alongside established artists and scientists.

“ When grappling with a foreign frontier like the deep ocean, ‘we are artists and scientists alike.’”

Pushing scientific thought into new realms through collaboration with colleagues from disparate disciplines has been the goal of NAKFI meetings since the beginning. Before “transdisciplinary” became a buzzword, the meeting’s organizers recognized that scientific conundrums could be better solved by breaking down academic silos. Founded nearly 15 years ago by the National Academies, with support from the W. M. Keck Foundation, the annual conferences give attendees an opportunity to see their worlds differently.

The 2016 meeting topic asked participants to dive deep into the mesopelagic zone, also known as the middle layer, which extends 200 to 1,000 meters beneath the wellknown surface zone. Oceans cover more than 70 percent of the planet, but they remain “the least understood and least sampled” of environments, said David M. Karl, professor of microbial oceanography at the University of Hawaii and conference chair. Until technology like deep-sea submersibles and pressurized dive suits became more affordable and reliable, this middle layer remained difficult to study. Oceanographers nicknamed it the Twilight Zone, a fitting moniker for a world where photosynthesis stops, pressure increases, and temperatures drop. 2

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea

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Before the conference, each attendee received a printed binder jam-packed with traditional information like speaker biographies, daily agendas, and a roster. In the weeks leading up to the meeting, attendees were encouraged to involve themselves in the conference topic through pre-conference tutorials in the form of online stories, podcasts, and videos that covered basic background information on the ocean’s middle layer, as well as tips on how to collaborate creatively in groups. These tutorials allowed attendees to hit the first day at a sprint. NAKFI organizing committees meticulously curate tutorials so participants can enter conversations with a shared language and core knowledge, no matter their previous interactions with the topic. Attendees are also motivated to learn and work. There’s an opportunity to apply for grant funding based on ideas from the conference. In this way, perhaps more than others, NAKFI stands out as a conduit for real-world impact, and not just another meeting of minds. In the opening session, the artist Doug Aitken helped attendees think about the intersections of art and science. “Can artwork launch you into the present?” Aitken asked. When grappling with a foreign frontier like the deep ocean, “we are artists and scientists alike,” said David A. Edwards, professor of the Practice of Idea Translation at Harvard University and a conference steering committee member. The 2015 NAKFI meeting, chaired by Edwards, posited that by ignoring artificial—and somewhat recent— boundaries between them, art could inform science, and science, art. The Discovering the Deep Blue Sea conference took this premise further: artists could nudge scientists toward tangible solutions. For example, they could sketch and mold prototypes freely, while scientists might tend to get weighed down by logistics. Marine scientists at the conference shared basic facts about the mesopelagic zone. The ocean, as land, has no boundaries. Humans have delineated different zones, but they melt into each other. We know that surface-level phytoplankton—the microscopic, plantlike organisms that form the basis of the marine food web—contribute between 50 and 85 percent of the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere. These plankton also absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air—by some estimates, up to one-third of all carbon dioxide produced by humans. “The ocean is trying to help us out, but is poisoning itself in the process,” said attendee Patricia L. Yager, professor of marine sciences at the University of Georgia. The excess levels of carbon in the surface level have caused the mesopelagic to turn more acidic. Scientists want to know how much carbon might be sinking from the surface level into the Twilight Zone. They also want to know more about the life that thrives in the middle layer, from microbes to marine creatures. For example, there is more to learn about siphonophores, a type of species that make up this part of the world. These are actually a colony of different organisms that together can grow up to 100 meters long. They have the appearance of a giant peacock feather trailing a piece of Spanish moss, which has been tacked onto a molted snake skin. A Deep Dive with NAKFI

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Hands-on Problem-Solving After breakfast on the first day, the keynote discussion, “Conceptual Collisions: When Art and Science Merge,” covered a range of ideas around the two subjects. “The unexpected is a powerful trigger,” said panel speaker Bruce H. Robison, senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. “We often approach a challenge thinking that we know the context—the framework—within which we are going to examine something. Then you come across something and it doesn’t fit…. It can either leave you flatfooted or it can draw you into a whole different way of thinking about things.” Robison’s words foreshadowed the experience that participants would have exploring subtopics in teams called “seed idea groups.” The climate-related change group, which turned out to be the biggest, gathered at an enormous conference table in the Board Room. Ideas flew back and forth. Before lunch, it seemed nearly impossible that people would agree to specific project ideas by the afternoon. Slowly, consensus emerged among pockets of researchers and artists. Everyone could see themes that

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covered common concerns: how to raise public awareness about the mesopelagic, measure marine snow, and better organize publicly available data about the ocean. By the end of the day, groups wrote out a brief description of their project and compiled a one-minute presentation of their idea to share with everyone. On Day Two, after these quick morning presentations, the groups began to self-organize. Attendees could choose to join projects that stirred up the most passion. Some stayed with their original groups; others left to become new team members elsewhere. Angst circulated as attendees wanted to be sure they were in the right group. How to choose from so many options! With no time to ruminate, the new, mostly smaller groups reconvened in rooms throughout the Beckman Center. Before breakfast the next morning, the groups were For tools, attendees had modeling

expected to have made sufficient progress to share their

clay, pencils, pens, butcher

ideas. Some groups took a working dinner and others

paper, construction paper,

returned to the drawing boards, literally, at the end of the

interlocking bricks, markers, scissors, and tape. Some art

evening. On the last day, group members rehearsed their

students relied on special

presentations before lunchtime. After lunch, everyone

sketchbooks or their iPads.

convened again in the auditorium. Even though only a day-and-a-half had passed since the opening talks, the constant collaboration and repeated rehearsing made collaborators feel like old friends. The final presentations took on a theatrical tone as teams abandoned slideshow presentations and embraced dramatic lighting, computerized drawings, or short 3-D rendition films to convey their ideas. In one project, an artist inspired by the photography of Adam Maygar helped scientists design a prototype sensor that could capture information from marine snow. Marine snow made appearances across several groups. This decayed biomass made up of plankton, plants, and other biological

A Deep Dive with NAKFI

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debris floats down from the ocean’s surface level to the mesopelagic. Marine snow resembles terrestrial snow in that it appears as a steady stream of white or gray stuff drifting through water. But its small size does not negate its importance in the ocean ecosystem as a source of food and as a means of drawing carbon down to the soil and storing it there. The group’s proposal consisted of a swarm of sensors, “each the size of an avocado,” that would drift with currents to capture one pixel width of marine snow and then transmit the information wirelessly to computers aboard a research ship. “This lets us capture a glimpse of the snow and reconstruct an image of the snow to study it,” said Tempest Van Schaik, a biomedical engineer at Science Practice, a London based design and research firm. Before taking the stage, another group, called “Soft Robots,” had enlisted the help of a handful of design students who listened carefully to marine biologist David Gruber of the City University of New York as he outlined the challenges involved with obtaining specimen samples from the mesopelagic. First, the creatures that need to be studied, like gelatinous zooplankton, are so fragile that any human contact might damage their transparent bodies. Second, the flow physics of water at that level is such that any resistance might force samples out of reach. The design students quickly caught on. David Hollo sketched a capturing tool modeled after the kitchen colander. The group sketched another design called the “double-flower” that was also designed to swiftly capture a specimen while keeping it safe. The sample would stay in the center of the sampling tool, while two layers of soft material would envelop it.

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Above and previous

A third group, named “Ambassadors of the Deep,”

page: Snowclops

leaned heavily on design student Janet Hwang

illustrations.

to help form its idea of an underwater, enclosed mesopelagic marine park. After exchanging ideas and building a prototype out of interlocking bricks, Hwang created a 3-D video rendition of a boat and submarine that transported passengers to the underwater park. With such a visualization, the idea and logistics of a marine park became clearer. In the opening session, Robison encouraged participants to suspend disbelief if they could. “We are here to cut loose from tradition and free ourselves from convention,” he said. “The creatures that live in [the Twilight Zone] have the freedom of movement that is vastly different than ours. To understand what is going on in that habitat, we have to free ourselves from our own experience and past.” But participants must have also felt an urgency brought on by past decisions—in many cases poorly made—by humans related to the ocean. It is so vast, and so removed from daily life for many, that most people never need to give it a second thought. A Deep Dive with NAKFI

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In the last scene of Aitken’s film of wildlife in worn hotel rooms across America, an unblinking owl perches on a double bed. Aitken juxtaposes the owl with a flashing red light on a telephone. The owl stares. The red light keeps buzzing as ominous music rises in the background. But the owl remains impervious. Suddenly it launches into flight. Humans have no choice but to stay tethered to the blue-green Earth, covered in oceans, and work to quickly rescue the health of seas. The attendees of the NAKFI Discovering the Deep Blue Sea conference embraced and advanced the daunting challenge with rigor and daring imagination.

