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​BLOG BY GRACE C. YOUNG                                                                              
                                                                               


AQUARIUS DAY 4: SCIENCE AND BALLET ART UNDERSEA

6/20/2014

 
LIVING ON THE EDGE-RTRONIC  *Clever title courtesy Liz Magee

THE ARTS AT AQUARIUS, UNDERWATER BALLET

PictureClick on image to link to the draft video.
With the Edgertronic ultra high-speed camera, we can see things that happen in the blink of an eye in slow motion. It's like seeing the world at a different time-warp. It lets us see the underwater world, and it's creatures, a whole new way. Today we spend 6 hours total in the water, and we focused on exploring with the Edgertronic camera. We captured some stunning footage. Here's a video of bubbles coming from Liz's helmet, captured at 1000 frames per second. 

It's just amazing what you can discover, spending six hours in the water! Who knew bubbles moved so strangely like that? We also captured many videos of sea life, including coral cups feeding, crabs dancing (what are they doing?!), a sergeant major fanning it's eggs, and even a little zooplankton narrowly avoiding being eaten by a coral polyp. The other videos need some post-processing, but I'll distribute as soon as they're out.  (And I'll post this video in a more accessible format when the internet is stronger tomorrow.)

While Fabien and Ryan re-configured the camera for us inside the habitat, we had some time to play in the water. Here I'm performing some ballet (a grand pas de chat).  Matt (second photo) did a handstand. 

Fellow aquanaut Matt Ferraro, a filmmaker with over 15 years in film production, has some more great footage of us working today, but you'll have to wait for that to come out in the documentary film!  
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Apparently, can't stop dancing. Still a ballerina at heart! Fabien snapped this pic, an arabesque, as I was grabbing something from the top shelf in Aquarius today.
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Mission 31 ballet: grand pas de chat undersea
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Matt doing a handstand undersea
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Ballet (grand pas de chat) on land, and now sea! Art and science collide on Mission 31.

Congrats! DAY 20, LONGEST AQUARIUS MISSION

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Congrats on Day 20! The longest mission at Aquarius (to date)! with Fabien, Otter and Ryan. Historic Mission 31 days, here we come!
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Either I'm still on college time, or Pres. Rief is right, MIT grads are nocturnal when chasing new ideas:) The work here is exciting & exhausting. It's a great team all working together for our oceans.

G'NIGHT FOR NOW ...

I wish I had time to process (and finish downloading) the footage now to post, but I need to sleep. Tomorrow is another early morning dive. We'll spend most of the day collecting plankton samples, identifying sponges for the Ocean Genome Project, and welcoming former aquanauts Mark Patterson and Steven Price back into Aquarius. 
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From Liz Magee: "GIANT grouper at our viewport last night saying hello!" Did you know that Goliath Grouper can weigh up to 800 lbs and be 9 ft long!
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    Author

    Grace Young  (B.S., MIT, Ph.D, Oxford) is an ocean engineer, aquanaut, and explorer currently working at X. She lived underwater as a scientist and engineer on Fabian Cousteau’s Mission 31, and is a National Geographic Explorer. 

    Blog Highlights: 
    1. No Engineer is an Island
    2. Mission 31 Highlights
    3. Sailing Across the Atlantic 
    ​3. Return to CERN

    Tweets by @grace_h2o
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