Category: Sailing & Adventures

Ocean Exploration -- in Times Square!

10/13/2017

Last week I hopped across the pond for the opening of National Geographic’s first immersive entertainment experience. “Ocean Odyssey” in Times Square draws visitors under the sea to experience ocean life thanks to clever videography, staging, virtual and artificial reality. Virtual explorers witness a battle between Humbolt squid, get lost in a kelp forest, and see a whale leap from the depths to feed on a school of fish. They can also play quiz games that show how they can improve the ocean.

Pictures tell the story best. More information about how you can visit the exhibit is in the Act Now page of this blog. Your ticket purchase supports the National Geographic Society’s great work!

"Our oceans are our life support system ..." G.C.Young

Virtual turtle!

My face in the explorer's hall!

Stepping in virtual sea grass.

Playing with virtual reality seals that mimic your movements - reminds me of my real dives with seals in the UK's Farne Islands.

Fluorescent models of coral that you can touch.

My friend Bizzy and I lost in kelp forest mirror maze.

On the reef with fellow NatGeo Explorer, cave diver Jenny Adler Owen.

PROGRESS

Last year I was in Boston with three other Oxford grad students presenting a new business model for SeaWorld that entertained with virtual and artificial reality instead of captive cetacean. Visitors could have the sensations of travelling with dolphins miles in the ocean, seeing whales breach right in front of them, and experiencing the ocean from the perspective of a stingray in the wild. Our presentation won the 2016 International Business Ethics Competition; see past blog post "The Future of SeaWorld Won 2016 International Business Ethics Competition!"

I'm so glad that National Geographic has done it! Hopefully this is a trend that catches on.

No more! Experience marine animals up-close as they are in nature with virtual and artificial reality; it's cooler and kinder. Image from The Onion.

Other Update from Yellow Rectangle

Attention teachers! On Tuesday October 17th, your classroom can join me and fellow ocean engineer Shah Selbe in a hangout! Register here. The hangout is organised by National Geographic Education. More helpful links:

View teacher's guide here: https://goo.gl/MDxnAZ

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Return to CERN

9/29/2017

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Update

My interview from time at CERN just published in Symmetry magazine. Excerpt below.

CERN alumna turned deep-sea explorer

S: What do you think ocean researchers and particle physicists can learn from each other?
GY: I think we already know it: That is, we can only solve big problems by working together. I'm convinced that only by working together across disciplines, ethnicities and nationalities can we survive as a species. Of course, the physical sciences are integral to everything related to ocean engineering, but it's really CERN's problem-solving methodology that's most inspiring and applicable. CERN was created to solve big problems by combining the best of human learning irrespective of nationality, ethnicity or discipline. Our Pisces VI deep sea submarine team is multidisciplinary, multinational and—just like CERN—it's focused on exploring the unknown that's essential to life as we know it.

Full article here. It's also on the Facebook page for the Pisces VI submarine (here).

Last week I was delighted to return to CERN for a short trip (and break from thesis writing). In front of the Globe, CERN's alumni team and I filmed an interview for CERN's newly launched alumni network. I'll post the video once it's live. Rachel Bray and I chatted about my time there, including my first visit as an INTEL Science Fair winner followed by an internship in CERN openlab, and then my transition from physics into ocean engineering (how it's not such a weird transition!). We also gave a plug for my talk in February at CERN's first-ever alumni conference, where I'll tackle the subject, ‘What is the role of scientists in building a sustainable future for the planet?’ Spoiler alert: I'll focus on the big questions a CERN-for-the-ocean could answer! (My 2014 op-ed for TIME explains more fully my vision for a CERN-for-the-ocean.)

My first-ever blog titled, "CERN-Intel 2010 Special Award Winners' Trip," chronicles my first visit to CERN as a thrilled 17-year old physics student living her dream of a one-week immersion at CERN. It covers every detail of the trip, from notes on each speakers and activities to what we ate for breakfast.

I'm thankful for CERN's supportive community, its dedication to pushing the boundaries of human knowledge, and its pioneering model that has demonstrated how cooperative, interdisciplinary, multinational pulbic-private research can succeed in solving big problems and achieving monumental results (e.g., invention of World Wide Web and Grid Computing, confirmation of Higgs boson, are just a few examples). In fact, the night before my interview I met another alumna who wrote the first code for CERNdocs that became a central node in the "vague but exciting" project now known as the World Wide Web.