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Section Title

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

at NAKFI 2016 WELCOME RECEPTION 6:30 to 9:00p Welcome Reception

DAY 1 8:30a Registration and Breakfast 9:15 to 9:30a Welcome and Opening Remarks Marcia K. McNutt, President, National Academy of Sciences; Dave M. Karl, Steering Committee Chair 9:30 to 10:30a Keynote Discussion: Conceptual Collisions: When Art and Science Merge Discussion among Doug Aitken (artist), David A. Edwards (Founder, Le Laboratoire, and steering committee member); Lisa-ann Gershwin (research scientist and writer); and Bruce Robison (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute). Moderated by Oliver Morton (The Economist) 10:30 to 10:40a About the NAKFI Conference: An Overview with Dave M. Karl

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10:40 to 10:45a Overview of W. M. Keck Foundation Grant Programs Maria Pellegrini, Executive Director of Programs, W. M. Keck Foundation 10:45 to 10:50a Overview of National Academies Gulf Research Program Maggie L. Walser, Director, Education and Capacity Building, Gulf Research Program, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 10:50 to 11:00a Break 11:00a to 12:15p SHARE and BUILD PASSION! Seed Idea Groups: First Meeting 12:15 to 1:45p Lunch Discovering the Deep Blue Sea

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1:45 to 2:45p DREAM! Seed Idea Groups: Second Meeting 2:45 to 3:15p Break/Poster Session Setup 3:15 to 4:45p SKETCH! Seed Idea Groups: Third Meeting

Day 2 8:15 to 10:00a Breakfast/Seed Idea Pitches Seed idea groups sit together at assigned tables and provide oneminute presentations. 10:00 to 11:00a Break 11:00a to 1:00p MOLD! Seed Idea Groups: Fourth Meeting

4:45 to 5:00p End-of-Day Debrief Discussion of one-page seed idea summaries to be submitted by teams tonight, preview of this evening’s and tomorrow’s schedule, and other scheduling announcements. 5:00 to 6:00p Reception/Poster Session/Exhibit Explore the exhibits and research posters on display. 6:00 to 8:00p Dinner at Red Chair Lounge

1:00 to 2:30p Lunch 2:30 to 4:45p MOLD! Seed Idea Groups: Fifth Meeting 3:30 to 3:45p Break 4:45p End-of-Day Debrief 6:00 to 10:00p CRYSTALLIZE! Working Dinner/Networking

Agenda

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Day 3 9:30 to 9:45a Welcome and Framing Discussion Dave M. Karl welcomes everyone and previews the remainder of the conference. 9:45a to 12:00p PRACTICE! Seed Idea Groups: Sixth Meeting 12:00 to 1:30p Lunch 1:30 to 2:40p REVEAL! Seed Idea Groups Final Report 2:40 to 3:00p Break 3:00 to 4:30p REVEAL! Seed Idea Groups Final Report 4:30 to 4:45p Discussion About Art-Science as Process of Discovery in NAKFI Context 4:45 to 5:00p Closing Remarks/Wrap Up Dave M. Karl’s closing remarks. 5:00 to 7:00p Closing Reception

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Agenda

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Dipping Our Toes in the Water By Yasemin Saplakoglu

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

We stand at the edge of the ocean, looking into a tumultuous world. With every inhale of the waves, our feet sink deeper into the sand. The water turns murky beyond a few feet and all we see are waves of grey. We imagine that underneath lies a serene blue environment with elegant fish traversing the water and sunlight reaching the sandy floor in beautiful rays. But thousands of feet below the water, color becomes obsolete. There’s a darkness that intrigues but intimidates us. And we want to step in. Do we know how much we don’t know about the deep sea? A dark matter of knowledge takes the form of unreachable questions and answers. Is there a way we can quantify un-knowledge? These questions lingered around Newport—a room full of scientists, artists and designers discussing biodiversity of the deep sea on the first day of NAKFI. Mystery catalyzed the deep philosophical discussions that would have Descartes and Rousseau living to pitch in. We take a few steps into the water. Timid but ankle-deep, we continue to gaze. Jules Vernes’ “living infinite,” is teeming with life. A dark abyss that’s far from empty. The mesopelagic zone is rooted in species and

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microbes. It’s dark but with great biodiversity­— home to creatures that have adapted to the darkness. Bioluminescence is a candle to their world, a language to their species. What is a species? A microbiologist ventures. Does massive gene exchange in the form of bacteria, microbacteria, and viruses muddy the line between species? Would the deep sea have the power to change the way we classify beings? We could re-write the tree of life through discovering organisms we have never seen before. Maybe we can try to understand charismatic megafauna or tiny nearly invisible flecks of life. And perhaps, looking at their biology we can understand our own. Our legs are now fully submerged. We have bones behind our ears that originated from fish. We started billions of years ago, deep in the water. And now we are realizing we don’t know much about where it all started. “How do we imagine our own part in the whole?” a microbiologist asks. Can the deep sea define who we are as individuals and as a species? The water crashes onto our shoulders. Is human health linked to the ocean? We can study the genes and microenvironments of the

Dipping Our Toes in the Water

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

deep to help develop cures for human diseases. Microbes in the deep ocean are adapted to the cold and the dark, but have proven important for the survival of organisms through time. Where does the energy in a place devoid of sunlight come from? Are organisms making it or just using it? If you were given a new piece of wood, how would you classify it? We try to imagine discovery in the deep sea in terms of terrestrial examples. The deep sea is wabisabi, a design student ventures, or beauty in imperfection. Now we can’t look away. While our world focuses on worlds beyond, we glance downward and put our face in the water. Fully submerged, we can’t see anything, but it’s quiet. We think a bit clearer. We move a bit slower. And we can almost sense the life teeming around us. There must be a memory of the deep sea. A history. We discover our curiosity and our curiosity extends itself into this mysterious world. And what we find is quite bizarre.

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Flip Book

Ambassadors of the Deep

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

24

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Seed Group

MESOS

25

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Currently, Argo, an array of free-drifting profile floats, is the model for autonomous data-collecting drifters. They travel up and down in the water column, moving with deep-sea currents, and transmitting data at the surface via satellite before they sink and repeat. With more than 3,000 Argo floats seated throughout the oceans, scientists can get updated measurements of global water temperature, salinity, and velocity.

The Argo system has limitations. As with all electronic equipment, failure is probable. Like most devices, Argo is not designed with an integrated recovery system. The Argo floats travel via deep currents, going where they want to go and making recovery difficult. Deploying a boat and team to retrieve a broken-down drifter can be more costly than building a new one. This presents a conundrum where ocean-loving scientists on a limited budget have to ask the question of what is a more valuable; reducing marine debris by collecting broken drifters or investing in new drifters to continue ocean research. The average failure time of an Argo drifter is about three months, noted Chris Scholin, president and CEO of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute “What if we had an ambulatory system to recover them,” he asked, suggesting that scientists furlough the boat and crew and use robotics to rescue robotics. This prompted a spin-off group to build on the idea for a data-collecting drifter with an integrated recovery system.

26

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

The mesopelagic is an intermediate ocean layer that begins about 200 meters below the surface. We are ever more interested in the midwater ecosystem. But the biology of the midwater and how it changes over time is largely unknown. This team wants answers to questions about biodiversity in the midwater, from organisms as small as prokaryote to whales, the largest ocean giants. The team hoped their project would address questions from the scientific community about ecosystem organization, food web dynamics, surface to deep-sea connectivity, predator prey relationships, aggregations, and more. Solution “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” was Arthur C. Clarke’s third law. Would this deep-sea explorer, inventor, and futurist have predicted what the team proposed? Their solution may come across as magic to those new to ocean tech, but the team spoke so matter-of-factly about it that the “shoot for the moon” mantra at this year’s NAKFI conference seemed well within reach. MESOS is an acronym for Midwater Ecological Sampling and Observing System. The twopart system is designed to observe biological ecosystems that reach from the surface to the midwater. It will address questions that scientists cannot with existing technology. Their unit/sub-unit components quickly became nicknamed the “mother duck” and “ducklings.”

