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Read questions and answers in the Mail Buoy» December 1, 2011 Hi there, finally i just have to ask is anyone on board a Patriots or Bruins fan? (how do you guys keep on scores??) Gabby, HI Gabby, Thanks for all your good questions. It would be very difficult to bring living specimens back to MA, since that would mean exposing them to quite a few significant potential changes in their environment (temperature, pressure, etc). We will bring back some water samples, and in those samples if they are kept unfrozen and in bottles that are sealed and free of oxygen, we may be able to observe some live cells (bacteria, archaea and possibly some protists) in those water samples. If we do, we will photograph them with the microscope and attempt to culture those protists so that we can study them further. We cannot reproduce exactly the chemistry and physical conditions of their environment, but we can get close by using sterilized water collected from the site and by keeping the conditions free of oxygen. Your question about salt is a good one. In some of the basins, the salt is the same as what is on our food, sodium chloride, but in others the salts are different, for example magnesium chloride. I imagine that it would taste salty to you, but probably would not be good to consume too much of. The water also contains some nasty smelling compounds such as sulfides, which would make the water taste pretty In the 80's when scientists visited some DHABs they found evidence for living organisms by isolating DNA from their water samples, and by making microscopic observations. Glad you are finding the expedition interesting Gabby! Thanks for your questions! Dr. Ginny Edgcomb ANSWER TO LAST QUESTION: Thanks for writing. And go Bruins! Dear WHOI crew, I heard and read about all of the Egyptian refugees you took on board. Are they still with you? Was the boat able to hold such an extra load (were there any complications involving the extra weight)? And (just one more, Pearl...), have you stumbled upon any unusual or unexpected creatures on your voyage, besides what you were expecting? Thank you! Hi Pearl, Thank you for your interest in our cruise. The refugees left the ship last Friday morning as you can read in our daily updates. There were no complications due to the extra weight. Atlantis could head to Kalamata harbor without any problems. Until now we saw some curious deep-sea fish that were watching Jason operating. One of them looked really funny, his mouth region looked like a beak! It totally reminded me of a platypus. Besides that we didn't find any unusual creature yet. Thank you for your questions! Sabine Filker, Marie Why are brines so salty? Why did all the extremely dense/salty water go to the location it is in? Hi Marie, Thank you for your questions! Sabine Filker Are you the first people to ever investigate these DHABs? Aidan D. Hi Aidan, Dr. Ginny Edgcomb Hello. My name is Michelle and I was just wondering how you lower the heavy "vehicles" in the deep water, because I assume you don't throw them in there Michelle L., Lexington, Mass. Hello Michelle,You’re quite right—we don’t just throw Jason in the water. We use a crane and winch to gently lower Jason into the water. We use the same crane and winch to get it back on board. Tito Collasius did you sail over there or did you take a plane and then get on the ship and what is it like being a scientist on a ship? Baillie and Skye, Hi Baillie and Skye, thank you both for following us on our cruise! Before this cruise Atlantis was involved in another cruise on the west coast of the United States, so it had a long way ahead of itself to get to Greece. It took the ship around 3 weeks to get to Piraeus harbor. That's quite a long time for a scientist, who still has to prepare other things for the actual cruise. Besides there are also Germans and Greeks on the ship, and I guess it would have been to time-consuming to pick them all up :) That's why we all decided to take the plane to Athens. Being a scientist on a ship is actually pretty awesome! First of all it's always really great to escape the daily lab routine. It's nice to get outside (especially for us Germans, because we don't have an ocean right next to where we live like the WHOI people) and it's nice to explore the nature as it is and not in a dull lab. I, personally, love the ocean very much. I try to be outside every spare second I have to watch the waves, the sun going up and down and to feel the soft breeze. That is quite a good balance to the stressful work in the lab and the long work shifts. It is exciting to take and process the samples and to see first results, for example when we did first analyses under the microscope and saw some protists. That was an amazing feeling and everyone was happy. Second it's always a good opportunity to meet people and get to know new people (both scientists and crew members). You spend so much time in the closed environment of a ship and sometimes under high pressure that you really get to know people. Also it is a great feeling to know that everyone on the ship is highly interested in the success of the research cruise. So, if you ever have the chance to get on a research cruise, say YES! :) Sabine Filker What is your favorite part about being on the Crew with JASON? Sydney S. And Melissa M., Our favorite part about being on the Jason team is getting to see and explore the deepest parts of the Ocean. Regards, How much money is the Jason worth? Jenny T. Jason alone is worth approx 2 million dollars. That’s not counting the control van, support systems, and Jason’s companion vehicle, Medea. You can read more about Jason at www.divediscover.whoi.edu/tools/jason.html. Tito Collasius How can the people on the boat see what the Jason is doing? Jennifer D. Jason is connected to the ship via fiber optic cable and we have many channels of Hi Def video that are coming up the cable and broadcast in the control van. We actually have several different screens showing images of the scene near Jason. Each one comes from a different camera and shows a different part of the scene. There’s also a monitor in the Main Lab that shows the pictures from four of the main screens, so people working in the lab can keep an eye on what Jason is doing. Thanks for writing, In your November 30th 'Daily Update', the update talked about the sediment layers on the seafloor. Do you suppose that the eukaryotic organisms are living in the sediment layers? Courtney Z. Dr. Thorsten Stoeck Why did you name the Jason, Jason? How long did it take to make the Jason and how heavy is the Jason? Sam C. and Dylan H., Since our Jason is an ocean explorer, we named it after the adventurous sea captain from the ancient Greek tale Jason and the Argonauts. Look for it in your library if you want to read a good story! Jason the ROV took about 8 months to build. It weighs about 9000 lbs ready to go in the water. Tito Collasius Are there any other life in the DHAB waters other than protists? Joshua T. Dear Joshua, Dr. Thorsten Stoeck I was wondering if the organisms you find in site A and B are going to be Camilla H. As we know from previous studies in the brine lakes, it seems like each individual brine has its unique diversity. This is because these lakes have an "island character.” The brine is their island and the sea above the brine is very hostile to them. Thus, most of the organisms are restricted to their own island (brine). The brines we study have all different chemical conditions. For example, one of them has lots of a toxic substance called hydrogen sulfide (it smells like rotten eggs). Therefore, its organisms need to have means to detoxify this substance. Other basins do not have this hydrogen sulfide and therefore, they can sustain a different microbial community. I hope I shed some light on your question. Dr. Thorsten Stoeck What is your hypothesis of how the protists can live so deep in the extremely salty water? Kathryn T. Thank you for your very smart question. This is actually one of the objectives of our project. Science does not know much about the adaptations of protists to the deep sea. It may be possible that some basic functions in the cell only work under high pressure. For example, some proteins, which are an essential component in each cell, need to have a very specific three dimensional structure in order to do their jobs. It could be possible that such a 3D structure of a protein is only maintained under the pressure of the deep sea. Regarding the extreme salt concentrations, we have some better ideas how organisms can cope with this. Some species produce so-called "osmolytes." These are chemicals that mimic the high salt concentration of the exterior so that the interior of the cell is in an "osmotic balance" with the exterior medium. This means that the ion concentrations are highly similar so that the cell does not lose water to the medium and does not dry out. Other organisms have ion channels in their cell membranes and can actively either excrete ions to or import ions from the external medium to keep an osmotic balance. I am sure that there are more mechanisms to cope with salt, many of which are yet to be discovered. I hope I could answer your question satisfactorily. Dr. Thorsten Stoeck
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