In my interview, rather than focus on specific problems and solutions, I tried to highlight open-ended research questions---the type of large-scale questions CERN has so well addressed. I was thinking, 'What is the equivalent for the ocean of confirming the Higgs boson?' For me there are two big, unanswered questions: (1) How does the ocean support so much biodiversity? (Also: Why does it? What are all those unique creatures and their purposes anyways? (2) How does it regulate weather/atmosphere on our planet? Our window of opportunity for answering these questions is closing, as we are losing biodiversity and the ocean is increasingly unable to provide the ecosystem functions we depend upon; but again, it's possible to focus on the big, exciting questions without harping on the doom and gloom.

Notes/text from my interview are below.

Tell us who you are. I'm an ocean engineer, just now completing my doctorate at University of Oxford. I work on technologies that help us better understand our ocean.

What have you done since CERN? This summer I joined 23 other scientists from around the world for an artificial intelligence accelerator at NASA’s Frontier Development Lab in California. It reminded me a lot of CERN – on a much smaller scale. It was a public-private, interdisciplinary initiative that brought together scientists from different backgrounds to focus on solving discreet problems in a short period of time. My team focused on using artificial intelligence to create 3D models of asteroids.

Depiction of CERN's vast amounts of data (300 TB!) from ScienceAlert.com

What unique experience did you take away from CERN? CERN had a huge impact on my development as a scientist and engineer. My experience was truly transformative. My first experience was when I was age 17. A classmate and I won a week-long trip to CERN from the Intel Science Fair for a physics project. It was a dream come true; I'd read so much about CERN. I'm still incredibly thankful to Wolfgang Von Rueden for organizing that trip and becoming a mentor. A year later, CERN’s openlab took a chance on a first-year MIT student and let me into its summer internship program. I got to work with phenomenal people and write software to help physicists (perform Dalitz analysis within the ROOT data analysis framework).

Although I veered away from physics into ocean engineering (I like to sail and I love the water), CERN taught me many things that I often think back to. One is the genuine power in community. It's not just about putting capable people in the same place -- it's about having those people, from diverse disciplines work together to solve discrete problems, and work towards a common purpose. Another thing it taught me is that fundamental science pursued for the sake of science (or art) spawns innovation.

The night before the interview I met another alumna. She wrote the first code for CERNdocs, which became a central node in the "vague but exciting" project now known as the World Wide Web.

Even my visitor's badge to CERN reinforced its core purpose. I thought the text on the badge aptly described CERN's mission and motivation. It read:

What is the Universe made of? Where did it come from, where it is going and why does it behave the way it does? At CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, physicists and engineers and probing the fundamental structure of the universe. They use the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constitutes of matter - the fundamental particles. The particles are made to collide together at close to the speed of light. The process gives the physicists clues about how the particles interact, and provides insights into the fundamental laws of nature.

What value do you see in the CERN alumni network? I see the alumni network as a potentially powerful tool. Of course it's a great way to stay in touch with friends, make new ones, and enhance career connections. Its greatest value, however, may be in harnessing the power of our great community to solve big problems like CERN proper does. Alumni know the value of cooperation and the power of working across disciplines, across cultures, public-private sectors, and that's a powerful thing.

What’s next for you? I'd like to create a CERN-for-the-ocean. Right now we don't understand how the ocean works -- how it holds so much biodiversity, how it maintains weather, sequesters so much carbon. At the same time it faces big problems including overfishing, pollution, acidification and warming. These require technical and policy solutions. I'd like to copy CERN's model for research and innovation and apply it to the equivalent for the ocean of confirming the Higgs boson.

ANOTHER NOTE ON POSITIVE MESSAGES

Humpback whale off New York City!

While in Geneva, I stumbled across this well-written, cautiously optimistic piece by Carl Safina for National Geographic about how the waters off of New York are changing for the better. I found it inspiring, and it made me extra-excited to attend the opening of NatGeo's Ocean Odyssey next month! More about that on the Act Now page!

From Safina's article:

This is a new and improved, revitalized coast, returning to abundance, where everything has plenty to eat and big things linger all summer getting fat and staying relaxed. Whales are spending summers where no one remembers seeing them before; fish eating birds are doing better than anyone can remember, sharks are rebounding along the East Coast as nowhere else in the world, and high-value fish such as striped bass and bluefish have plenty to eat. Osprey pairs have been raising healthy broods of three chicks and many mornings this summer it took them a few minutes to find and catch a fish as the sky was getting light. Often they’d delivered breakfast to their chicks even before time the sun cleared the horizon.

