Blog

Jon Short (NOC)

On every scientific research cruise there are three distinct groups of people who work together to ensure the successful outcome of the project: the scientific party – who design the experiments, work in the labs and write the scientific papers; the ship’s company – officers, engineers and crew who operate and maintain the deep ocean research vessels that we all go to sea on; and the scientific engineering technicians…

Dan Ashurst (BAS)

It was a Monday morning, the sun was shining and Taylor Swift’s latest album was playing out of a set of speakers perched on a step ladder and there was hot debate as to whether it had been one of the best albums of the year or whether it should be thrown overboard.

By Chelsey Baker (NOC)

The stereotypical view of scientists is white lab coats, safety goggles and working in laboratories that have a clinical feel. However, science on a research ship is, in reality, very different. Hardhats, waterproofs, steel toe-capped boots and old clothes are just as important as lab coats and safety goggles.

You might think that COMICS is a strange name for a science programme (we should always take science seriously, right?) but it stands for something very important to us and our planet: Controls over Ocean Mesopelagic Interior Carbon Storage.  The ocean stores large amounts of the carbon dioxide that humans put into the atmosphere, helping to regulate Earth’s climate.  The ocean storage of carbon is helped along by the microscopic plants and animals that live in the ocean – this is known as the biological carbon pump.  Phytoplankton, tiny plants that live in the surface of t