Seed Group: MESOS

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

The mother duck rests at the surface. It is portable and autonomous, allowing for deployment and retrieval by “vessels of opportunity,” commercial or recreational vessels that have volunteered to help with research or other work. It is also free-floating, increasing the range in which it can operate. The primary role of the surface unit is to act as the mother duck—nurturing her young. It will be a docking station for all the subsurface ducklings. It will use the energy from the surf to generate power and recharge sub-surface units as they dock, extending the duration for which they are deployed. In addition, the mother duck downloads the data from the ducklings and transmits them via satellite to scientists ashore. Its final role is to act as an ambulance for rescuing failed equipment. In essence, it becomes a charging/rescue station with a communication gateway to the rest of the world. The duckling is the sub-surface unit. Like a curious youngster, the duckling explores and collects data on the world beneath the surface. It gathers information about animals and relationships in the deep sea. Also autonomous and portable, this unit can dive to great depths, find and follow interesting anomalies, and swim along a predetermined straight line. It gathers data at depths, at the surface, and through the water column. It can even track and follow an organism that is tagged with an acoustic transmitter. The mother duck and duckling have a system of communication so that when the duckling is ready to surface, they will find each other, reunite, and share the data with the world. Topped up batteries and a clear data card free up common technology limitations, allowing the duckling to dive again and continue data collection. With these data, scientists can gain a greater understanding of biology in the context of change: daily, seasonal, episodic, and anthropogenic. The mother duck and duckling analogy is the essence that makes MESOS one of a kind. If successful, its ability to take care of itself will be an advance that greatly expands biological research of the midwater. Scholin dubbed this the R-cubed system, meaning refresh, recover, and rescue. Fully Loaded “We want to see, hear, feel, and taste the ocean,” said Amy Mass, assistant scientist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, as she presented MESOS to the NAKFI community. In order to do that they fully loaded the MESOS sub-surface unit with all the latest sensory devices. “The challenge of this group is that there is just too many great people with great ideas in one room,” said Victor Zykov, director of research at the Schmidt Ocean Institute. Ultimately, what the group agreed on was making biology the unique focus of MESOS.

28

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

They plan to equip MESOS with sensors that take integrated measurements of optical, acoustic, and physical samples. They will use a camera to take pictures or video of organisms for visual identification and studies on behavior and interaction. Active acoustic monitoring systems will locate animals, while hydrophones will record their vocalizations. They will also have “-omics” sensors for the various biological studies, including genomics, the study of genetics, or metabolomics, the study of metabolism. Components of the MESOS system exist already. They keep getting smaller, more affordable, and use less energy.

“This technology compartmentally exists. None of it is crazy,” said Mass, “but putting it all together has never been done before.” Challenges The team realizes that there will be plenty of challenges while creating a device like MESOS. One question that arose was: Is the system changing the outcome? In other words, will the device that observes marine animals affect the results? The conclusion was yes. The sub-surface device could change animal behavior by scaring fish or interrupting interactions. The group’s aim would be to make the duckling as stealthy as possible. Current systems like Argo can sample chemistry and physics. The group was set on creating a device with a unique biological focus. Organisms are constantly shedding bits of themselves into the environment. Feces, skin, or mucous are left in their wake wherever they go. The MESOS group proposes to collect this “ocean dandruff,” which contains environmental DNA or eDNA. Analysis of this genetic material could answer questions about biodiversity, animal range, and other biological processes. Yet, collecting and storing samples for long durations presented challenges of space, preservation, and stability. Tempest van Schaik, a bioengineer with Science Practice in London, who was not in this group, suggested a medical device as a solution. It is a small, index card–sized DNA sequencing device that could be installed in the MESOS. Using the medial device, the DNA sequencing could happen in-situ, negating the need for space to store samples. As the group became engaged with ideas to build on MESOS, a reoccurring question reigned in the focus. “Are we trying to be all things to all people, or do we have a specific question and goal?” asked Kelly Benoit-Bird, a marine scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

Seed Group: MESOS

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Some people in the group thought it was best to broaden the scope of MESOS to include a diverse group of researchers, like those present. Others thought it was better to create a specialized system as they were concerned about overdoing it. Ultimately, they decided the scope of the system would be limited by keeping the focus on biology. Aside from that restriction, the sky was the limit, offering MESOS the potential for wide-scale adoption. There are substantial conversations across the scientific community about open sourced data, and the MESOS team was no exception. They all agreed that they want to make the data openly available. To make the data useable, there needs to be a standardized way of presenting them, a challenge the MESOS team is not sure they are ready to take on. To make it even more challenging, the team needs to answer the question of what they should do with the biological samples.

30

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Expansion Ideas The MESOS team will have plenty to think about as they prepare a grant proposal to explore this project further. They are already considering the long-term future of MESOS. They are considering expanding the flock of mother ducks and stationing them across the globe to create multiple data sets for comparative analyses geographically. Other groups at NAKFI are striving to create virtual reality worlds for public outreach and education. The data from MESOS could tie in with their worlds, creating real-time simulation experiences of the ocean. Finally, as stated in their final presentation, the MESOS team hopes that the scientific community will be able to use the MESOS data to “make it greater than what we envisioned here.”

Seed Group: MESOS

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Lillian McCormick: Connecting with the NAKFI Community By Teresa L. Carey

“This is one of the most dynamic

McCormick studied the pupillary

conferences I’ve ever been to,” said Lillian

response in the squid’s advanced

McCormick at the NAKFI conference.

camera-like eyes, building the framework

She was referring to the opportunity to

for her current studies.

interact with people at every meeting, luncheon, or social gathering. One

McCormick is now asking the question

conference attendee was creating a

of how climate-driven, low-oxygen

science radio talk show. Another had

environments will affect the biology and

already identified 200 new species. Yet

behavior of marine organisms.

another sets up laboratories in the forest

To find the answer she is once again

and jungle where artists and scientists

looking deep into the eyes of a squid.

work together. Everyone at the NAKFI conference has a story of innovation and

Land-based animals that go into high

creativity to share and McCormick did

altitudes, or even human pilots, can get

not yet realize that she fit right in among

visual impairments such as loss of color

them.

vision or loss of night vision due to a lack of oxygen. McCormick wonders if the

“At traditional conference settings I

same thing will happen in marine animals

get intimidated,” she said, “but here at

with sophisticated eyes. Will hypoxia,

NAKFI it is a lot easier to meet those

low oxygen in the water column, have

[accomplished scientists] and interact

an effect on animal vision and ultimately

with them.”

animal behavior?

McCormick is a third-year PhD student at

“It is challenging because most of the

the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

methods to measure this have been

Her undergraduate work focused on

established in the terrestrial animals,

the dynamic eyes of an estuarine squid.

but not yet in aquatic animals,” said

Few cephalopods are found in estuaries,

McCormick. As a pioneer in this field, she

where dramatic light fluctuations

is currently developing the methods for

characterize the demanding habitat.

her study.

32

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

The mesopelagic is a dark space. Unlike

to designing drifters that will collect

many animals in the ocean, squid rely

biological data across the midwater.

on their vision for many things such as finding food and a mate, looking out for

“My research identifies places in the

predators, communication, or observing

ocean that facilitate full vision function,”

light cues for vertical migration.

said McCormick. Recognizing that new technology takes time to develop, she

McCormick has to be scrupulous when

hopes she will use MESOS in the future

she talks about marine animal vision to

to understand animal distribution and

nonscientists. Unlike humans, whose

abundance in relation to light and oxygen

eyes are constantly surveying the scene

in the ocean.

and taking it all in, deep-sea animals see differently. They are less concerned about the big picture and more concerned about detecting bright flashes on short time scales or objects moving toward them. Although she is looking into the tiny eyes of a squid, McCormick is researching big questions about climate change where large-scale and long-term ocean deoxygenation could become a problem in the future. Upwelling events in California, which bring up low oxygen, low pH water, could increase in frequency and intensity. The short life-span and sophisticated eyes of California market squid make for ideal subjects of her study on animal behavior. Despite being a self-proclaimed introvert, McCormick appears right at home at NAKFI. “I feel much more comfortable putting myself and my research out there,” she said. “It’s all been about working in groups and figuring things out together.” Maybe her work at NAKFI will help with her squid research? As a member of the MESOS team, McCormick is contributing

Participant Profile

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Hans G. Dam: From the Surface to the Deep By Yasemin Saplakoglu In the past 3,000 years, large empires

a debilitating effect on Alexandrium’s

collapsed in part due to an excess of

ability to grow. His lab is studying the

money and resources spent on defense,

costs and benefits of this inducible

leaving behind starving, poverty-ridden

defense on Alexandrium, at the expense

populations. Hans G. Dam, PhD, an

of growth. “If you put way too much

oceanographer at the University of

energy and resources into defense,” said

Connecticut, said that history has a

Dam, “then you can’t sustain growth

way of repeating itself in the most

and so the mystery is why this strategy

unexpected ways. He is studying the

remains in place.”

effects of Alexandrium’s emphasis on defense. But the Alexandrium is not an

Back home, he studies organisms on the

empire, it is a genus. The dinoflagellate

surface, but Dam is intrigued by what

organisms within this group are found

the deep sea can reveal about all marine

in surface waters and they produce

species. He flew from Connecticut to

neurotoxins that contribute to the toxic

Irvine, California, to find out. “I wanted

algal blooms omnipresent throughout

to see if I would get new insights into

the world’s oceans.

adaptations of marine organisms to global change,” he said.