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Summer at NASA - Update

8/4/2017

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So far so good! My previous blog post explains why I'm at NASA this summer. In short, I'm still 'Team Ocean' (of course!), but the 3D shape modelling techniques developed for my PhD on coral reefs have direct application for NASA's research on near-Earth asteroids (and vise versa). It's been a fantastic collaboration. Here are more details about what we're doing and why.

What We'RE Doing and Why

<- Explaining our work during a Facebook live event for SETI (here on Facebook; it's been viewed by >30k!).

NASA's Frontier Development Lab (FDL) is an experimental tool in NASA’s innovation portfolio that emphasizes artificial intelligence, inter-disciplinary approaches, rapid iteration, and teamwork to produce significant breakthroughs useful to the space program.

This summer, four of us at NASA FDL are creating 3D models of asteroids. Our core team comprises two planetary scientists (Agata Rozek and Sean Marshall), two machine learning engineers (Adam Cobb and me), plus mentors from both disciplines (Chedy Raissi, Michael Busch, and Yarin Gal). We’re creating the 3D models from radar data. It's a difficult computational problem, but knowing an asteroid’s 3D shape helps us predict its future trajectory (/whether it will collide with Earth!).

The formal introduction to our problem reads as follows:

Delay-Doppler radar imaging is a powerful technique to characterize the trajectories, shapes, and spin states of near-Earth asteroids and has yielded detailed models of dozens of objects. Since the 1990s, delay-Doppler images have been analyzed using the SHAPE software developed originally by R. S. Hudson and S. J. Ostro [1, 2]. SHAPE normally performs sequential single-parameter fitting. Recently, multiple-parameter fitting algorithms have been shown to more efficiently invert delay-Doppler data sets, thus decreasing runtime while improving accuracy [3]. However, reconstructing asteroid shapes and spins from radar data is still, like many inverse problems, a computationally intensive task that requires extensive human oversight. The FDL 2016 team explored two new techniques to better automate delay-Doppler shape modeling: Bayesian optimization [4] and deep generative models [5]. The FDL 2017 team is refining that work and exploring new directions for more quickly and accurately generating 3D models of near-Earth asteroids from delay-Doppler images.

It took me a bit to understand exactly what our goals and motivations were. The most common questions my friends ask are, “What are you doing?” and “Why?” My short answer: We're generating 3D models of asteroids from radar data so that we can better determine asteroids' physical properties and orbital trajectories. There are over 16,000 known near-Earth objects, and on average 35 new ones each week. It's too much data to keep up with without sophisticated data analysis techniques, so we're using machine learning to speed up and automate the process of generating 3D models from radar data of asteroids.

Still #TeamOcean

I'm also interested in the task of 3D modelling asteroids because the techniques can be applied to 3D modelling coral reefs, the topic of my thesis, as further discussed in my first post about NASA.

Preliminary Results

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Result 1A: Delay-Dopler images (example above) are converted into 3D models of asteroids (example at right).

Result 1B: Last year a team trained a neural network to generate 3D asteroid shapes in the form of voxels (cube-like 3D pixels). We've developed triangular meshes from those voxels, and have smoothed the 3D shapes so that they better resemble asteroids. We'll be feeding a set of synthetic radar shapes into a deep neural network to train the network. For more details, stay tuned for our presentation on August 17th in Silicon Valley.

2	Result 2: We wrote a script that that finds signals in sets of delay-Doppler radar images. This quickens pre-processing of the data. The script intelligently masks the signal from the noise in an image using a density-based clustering (DBSCAN) algorithm.

3

Result 3: We also wrote a script that estimates the spin state of an asteroid from available data. That data can be radar data, optical or light curve data, or any of the input sources used by existing 3D modeling software for asteroids called SHAPE. It quickly and efficiently estimates spin states by performing Bayesian optimization on a spherical coordinate system. Already processing time has gone down from 3 days to 4 hours (and getting faster!).

More details will be in our final presentation and report at the end of the summer. Register here if you'd like to attend our final presentation in Santa Clara, California.

