Scientists and the Ocean What comes to mind when you picture an island? A coast? A beach?

Maybe you think of surfing, wakeboarding, or building sandcastles. Or maybe the thought just gets you excited for summer! We are going to look at a few individuals who, when they look at islands and coasts, they see much more than a potential beach volleyball tournament. What do you want to be when you grow up? A doctor? An astronaut? A teacher? It is okay if you do not know what you want to do yet. Some peoples interests and talents change and develop over time before they know what they want to study or do for a living. Its hard to believe that when John M. Jaeger was in your shoes, he was munching on a sandwich at lunch and fantasizing about a career in marine and coastal sedimentology. Sedimewhat? Jaeger researches and also teaches about how land and water affect each other and change over time. Jaeger does not work alone. While his particular field is unique, he teaches at a university with a team of other men and women who enjoy the sea as much as he does. Ellen Martin works at the same university in Florida as Jaeger, but her research focuses on specific patterns in the water. She has helped scientists understand the different sediments in the ocean, as well as how the ocean currents affect the weather. Ellen Martin has done research in California, Utah, Colorado, Florida, Connecticut, and the Bahamas. Ellen works with a team of researchers and is currently looking to hire someone to help her. She can be reached at this email: eemartin@ufl.edu. Why is it important that scientists work together? How do scientists help each other to further advances in science? Why is it important that scientists have an email address? Were Ellen Martin and John Jaeger the first people to work in the field of working with water and land? Matthew Maury was in his 20s in the 1830s when he was a part of the U.S. Navy. While in the Navy, Maury devoted much of his time to study the ocean, its weather, ocean winds, and sea currents. For nineteen years, he studied and tried different ways of studying the oceans. Once, he set bottles adrift in the ocean with instructions inside for anyone who happened to find them. This helped him chart the paths of the seas, the currents under the ocean. How might Maurys investigations have helped paved the way for other oceanographers and people studying the land in the ocean? How does the way that Maury conducted his research show that there is no set procedure to conduct research (no scientific method)? Vagn Ekman was born in 1874 in Stockholm, Sweden. Vagn majored in physics at a university in Sweden, and from there, decided that he wanted to continue his education, this time, he

wanted to learn more about the ocean. Ekmans studies led him to develop several inventions that have proved very helpful to oceanographers to come. Ekman studied ocean currents. He also tried very hard, with no remarkable success, to understand ocean turbulence. Ekman continued his work until his death in 1954. In addition to working with science, Ekman like to sing, play piano, and compose music. How do Ekmans contributions to the field of oceanography show that science can give us a good understanding of how the world works, but it can change over time? There are so many unexplored areas in the bottom of the ocean. We have explored about 5 to 7 percent of the ocean floor and about a half a percent of the ocean itself. In the deep ocean, it is even less. Part of it is because it is so hard to get to. Knowing that only 5 to 7 percent of the ocean floor has been explored on earth, what does that show about scientists? What does it show about the tools we have? Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born in 1910 in France. At the young age of four he learned how to swim, and through this he became fascinated with water. Eventually he began doing experiments in underwater research. He was also into photography, and in 1943, while working with Marcel Ichac, the two of them created a film called 18 Meters Deep, and they won a prize for their film. Later on, Cousteau met French engineer Emile Gagnan. Cousteau and Gagnan experimented with compressed air cylinders and eventually came up with the first device for divers to be able to breathe underwater for long periods of time: the Aqua-Lung. Shortly after this, Cousteau also created an underwater camera that could survive the the pressure of water. He created a new film called Shipwrecks by using the Aqua-Lung and his underwater camera. Cousteau went on to conduct research on underwater archaeology. Eventually, in order to help fund his research, Cousteau went to the media. He wrote a book in 1953, which was later made into a film. He went on expeditions to all kinds of seas. He eventually started using television to talk about the ocean. He started a TV series, which ran for nine series. He wrote more books about his research, and creating documentaries as well. How was Cousteau creative throughout his life? How did this creativity help him get his word across to other people? Based on what youve read, what kinds of challenges do you think scientists face? What might have been some hard decisions that these scientists had to make? Written by Katie Risvold, Virginia Fawcett, and Elena Clark Bibliography Marine and coastal geology (2010). In Department of geological sciences. Retrieved December

3, 2013, from http://web.geology.ufl.edu/marine_and_costal_geology.html Matthew Maury's search for the secret of the seas (1989, June 1). In Answers in Genesis. Retrieved December 5, 2013, from http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/cm/v11/n3/maury Meet the ocean explorers (2013). In The sea. Retrieved December 5, 2013, from http://www.seasky.org/ocean-exploration/ocean-explorers-menu.html