Alexandrium makes neurotoxins to protect themselves from grazers such as

Dam participated in a seed group

copepods or small crustaceans. These

that designed a deep-sea immersion

neurotoxins block sodium channels,

experience for important decision

reducing the amount of nerve signaling,

makers—a project that could educate

and leading to a physically impaired,

policy makers on the answers to

slower-moving copepod. However,

questions such as those of adapting to

copepods exposed to these toxins for

global change.

long periods of time become resilient, which forces the Alexandrium population

In 1959 C.P. Snow argued in his essay

to increase their toxicity levels.

“Two Cultures” that in order to solve the problems of humanity, we need to

“It’s like an armed race,” said Dam. “One

overcome its alienation from science.

side builds up an army and the other side

“This conference reminded me that this

retaliates by building up a bigger army.”

essay’s message is still valid after six

This cycle, as he refers to it, can have

decades,” Dam said.

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

An Exhibition by Mark Dion and Lisa-ann Gershwin

By Alana Quinn, Senior Program Associate Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences

36

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

When you think of jellyfish, what

patterned wallpaper. Early illustrations of

comes to mind? For some people, the

jellyfish, many fantastical and inaccurate

first thought may be of their stinging

because scientists did not have direct

tentacles and an unfortunate run-in at

access to the creatures, line the walls

the beach. But did you know that jellyfish

and an antique cabinet filled with books

blooms are increasing in magnitude in

about jellyfish and jellyfish memorabilia

oceans across the globe? These blooms

is available for visitors to peruse. These

are an indicator that ocean ecosystems

resources and representations make us

are out of balance and a source of

think about how ideas enter into our

controversy within the scientific

imagination and cultural consciousness

community.

and how newer visualizing techniques have replaced older ones. Around a corner, much to everyone’s surprise and delight, is a tank with live moon jellyfish, giving visitors a chance to observe the marine creatures’ grace, elegance, and uncanny anatomy up close. A “Jellyfish Life Support Unit” gives marine biologists access to the jellyfish tank for

The immersive exhibition “The Trouble

caretaking and feeding and it gives

with Jellyfish” by contemporary artist

visitors a chance to peek behind the

Mark Dion and marine biologist Lisa-

scenes.

ann Gershwin merges art, science, and history to draw attention to this

In a nearby corner, a video featuring

phenomena. The exhibition made its

Gershwin plays, in which she shares

debut at Le Laboratoire in Cambridge,

many fascinating facts about jellyfish:

Massachusetts, in 2015 and was later

jellyfish can clone themselves in thirteen

mounted at the Beckman Center Irvine,

different ways, one species of jellyfish

California, for the National Academies

is biologically immortal, jellyfish can eat

Keck Futures Initiative conference

up the food chain, and more. Whimsical

on Discovering the Deep Blue Sea.

commercials created by Harvard

Upon entering the exhibition, visitors

University students also play in the video

encounter a dimly lit Victorian-style salon

loop, suggesting creative solutions to

with period furniture upholstered in blue

address the jellyfish blooms.

fabric and blue custom-made jellyfish

The Trouble with Jellyfish

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

What if we could harvest massive amounts of jellyfish and turn them into paper towels, capitalizing on their super absorbent qualities? What if jellyfish could be used as a fat-free egg substitute in baked goods? What if we could use drone technology to learn more about the logic and patterns of population explosions? The trouble is not actually with jellyfish, but with human activity leading to conditions in which they can proliferate. A chart on the wall illustrates how a combination of overfishing, pollution, and climate change have created the perfect conditions for jellyfish. Overfishing and pollution have eliminated many jellyfish predators and competitors and climate change has led to a decrease in oxygen, known as aquatic hypoxia, creating dead zones where few life forms other than jellyfish can survive. As a result, jellyfish have earned the reputation of being the “cockroaches of the ocean.” They choke and disable the engines of large and powerful ships, shut down nuclear power plants, kill salmon, and clog fishing nets. “The Trouble with Jellyfish” drew attention to the issue, while also celebrating the beauty and wonder of these marine creatures. This interdisciplinary installation raised visitors’ awareness about an emerging issue while leaving room for discussion. It posed and answered questions, while leaving other questions unanswered because much is still unknown about why, where, and when jellyfish blooms will appear. Art played an important role in the exhibition. Metaphors and symbols have the ability to strike you to the core in a way that pure data and facts cannot. For example, the jellyfish wallpaper gave visitors the queasy, visceral feeling that jellyfish were intruding everywhere, invading their space—even encroaching upon this safe Victorian salon—in a way that a poster by itself or even a graphic set of photos about the jellyfish problem could not. The artistic imagery and aesthetic space that visitors moved through, combined with the compelling scientific data, created a powerful experience that provoked questions and opened the door to further inquiry, discussion, and debate.

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Tempest van Schaik: Outsiders Bring Insight By Kathleen Raven

In 2009, Tempest van Schaik and an

scientists, and artists communicated

artist collaborator delighted judges at

across disciplines. At the conference,

a South African fine arts competition.

van Schaik said, she considered herself a

Their interactive piece, “Cameos and

scientist foremost, but also an outsider.

Genotypes,” invited observers to

“It was freeing to be an outsider. You

push hard on a typewriter key, which

can ask naïve and really fundamental

in turn applied pressure to a custom-

questions about the big picture, which

built digital keyboard beneath it. This

is sometimes hard for scientists in a

second keyboard sent a signal via cable

specialized field to do.” Because of her

to a computer hooked up to a digital

technology interest, van Schaik aligned

projector. When an onlooker pressed

herself with a group eager to develop

a key, an alphabet letter, or a symbol

cheap ocean sensors.

designed after things found in the artists’ mothers’ and grandmothers’ homes,

Back home in London, van Schaik is the

floated across the projected white light

lead scientist and engineer at Science

on the wall. It looked as though black

Practice, a design consulting firm. Along

letters and symbols puffed upwards into

with firm colleagues, she helped develop

air from an old metal typewriter. Through

a paper lab test designed to detect soil

such creative use of technology, the

nutrient levels. “I’m interested in low-cost

artist duo wanted people to consider the

solutions for chemical measurements,”

success, or failure, of communication

van Schaik said. “There are similar

across family generations.

problems on land and in the sea.”

That art exhibit came to mind again when

Her NAKFI group included four ocean

van Schaik, a biomedical engineer by

scientists, two design students, and

training and artist by passion, attended

herself. The team wanted to design

NAKFI’s Discovering the Deep Blue Sea

cheap sensors to learn more about

conference. Throughout the meeting,

marine snow, which is biological debris

the South African native observed

that floats down from the surface and

how well marine scientists, non-ocean

provides food for organisms in the middle

40

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

and deep ocean levels. “Understanding

it strong enough so that it will not break

the speed, size, and location of the

down in the human body, in soil, and in

snow as it falls tells you about energy

the ocean.

distribution in the ocean and a bit about the ocean health as a whole,” van Schaik

More work remains to be done on the

said. If scientists could observe this

sensor, and the group plans to apply

information in real time, in a natural

for a seed grant through NAKFI, van

habitat, then they could gather more

Schaik said. For her part, van Schaik

accurate information. Right now, most

says the conference expanded the

of what is known about marine snow

edges of her creativity. “I wasn’t in my

comes from collecting water samples

normal bioengineering field and so I was

that are later observed aboard a research

able to look at things quite differently,”

vessel, thus removing valuable in vivo

she said. Biomedical engineers must

information. The group wanted to create

think constantly about cost or material

a sensor that would move effortlessly

constraints while working through a

with ocean currents, capture information,

problem. Designers focus on how a

and relay it back to a computer.

human will experience, and perhaps even enjoy, interacting with an object. “That’s

While brainstorming how to design cheap

quite a different way of looking at things,”

cameras for each avocado-sized sensor,

van Schaik said.