References:

[1] R. Scott Hudson. Three-dimensional reconstruction of asteroids from radar observations. Remote Sensing Reviews 8, 195–203, 1993.
[2] Christopher Magri, Michael C. Nolan, Steven J. Ostro, and Jon D. Giorgini. A radar survey of main-belt asteroids: Arecibo observations of 55 objects during 1999-2003. Icarus 186, 126–151, 2007.
[3] Adam H. Greenberg and Jean-Luc Margot. Improved algorithms for radar-based reconstruction of asteroid shapes. The Astronomical Journal 150(4), 114, 2015.
[4] Jonas Mockus. Bayesian Heuristic Approach to Discrete and Global Optimization: Algorithms, Visualization, Software, and Applications. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2010.
[5] Ruslan Salakhutdinov. Learning deep generative models. Annual Review of Statistics and Its Applications 2, 361–385, 2015.
[6] Shane Carr, Roman Garnett, and Cynthia Lo. BASC: applying Bayesian optimization to the search for global minima on potential energy surfaces. International Conference on Machine Learning. 2016.

This post is modified from the original published on the NASA FDL page (here). All work was developed while at NASA Frontier Development Lab, working with Agata Rozek, Sean Marshall, Adam Cobb, Justin Havlovitz, Chedy Raissi, Michael Busch, and Yarin Gal.

UPDATE - 12 Sept 17

My colleague Adam just posted his perspective on the project. Read his blog post here.

Update - 20 Nov 17

The video of our final presentation at Intel Headquarters is live! It's on YouTube at this link.

Update - Jan 2018

The results from our team of four engineers and scientists were well-received by NASA's Planetary Defense Community. The tool we developed will be implemented this year at the Arecibo Observatory to help track near-earth asteroids.

Related blog posts:

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National Geographic Explorer Festival

6/27/2017

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Last week I had the honor of attending National Geographic’s first-ever Explorers Festival. It was many things: It was a gathering of explorers from all disciplines and corners of the globe; it was my introduction to the NatGeo “family;” it was an excuse for NatGeo to roll out the 'yellow carpet' for James Cameron, Sylvia Earle, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Bob Ballard, and other explorer-celebrities.

As a 2017 Emerging Explorer, I gave a 10-minute talk about my work and dreams and then contributed to a panel discussion on “Transformative Technology;” both are online here.

<-Video of our talks. Also check out Charlie Hamlton James, Jennifer W. Lopez, and Corey Jaskolski; they talk about wildlife photography, space, and 3D mapping ancient sites.

The week was a gear-shifting process for me. For the past several months I’ve been up to my ears in my PhD thesis. This week forced me to take a few steps back and think big-picture, about major goals and priorities in terms of ocean technology development. It also forced me to reflect on my personal story --- the twists of fate that pushed me to where I am now.

NatGeo focuses on human elements of any story; I believe this is one reason why it effectively engages across disciplines. Explorers are encouraged not just to talk about their work, as they might at an academic or technical conference, but also to speak of their motivations – how and why they got to their unique position. Usually these stories take us back to childhood, but not all the time – sometimes the story starts later in life. Distilling one’s life into a story is a difficult task if you overthink it. How can one figure out which moments of the past millions and millions of moments to cut and which to mention? How do our brains remove the signal from the noise? Only in hindsight have I identified some of the more transformative moments. The storytellers at NatGeo helped me bring out the bits of my story that linked my path in ways I hadn’t considered before. For that I’m very thankful to the NatGeo community.

During the Festival, Fabien Cousteau’s Mission 31 got a shout-out not just in my talk, but also in educator Joe Grabowski’s talk. Joe founded Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants (EBTSOYP), an awesome program that connects classrooms with explorers for virtual field trips. If your classroom is studying the ocean, EBTSOYP can connect your class for 30+ minutes with someone or a team doing ocean work that as their full-time job(s). I believe exposing young students to human stories related to their studies is essential to engagement. I remember in middle school wanting to be a dolphin trainer, orthodontist, or teacher because those were the professions that I understood---I never heard of an ocean engineer until university! I can’t wait to connect students with the Pisces VI submarine project through Joe’s program.

Chatting with legend James Cameron about lights and cameras for the Pisces VI submarine. Although it doesn't look like it in this picture, I swear I was paying attention!