Melissa Omand, an oceanographer at the University of Rhode Island, recalled an Adam Maygar photography exhibit she visited the previous year. The Berlinbased photographer uses a technique called slit-scan photography first invented in the 1800s. To create what Carnegie Mellon University school of art professor Golan Levin calls “static images of time-based phenomena,” a moveable slide with a slit is placed between the film and the aperture. This allows a single aspect of an image to be captured during movement. “We thought this was actually perfect because we wanted to capture a small amount of data with our low-cost, low-tech sensors,” van Schaik said. She also noted similar challenges across disciplines for developing low-cost sensors: how to power the device, how to retrieve data from it, and how to build

Participant Profile

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41

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Q&A with Kelsey Bisson

By Kathleen Raven A person can learn a lot from questions

improve current communication to the

on conference application forms, explains

broader public, as well as to non-marine

Kelsey Bisson, a marine science doctoral

scientists, and engage them in pressing

student at the University of California,

issues? At NAKFI, I wanted to know how

Santa Barbara. Bisson recalls that

scientists can collaborate with the media

NAKFI’s Discovering the Deep Blue Sea

to get messages across. I’m coordinating

conference application asked potential

a Leonardo Art Science Evening

participants to suggest significant ocean-

Rendezvous (LASER) at UC Santa Barbara

related challenges that were not included

and I wanted to learn how to put on a

in the original conference description.

science and art event—which is basically

“It was clear the organizing committee

what the opening session on the first day

was looking for specific, motivated

of NAKFI was about. Also, I felt excited

applicants,” she said. Immediately, Bisson

to meet high-profile leaders in our field

said, she knew she had to apply, even

and have impromptu conversations with

if that meant competing against more

them. This is nearly impossible to do at

senior researchers. Just two years shy

larger conferences. 

of earning her PhD, Bisson studies how phytoplankton affect carbon cycling in

How did the experience affect you? 

the ocean. She decided to pursue this

Being in a room with colleagues and

area of research after a trip to Antarctica

watching ideas unfold transparently was

as a geology major and mathematics

cool. One group I was with proposed an

minor at The Ohio State University in

idea for a modeling program aimed at

Columbus. Below is a condensed, edited

the public to show how the biological

version of conversations held during and

pump—one mechanism of how the

after the conference. 

ocean sequesters carbon—functions and how it is affected by various changes

What did you hope to get from the

like climate change or pollution. Just

NAKFI meeting?

having conversations around that project

Around the time I applied, a friend

triggered a lot of questions about my

and I had begun producing a science

own research. I left with a massive

radio show. We wanted to address a

amount of knowledge about how to

challenge: How can marine scientists

think about art and science. I connected

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

with someone who will help us put on

matters for climate reasons and also

our LASER event. Also, I learned about a

for food web reasons for the organisms

program where scientists go to artists’

that live in the mesopelagic and feed on

studios and artists go to scientists’ labs

phytoplankton biological debris—also

(the nonprofit organization called Ligo

called marine snow—that falls from the

Project based in New York City). Between

top layer. We think the biological pump

the two, they suggest ideas and create

exports between 4 and 12 petagrams

things. That was inspiring.

of carbon annually into the deep ocean (one petagram is equal to one trillion

Describe your doctoral research

kilograms). But that’s a big difference.

question.

If we could develop a better estimate

We want to answer the question: How

through a more accurate representation

much carbon does the ocean export from

of surface plankton, it would allow us to

the photic zone (uppermost level) into

diagnose current ocean conditions and

the mesopelagic? We know that most

predict future ones.

carbon settling into the ocean is strongly linked to changes in temperature,

What will be the lasting value of the

physics, and chemistry. This is called

NAKFI conference for you?

the physical, or solubility, pump and it’s

The things I research, carbon and

estimated to account for two-thirds of

ecosystems, are constantly in

carbon drawdown from the atmosphere

multidimensional flux, and yet I’ve

into the ocean. The remaining one-

been trying to understand them within

third is attributed to the biological

the confines of math on paper. At the

pump, which is what I’m studying. The

conference, I talked to several sound

physical pump is better understood and

researchers and it made me interested

can be mathematically represented,

in converting my data into sound. I’ve

but the biological pump is a lot harder

been working with massive satellite data

to quantify. I’m using satellite data to

sets and I have lots of data points. I was

study phytoplankton on the surface

thinking it would be wonderful to use

of the ocean. The satellite acts like a

sound to pick out potential beautiful

camera—it’s taking pictures at different

patterns of natural cycles. In other words,

wavelengths reflected back from the

is there a way to convert the frequency of

water. Things like particle size and type,

data to sound? When I returned to Santa

as well as living or non-living status, will

Barbara after the conference, I opened

influence the wavelength reflected to the

a collaboration with a media arts and

satellite. I’m using these data to simulate

technology graduate student to work on

a virtual reality—to create a model—of

answering this question. I hope that the

what phytoplankton on the surface

results might give me more grounding

of the ocean look like and how affect

in my research and maybe even help me

carbon absorption. When we build global

understand anomalies better. I’m excited

carbon budgets, a lot of uncertainty

about the unknown and what we might

is related to the biological pump. This

discover!

Q&A with Kelsey Bisson

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The Mysterious Eel Larvae: A Brief Look at Larry Pratt’s Research By Yasemin Saplakoglu

Every autumn, thousands or perhaps tens

releases millions of eel larvae and observes

of thousands of eels embark on a journey

which ones are successful in reaching the

to the Sargasso Sea—an area that takes up

coast. “We found that they need to have the

two-thirds of the North Atlantic Ocean.

ability to navigate to have even a reasonable

These mysterious characters have eluded

chance of success,” Pratt said. Perhaps they

scientists for thousands of years, starting

detect the Earth’s magnetic field as adult

with Aristotle, who claimed that eels grew

eels do, he added.

spontaneously from mud. Whether on a computer screen or deep Beginning in the 1900s researchers

in the Twilight Zone, these mysterious

collected eel larvae in fine nets and found

creatures continue to reach the coast,

that the youngest eels came from the

against all odds. Alongside his eel research,

Sargasso Sea. They inferred that this must

Pratt often explores the interface between

be their spawning ground. Eels that hatch

art and science. He participates in projects

in the Sargasso Sea stay in a larval stage

such as “Hoverdive,” a two-day dance

of life—only a few millimeters long—for

production about ocean science performed

around 9 to 12 months, during which

by the modern dancers from Contrapose

time they journey back to the East Coast

Dance in Boston. He recently started

and into fresh water rivers. Larry Pratt,

consulting with playwrights commissioned

PhD, a researcher at the Woods Hole

by the American Reparatory Theater

Oceanographic Institution, is studying the

at Harvard University to develop a play

migration of these larvae back to the coast.

involving ocean science.

“They don’t swim very well,” Pratt said. “Yet

Pratt arrived at NAKFI hoping to gain more

somehow they make it all the way back to

insight on the interwoven field of design

the East Coast to the mouths of rivers in

and science. “I do a lot of work on the art/

less than a year.” In order to do so, they

science interface, so the idea of getting

must cross the Gulf Stream—a strong ocean

together with a large group of artists and

current off the East Coast that affects waters

scientists, with lots of new faces, was

all the way down through the Twilight Zone.

appealing,” he said.

Using a computer model, Pratt simulates

Pratt was part of the “A Day in the Life”

currents and different scenarios of eel

seed group—a theatrical immersion project

navigation, including swimming capacity. He

aiming to show audience members what it

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would be like to be an organism living in the Twilight Zone. According to Pratt, he sometimes has difficulty envisioning complex objects, such as images of twisted and interwoven surfaces in three dimensions that arise from his simulations on ocean currents. “The artists present [at NAKFI] gave me some ideas about how to visualize and understand these better.” Pratt hopes this will lead to a collaborative project with the design students from Pasadena.

Participant Profile

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Seed Group

Memory in the Deep Sea

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea

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We will not remember every moment of this conference. We will probably remember the names of our team members and some of our discussions. We will be able to call up the memory of the roll of twine thrown across the auditorium. But we probably will not remember the color of the markers we used or the time we drank our third cup of coffee. We hope to remember where we last put our keys, but sometimes we do not even remember that. Memory is abstract. Memory is difficult to define.

Defining Memory Memory takes on different forms. It is the ability to recall or adapt. It is a personalized database that we can tap into for guidance and navigation. It is the ability to encode, store, retain, and recall past experience. It is the chemical and genetic imprint of past events on water or genomes of a community. “Let’s write this down, we are forgetting,” an oceanographer said. On the porch behind the Newport Room, a group of microbiologists, oceanographers, designers, scientists, and engineers budding off the biodiversity seed group took their markers in hand and began to explore the concept of memory in the deep sea. They started by defining the term “memory.” For most everyone, it meant something different. As the board filled up with definitions, the group inched closer. The problem was, which definition were they to pick for this project?

Seed Group: Memory in the Deep Sea

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The Horizontal Hourglass The discussion process for this group resembled a horizontal hourglass, with each idea as a grain of sand. They began on the left side of the hourglass, with very broad space to hold the ideas. Their initial questions seeped into the meaning of life, species, and our similarities with the deep sea. The group grounded their abstract ideas by taping large pieces of paper on the walls of the porch for the purpose of scribbling. The first poster had a set of symbols: A • B • C. Each letter represented an event and if A to B was an expected, regular occurrence, then B to C was recovery from an event. The idea was that if a microbe had memory, next time they would avoid the trouble and proceed directly from A to C. They thought about finding a model for the deep sea, like Pavlov’s dogs—a famous psychological experiment that conditioned dogs to salivate in response to a specific stimulus like a sound. It may be possible to condition or introduce different scenarios to short-lived organisms and examine whether their genetic or chemical structures change across generations, they thought. This could represent memory. Maybe memory is not a structured event, but a random one. Random events in gene transcription and translation—the steps needed to make protein—is like creating an epigenetic memory for bacteria, they said. Another poster went up. They thought about engineering a bacterium to have a “forgetfulness” trait. Maybe if we look at genetic sequences, we can figure out what kinds of situations these species found themselves in throughout the years. Marker caps clicked off. Is it still called memory if you cannot access it? They then got into a discussion of whether memory is always accessible. Memory is a signal worth recalling and it has to be transcribed and synthesized into a protein for it to count as memory, some thought. They soon narrowed down to the middle of the hourglass, a tighter space with less room to roam. They divided into two groups to focus on specific projects they hoped to accomplish. One group discussed what they wanted to achieve scientifically, and the other, artistically. The artistic group, a combination of designers and scientists, hoped to come up with a project that would allow people to immerse themselves into the data. They thought about music and orchestrating rhythms that may represent memories of the deep sea. They talked about dance. “We will sing siphonophores and dance dinoflagellates.”

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The scientists focused on microbes and whether or not they remember where they’ve been. Their idea was to give deep water microbial communities experiences of various environmental conditions—such as differences in temperature, pressure, and even light—to see if they remember them. Remembering could take the form of community resilience to a certain change or an adapted phenotype. They would measure metabolites, respiration, and gene expression. A limitation, they said, was the sampling size. They would need a continuous amount of deep water pumped to the surface for these types of experiments. When the two groups combined again, the width of the hourglass once again expanded. Together, they began to imagine a space where scientists can bring in their specialized knowledge of memory in the deep sea and musicians or painters can express that knowledge in the same place: an interdisciplinary, no judgment, collaborative, something-for-everyone zone. By the end of this process, there was not a free spot on the wall. Posters with quotes, ideas, and drawings filled up every free space on the floor, the walls, and the porch. It looked very much like a design itself, perhaps an art studio. An Observatory/Studio They did not pick one definition of memory, or one question to answer. Instead, they imagined a space where multiple definitions and millions of questions could live. They proposed a deep ocean research program observatory and artist studio. This observatory would be a place where artists and scientists can collaborate to both observe and express the memory of the deep ocean. The lab will use data analytics and visualization techniques from the field of neuroscience to inspire scientific projects— down to the level of microbes. Experiments previously done on surface models can be used to catalyze those for deep-sea organisms. Their hope is that by researching and creating artistic renditions of past events, they could help predict responses to future disruptions, such as environmental changes. The art studio will serve to visualize the abstract concept of memory in the deep sea in order to engage audiences and open up the floor to personal reflection on deep-sea science. They ended their presentation with a deep lingering harmonic echo. Accompanying the music on the screen were the words, “The greatest oral history of the planet is trapped in a community we cannot see and in a language we don’t understand.” The memory of the deep sea.

Seed Group: Memory in the Deep Sea

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Seed Group

Virtual Reality

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The idea of belief was what first grabbed Michael Sieracki, who asked, “Where does belief come from?” Hoping to fuel a parlay among science and antiscience, truth-based reality, and imagination, Sieracki joined the virtual reality group and titled the project, “Do you believe in plankton?” “We are asking a yes or no question,” said Sieracki, “and you need to have an answer to it.” The virtual reality group passed through much iteration before finally coming together and defining their project … somewhat. On the second day of the meeting, attendees presented numerous ideas that were generated from seed group conversations. Many people were driven to create a virtual reality midwater experience for the general public. After hearing more than 25 ideas across a myriad of topics, about 30 people chose to explore virtual reality together. Once in the same room, the large group of artists, designers, engineers, and scientists took a meandering path to finally settle on two prefatory ideas. An ongoing discussion was one of the delivery vehicle—how to immerse people in an otherwise inaccessible environment. Some envisioned a walk-through experience of the mesopelagic. Others hoped the audience would experience the mesopelagic through “a day in the life” of a midwater organism. It was a discussion that ultimately split the group into two. Sieracki’s group, titled “Do You Believe in Plankton,” aims to create a video-based experience with a captivating narrator who takes the audience on a tour through the mesopelagic. They drew up plans for an elevator with surround-sound and 360-degree video that would virtually take people hundreds of meters underwater.

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By the last day of the conference, that elevator evolved into a 360-degree video headset, a project they believed would be more achievable and could reach a wider audience. The group’s objective is that the virtual reality experience will “connect human experience to the mesopelagic through expert charismatic guides.” They want the audience’s engagement to be both immersive and interactive. Participants will encounter the virtual reality midwater through visuals, sounds, and smells, as they are guided through on a narrated journey. Simultaneously, participants will interact in “free-play,” moving through the ocean, swimming, and touching things they choose on their own. Three digital programs will run the virtual reality experience and are selected based on the audience. Each program will be tailored to a different audience: youth, scientists, or policy makers. The audience will meet many animals on their virtual journey, which will educate viewers about ocean science and advocate for stewardship and conservation. Participants might meet a pteropod, a sea butterfly, which are tiny, shelled creatures that are food for many animals. Pteropods play an important role in ocean acidification research. Ocean acidification corrodes their shells, which serves as an indicator on the effects of the ocean’s changing acidity. Participants could also listen to the vocalizations of a sperm whale, as they come face to face with the ocean giant. Other experiences include groups of organisms, such as commercial fish or the vertical migration of zooplankton. All of these experiences will be created using footage captured with a submersible dive combined with computer generated overlays.

Seed Group: Virtual Reality

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

The other half of the group titled its project A Day in the Life. They are planning a more abstract yet tactile experience. Visitors would have a walk-through introduction to seeing, touching, and feeling what a mesopelagic organism does on a daily basis. “You know when you are holding your breath or shallow breathing and you aren’t aware of that until you step out and take a deep breath—that’s what I want the visitors to feel,” said Steve Haddock, a marine biologist. “I would like people to come out of it asking questions and wondering about stuff,” said Heather Spence, a marine biologist and musician. The group’s goal is to create a “day-in-the-life” experience where the visitor will empathize with how the animal copes with its environment and get a realistic feel for their lives, using all their senses. They propose a three-part project with components of an immersive performance, a live game, and a research laboratory. Here is how it works. Participants will choose an organism from the Twilight Zone to embody. They then wander through a series of spaces experiencing life as a deepsea animal. For example, they might choose to become a copepod, a microscopic crustacean. To understand how copepods experience the viscosity of the ocean, they will walk through a room with hanging sensory strings that will give them a feeling of moving through syrup. To embody a midwater fish, the group conceived of a suit that the visitor could wear that gives them a sense of how a fish experiences its lateral line, a sensory organ used to detect movement in the surrounding water. Or, to understand how whales communicate and navigate, the visitor may be challenged to walk through a tunnel of sound, which mimics the SOFAR Channel, a layer of water in the ocean where sound travels great distances before dissipating. The exhibits are data driven and will be as dynamic as the data that feeds them. Visitors can experience the ocean in real time. Scientists can use this experience to further their

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research, as it will allow them to inhabit the data they collect. Thus, this virtual reality world truly creates an experience where art informs science and science informs art. The entire experience, wrapped up in a fleet of 18-wheelers that travel the country, will bring the mesopelagic world to land-locked cities and unite the potential to crosspollinate between science and art.

Seed Group: Virtual Reality

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Roll of Twine

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Inside this giant aquarium, a tiny speck treads water. The slithery, the charismatic, the wide-eyed, the narrow-faced, the bioluminescent, the alien-like, the green, the blue, the grey, the massive, and the quiet all press their faces against an impenetrable glass to observe us—the intruder. We roam in the darkness, seeking the glass that separates us from the rest of this deep world. Our arms reach out and draw circles trying to find a “thing.” “Something” brushes against our legs. We feel around for it, knocking the water this way and that, searching. Maybe it’s a slow-moving Greenland shark. An eel or a hatchetfish—the zombie of the Twilight Zone. “Something” pokes at our arms. We lunge for it. We can’t see but we move “whatever it is” around in our hands—it’s thin and gently glides. Dangling from our fingers, it turns out to be a long frazzled piece of twine. We pull it taught and begin to follow. One after another our hands reach for the gently swaying line and our body follows behind. Newton smiles as we practice his third law—we pull the string back and we propel forward. One hand after another. One after another. We glide across the Mesopelagic Zone. We run into something with arms and legs. Mouth and nose. So bizarre to find another human down here.

Roll of Twine

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

On we go. Our other follows us from behind. Hand. Hand. Hand. Swish. Swish. We happen upon another aquarium exhibit that breathes from two nostrils. As we follow the length of the twine, we pick up scientists, artists, students, designers, and engineers. Our deep sea game of “Snake” lasts quite a while. Is time measured the same down here? We loosely define “awhile” as the length of time between our excitement of having found something and the strain we feel to keep moving. After a few “whiles” we reach the diver holding onto the last of the twine. One hundred of us stand together connected in the darkness. We don’t let go—the twine pulls us back and thrusts us forward. Some take the lead and begin to glide through the darkness, others follow. We travel together as a spider web of humans. Days, months, years, and decades pass. Our status morphs from intruder to tolerable to neighbor. We travel back millions of years to the home we lived in before evolution sent for our relocation. Soon, the slithery, the charismatic, the wide-eyed, the narrow-faced, the bioluminescent, the alien-like, the green, the blue, the grey, the massive, and the quiet let us attend their neighborhood gatherings, flip through their unpublished books, take a tour of their energy

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plants, and tap into their undocumented culture. We have long since attached the twine to our diving gear so that we can tango through the mesopelagic zone.

Roll of Twine

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What Is Science? What Is Art?

Fifteen NAKFI participants were asked to answer the questions: What is art? What is science? Their answers show both discord and harmony between the two branches of knowledge. Sometimes their definitions of art and science are indistinguishable, and sometimes they are poles apart. You decide if the expressions talk of art or science. Fill in the blanks. There are only two choices and no wrong answers.

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1. _______ is discovery and explanation and the incessant asking of questions. 2. _______ is curiosity personified. It is blended. It is the joy of going out and finding something new every day. 3. _______ is the same thing, but more visceral and expressed in different ways. It is taking what we see in our mind and putting it out there to share with the masses. 4. _______ is knowledge of what we are, who we are, and where we are - back by soul. 5. _______ is a method for understanding how the universe works. It is an organized systematic method of understanding it, that is testable and repeatable way of understanding how the world and the universe works. 6. _______ is a verb. It is a process, a way of exploring things and making observations through all of our senses. 7. _______ is also a verb. It is also a process.

12. _______ They are sometimes thought to be opposite ends of the spectrum or the coin. But I view them differently. There is a continuum of creative thought. ________ is a creative work, and so is ________. 13. _______ is discovery. Exploration about the world that we never think about. 14. _______ is freedom and feeling and an expression of that combination. 15. _______ is exploring and explaining nature. 16. _______ is knowledge of what we are, who we are, and where we are - backed by math. 17. _______ is a philosophy of understanding the natural world. It extends directly from a natura philosophy of using the three vehicles of logic: deductive reasoning, adductive reasoning, and inductive reasoning. 18. _______ is an old discipline an, old field, and it has evolved over time. And now it has evolved into a very detailed complicated field.

8. _______ is an interpretation of the world through a personal lens. It is based on representing a phenomenon through a medium.

19. _______ is a process.

9. _______ is a way of exploring and explaining nature and the human condition and to rationalize that experience.

21. _______ is anything that you can create that elicits a genuine response in someone else. It makes you feel something that you otherwise would not have.

10. _______ is looking for patterns in nature. 11. _______ is what inspires you and what drives your interest. When you lose your interest - the game is over. It is exploring different options.

Science

Art

20. _______ is also a process.

22. _______ is a continuum of the thought process of humankind.

1 Marine Biologist; 2 Marine Consultant; 5 Geologist; 6 Marine Biologist and Musician; 10 Scientist; 11 Illustrator; 12 Microbial Oceanographer; 13 Illustrator; 15 Mechanical Engineer; 16 Photographer; 17 Scientist; 18 Microbial Oceanographer; 20 Interdisciplinary Researcher 3 Marine Consultant; 4 Photographer; 7 Marine Biologist and Musician; 8 Scientist; 9 Mechanical Engineer; 12 Microbial Oceanographer; 14 Marine Biologist; 19 and 21 Interdisciplinary Researcher; 22 Microbial Oceanographer

What Is Science? What Is Art?

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Summary

Seed Groups Participants generated 25 unique ideas from the original five seed idea groups. In addition to the three reported in depth in this publication, nine other groups explored topics ranging from underwater national parks to using fiber optics to illuminate the deep blue sea.

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Ambassadors of the Deep Just as the discovery of the great canyons of the western United States fostered the drive to explore, protect, and care about these treasures, this seed idea group proposes the development of an underwater park to encourage public curiosity and stewardship of the deep sea. Visitors will enter a research vessel—or the park’s visitor center—to learn about the park, and then be transported 50-100 meters under the water to an underwater pavilion—Mesophotic Park—to experience this unique habitat. Ambassadors of the Deep envision trips to Mesophotic Park becoming a routine part of beach visitors’ coastal experiences.

Bringing Light to Decision Making in the Deep Blue Sea This team imagines using scientifically robust models in shared immersive environments to inform and explore decision making on issues that impact the deep blue sea. Visitors will enter an immersive chamber and dial into the macro and micro issues that interest them—from national security to ocean acidification and alternative energy—and experience the consequences of their choices on the life of this unique habitat.

Seed Groups: Summary

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A Day in the Life A Day in the Life is a project that is part immersive performance, part research lab, and part live game. It is a traveling sensorial experience that is designed to invite the public to embody creatures of the Twilight Zone in order to empathize with how they interact with their environment, adapt, and survive, and for humans to feel the scale of these creatures’ lives. The goal is to prompt curiosity, interest, and questions about this otherwise unreachable world. Deep Dawn: Tree of Light How can the light-giving surface of the ocean be transported to the mesopelagic to create new ecosystems, while simultaneously transporting data about the effects of this illumination to the surface? This group proposes using fiber optics to do just that. It is hypothesized that the light will create conditions ripe for new ecosystems that create new food sources and data, engaging the public through the sales of food products and “do-it-yourself” fiber optic trees that could be installed in local lakes and ocean environments, for example. What if it does not work? “Flip the switch and turn it off,” the group said. Exposing Existence: Identity Through Relationships What does it mean to survive in extreme, dynamic environments? This seed idea group proposes sampling and sequencing of mesopelagic microorganisms over time and in different locations to identify the biodiversity and understand how these mesopelagic organisms adapt and interact, for example. Comparing these organisms to other communities such as the human microbiome could uncover a glimpse of the similarities and differences of how these communities adapt, communicate, and survive. Why should we care? The Earth is a shared ecosystem. What we learn about the functioning of one system may inform our understanding of others. Mapping Changing Habitats in the Deep Blue This team proposed harnessing the power of global climate models to create an interactive data visualization platform for scientists, conservation biologists, and fisheries’ managers to map projected changes in ocean habitat; infer climate constraints on current species range; explore future or past changes in niche, size, and location; and analyze species interactions and habitat intersections. Public interfaces for policy makers and others would be shared in aquariums and science museums, possibly using sentinel species that indicate climate change.

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Mesopelagic Playgrounds for a Resilient Future How can we measure resilience in the mesopelagic to help us reimagine our own resilient future? This seed idea group suggests that demonstrating and teaching the notion of cooperation— through primary research and play—can lead to resilience in society. Studying mesopelagic species—such as a specialized fish and copepods—can inform the design of playgrounds. For example, climbing structure designs could be inspired by the delicate tissue networks forming fish gills. Challenging mazes based on the circulatory of copepods might require cooperation of multiple children. Snowclops What does food and snow have in common? “Marine snow” is the tiny rain of microparticals in the ocean that feeds the entire deep sea. Key to understanding the largest habitat on Earth is monitoring its food source. This seed idea group envisioned using slit screen technology to collect data on marine snow—and inexpensively transmitting these data via satellite— through swarms of small, low-cost, water-following sensors to monitor marine snow in the Twilight Zone.

Seed Groups: Summary

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Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Handle with Care Not much is known about small, gelatinous midwater animals. In fact, they are almost entirely overlooked because they are too fragile and soft to capture for analysis without harm. This seed idea group proposed constraints that are portable, adaptable, and soft to gently immobilize the animal, and possibly even release the animal unharmed. Before taking a deep dive with their solution, this group plans to distribute “Jellysticks” to citizen scientists at beaches around the globe. Experimentation with these “soft hand” sticks on shore would prepare next stage designs for the deep dive—ultimately leading to solutions that aim to reveal the secrets hiding in these elusive mid-water animals.

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Participant List

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Steering Committee David M. Karl Director, Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research & Education (C-MORE), and Director, Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology (SCOPE); Professor of Oceanography Department of Oceanography University of Hawaii Mark R. Abbott President and Director Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Stephen R. Carpenter S.A. Forbes Professor of Zoology; Director, Center for Limnology Center for Limnology University of Wisconsin–Madison

Jonna AK Mazet Professor of Epidemiology & Disease Ecology; Executive Director, One Health Institute Global; Director, PREDICT Project of USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats Program UC Davis One Health Institute University of California, Davis David Relman Thomas C. and Joan M. Merigan Professor, Depts. of Medicine, and of Microbiology & Immunology; Co-Director, Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; Chief of Infectious Diseases, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Healthcare System Stanford University Don Walsh Honorary President The Explorers Club

Jody W. Deming Inaugural recipient of the Karl M. Banse Professorship in Oceanography School of Oceanography; UW Astrobiology Program University of Washington

W. M. Keck Foundation Staff

David A. Edwards Professor of the Practice of Idea Translation; Core Member, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering; Founder and Director, Le Laboratoire in Paris, France and Cambridge (USA); Faculty Associate, Center for Nanoscale Systems Harvard University Paul G. Falkowski Bennett L. Smith Professor of Business and Natural Resources, and Director of Rutgers Energy Institute Depts. of Earth and Planetary Science and Marine and Coastal Sciences Rutgers University Morteza (Mory) Gharib Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Bio-Inspired Engineering; Director, Graduate Aerospace Laboratories Aerospace/GALCIT California Institute of Technology Margaret Leinen Director, Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Vice Chancellor University of California, San Diego

Maria Pellegrini Executive Director, Programs W. M. Keck Foundation Mercedes V. Talley Program Director W. M. Keck Foundation National Academy of Sciences Staff Marcia K. McNutt President National Academy of Sciences Kenneth R. Fulton Executive Director National Academy of Sciences JD Talasek Director, Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences National Academy of Sciences Alana Quinn Senior Program Associate, Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences National Academy of Sciences

Participant List

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69

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Staff Kimberly A. Suda-Blake Senior Program Director National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Anne Heberger Marino Program Officer National Academies Keck Futures Initiative

Stephen J. Beckett Postdoctoral Fellow School of Biological Sciences Georgia Institute of Technology Sandor Becz Vice President, Engineering Engineering Hydroid, Inc.

Cristen A. Kelly Associate Program Officer National Academies Keck Futures Initiative

Philip Beesley Professor School of Architecture University of Waterloo

Rachel Lesinski Associate Program Officer National Academies Keck Futures Initiative

Kelly Benoit-Bird Senior Scientist Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Thomas Holland Web Specialist/PC Analyst National Academies Keck Futures Initiative

Daniele Bianchi Assistant Professor Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences University of California, Los Angeles

Participants Jennifer Biddle Assistant Professor School of Marine Science and Policy University of Delaware

Doug Aitken Artist and Film Director Doug Aitken Workshop Harriet Alexander Postdoctoral Fellow University of California, Davis

Kelsey Bisson PhD student Department of Geography University of California, Santa Barbara

Mariana Amatullo Co-Founder and Vice President, Designmatters, ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena Design and Innovation Fellow, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University Brandon Ballengée Postdoctoral Researcher Artist Ichthyology Louisiana State University Ballengee Studio LLC Mark Ballora Associate Professor of Music Technology School of Music/School of Theatre The Pennsylvania State University

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Timothy J. Broderick Chief Science Officer Wright State Research Institute Deborah M. Brosnan Professor Biology (Global Change Center and The Resilience Forum) Virginia Tech President Deborah Brosnan & Associates Ken Buesseler Senior Scientist Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Margaret L. Byron Postdoctoral Fellow Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of California, Irvine

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea

Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

C. Anela Choy Postdoctoral Research Fellow Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Lisa-ann Gershwin Research Scientist and Writer

Barbara J. Culliton President The Culliton Group/Editorial Strategies

Rebecca E. Green Office of Environment U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

Hans G. Dam Professor Marine Sciences University of Connecticut

David F. Gruber Associate Professor Natural Sciences Baruch College, City University of New York

Lisa J. D’amour Co-Artistic Director PearlDamour

Thomas P. Guilderson Scientist Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Curtis Deutsch Associate Professor Oceanography University of Washington

Steven Haddock Senior Scientist Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Mark Dion Conceptual Artist Studio

Christopher T. Hayes Assistant Professor Marine Science University of Southern Mississippi

Benjamin Dubansky Research Scientist Biological Sciences University of North Texas

Julie A. Huber Associate Scientist Josephine Bay Paul Center Marine Biological Laboratory

Chris Dupont Associate Professor J. Craig Venter Institute

Jon Kaye Program Director Marine Microbiology Initiative Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Janeil M. Engelstad Founding Director Make Art with Purpose

Margot H. Knight Executive Director Djerassi Resident Artists Program

Stuart Feldman Head of Schmidt Sciences Schmidt Philanthropies

Daniel Kohn Ligo Project, Kohnworkshop

Rachel D. Field PhD Candidate Biomedical Engineering Columbia University

Elizabeth B. Kujawinski Associate Scientist Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Diego F. Figueroa Assistant Professor School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

James J. Leichter Professor Scripps Institution of Oceanography University of California, San Diego

Participant List

Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

71

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Alan P. Leonardi Director Ocean Exploration and Research NOAA

Richard W. Murray Division Director Ocean Sciences National Science Foundation

Amy E. Maas Assistant Scientist Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences

Amanda N. Netburn Knauss Marine Policy Fellow in Ocean Exploration Office of Ocean Exploration and Research NOAA

Jeffrey Marlow Postdoctoral Scholar Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Harvard University Christopher S. Martens Distinguished Professor Marine Sciences University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Marty D. Matlock Professor and Executive Director Office for Sustainability University of Arkansas Jennifer May Director Designmatters at ArtCenter College of Design

Ryan McKittrick Director of Artistic Programs/Dramaturg American Repertory Theater at Harvard University Anna P.M. Michel Assistant Scientist Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

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Melissa M. Omand Assistant Professor Graduate School of Oceanography University of Rhode Island

Larry J. Pratt Senior Scientist Physical Oceanography Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

Lillian R. McCormick Graduate Student Scripps Institution of Oceanography University of California, San Diego

David W. Murphy Assistant Professor Mechanical Engineering University of South Florida

Elizabeth Nyman Assistant Professor of Political Science and Maritime Studies Coordinator Maritime Studies Texas A&M University at Galveston

Pamela Parker Experiential Graphic Designer Undercurrent Design

Shane Mayack Director Ligo Project

Oliver Morton Briefings Editor The Economist

Nuno J. Nunes Professor Madeira-ITI Madeira-ITI, U. Madeira

Andrew Quitmeyer Professor Digital Naturalism Shriram Ramanathan Professor Materials Purdue University Thomas Riedl Chief Technology Officer OceanComm, Inc. Bruce H. Robison Senior Scientist Research Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea

Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Warren C. Ruder Assistant Professor Virginia Tech University of Pittsburgh

Nicola Triscott Director Arts Catalyst Tempest A. van Schaik Bioengineering Science Practice Imperial College London

Alyson E. Santoro Assistant Professor Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology University of California, Santa Barbara Chris A. Scholin President and CEO Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute Sha Xin Wei Professor and Director School of Arts, Media + Engineering Arizona State University

Michael Vecchione Zoologist NOAA Luis A. Vega Specialist Hawaii Natural Energy Institute University of Hawaii

Rania Siam Professor and Chair Biology Department American University in Cairo

Madhvi J. Venkatesh Curriculum Fellow Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology Harvard Medical School

Michael E. Sieracki Program Director Ocean Sciences National Science Foundation

Clea T. von Chamier-Waite PhD Fellow Media Arts + Practice University of Southern California

Tom Skalak Executive Director The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group

Brian von Herzen Executive Director Climate Foundation

Adam D. Skarke Assistant Professor Department of Geosciences Mississippi State University

Maggie L. Walser Director, Education and Capacity Building Gulf Research Program The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Heather R. Spence Co-Founder and President GRACIASS Tavares Strachan Contemporary Conceptual Artist Eleanor Stuart Visiting Research Fellow Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science Australian National University Liz Taylor President DOER Marine

Timothy W. Weaver Professor Emergent Digital Practices University of Denver Karen Wishner Professor of Oceanography Oceanography University of Rhode Island Robert Wood Professor School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Harvard University

Participant List

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73

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Patricia L. Yager Professor Marine Sciences University of Georgia Kayley T. You Mak Science Writing Scholar Biology Barnard College Victor Zykov Director of Research Schmidt Ocean Institute Graduate Design Students ArtCenter College of Design Janice Chang Benjamin Chu Tom Eichacker Alejandra Fernandez Grace Haynes David Hollo Janet Hwang Celia Jacobs Caitlin Joo Aphinop Aiden Khuiphum Michelle Kim Allie Kollias Joshue Molina Kristen Torralba

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Design Student Adviser Sherry Hoffman Design Student Faculty Mentor; Co-Founder ArtCenter College of Design; March Studio Writers Teresa Carey Graduate Science Writing Student University of California, Santa Cruz Alana Quinn Senior Program Associate, Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences National Academy of Sciences Kathleen M. Raven Science Writer Yale Medicine Yasemin Saplakoglu Graduate Science Writing Student University of California, Santa Cruz Photographer Paul Kennedy Photographer

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea

Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea: Research, Innovation, Social Engagement

Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.