One of the moments that brought happy tears to my eyes last week was watching Wasfia’s story. I was introduced to her a few days before at a happy hour, when someone whispered to me “she’s climbed Everest…” but only after watching her film did I realize that’s the tinniest part of her story. A Bangladeshi orphan, she learned new definitions of home. On summitting the highest peaks of all seven continents, she said "in my eye, climbing is more of a surrender rather than conquering; if anything nature conquers you."

Watch Wasfia's inspirational story here^

WHAT’S NEXT.

Yesterday (Monday June 26, 2017) was the first day of my 8-week stint with NASA’s Frontier Development Lab. In September I’ll return full attention to my doctoral thesis, which I plan to submit in December. In my spare time I’m thinking about the science addenda for the Pisces VI submarine, which I’ll visit this August with fellow scientist Anni Djurhuus. Scott is currently on a cruise with the Alvin submarine in Costa Rica.

At the Festival, I learned and experienced the word “overinspired.” I feel extremely motivated to get back to work, even if that means getting back to the grind. I’m looking forward to learning cutting edge machine learning applications this summer with NASA colleagues and will devote my whole focus to that. Down the line, I look forward to collaborations with fellow explorers, whether that be on ocean research expeditions, technology development, or yet unplanned adventures.

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LOOKING UPWARDS THIS SUMMER -- INVITE TO NASA

5/25/2017

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Excited to announce that I’ve been offered a research position this summer at NASA’s Frontier Development Lab in Mountain View, CA. I’ll be working alongside other scientists and engineers for eight weeks in an intensive research accelerator focused on artificial intelligence.

Hosted by the SETI Institute and NASA Ames and supported by leaders in AI from the private sector, such as IBM, Nvidia, Autodesk and Miso Technologies, FDL brings together teams of experts in the physical sciences and specialists in data science and machine learning for an intense 8-week concentrated study on topics important to NASA – and to humanity’s future. The format encourages rapid iteration and prototyping to create outputs with meaningful application, papers and conference posters.

They've asked me to develop a project with cohorts on near-earth object 3D shape modelling and lunar water detection, topics that directly relate to my thesis (minus the "lunar" part and replace "near-earth" with "underwater" of course!). It's a fantastic opportunity to develop skills and learn from NASA in ways that will not only further develop our underwater 3D modelling techniques, but also vise versa; they'll learn from our research techniques.

Image: G. Young Credit Mission 31.

Still Team Ocean

Ocean and space are commonly pitted against each other – upward vs downward – astronaut vs aquanaut, etc.

Fabien Cousteau and Liz Magee from Mission 31 recently debated in a Science Throwdown: Space vs. Sea at the American Museum of Natural History, and Nat Geo 2011 Explorer of the Year Kenny Broad plans to highlight the topic in his Red Planet vs Blue Planet session at the National Geographic Explorer’s Festival this June.

I delve into the debate’s history in my undergraduate thesis Missiles and Misconceptions: Why We Know More About the Dark Side of the Moon Than the Depths of the Ocean, TEDx Talk Why We Know More About the Moon Than the Depths of the Ocean, and in an interview for an upcoming PBS documentary based on Ben Hellwarth’s awesome book SEALAB.

It’s not an either-or debate, however. We can explore both.

I’m looking forward to this summer opportunity at NASA for a number of reasons. I’m eager to learn from NASA methods that will enhance our underwater 3D modeling techniques while sharing what we’ve learned underwater. The experience will also provide another perspective on how public-private partnerships can work effectively to achieve defined research objectives. I believe public-private partnerships like NASA FDL and what I observed at CERN OpenLab, are the key to tackling our most urgent ocean research objectives---a vision I outlined in my 2015 TIME op-ed. Finally, I’m excited to spend weekends diving, surfing, and reuniting with West Coast friends.

Image: G. Young credit Mission 31

Many astronauts are also aquanauts, but most people don’t realize more people have been to space than have lived underwater! Several acquaintances work in both arenas: Pisces VI submarine owner Scott Waters is also on a space advisory board. FDL founding member, Jordan McRae, invented OctoTalk, a system for divers to transmit voice communications underwater. Jonathan Knowles, who is involved with FDL through Autodesk, also advises The Hydrous, an organization that 3D models corals around the world.

That said, I’m committed to Team Ocean. I’m personally drawn to water, a connection many humans have (see Wallace Nichols' book Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do.).

Moreover, engineering-wise, while space may seem more exotic, I’d argue the ocean, particularly the deep ocean, is a more challenging work environment considering that E&M waves, upon which wifi, GPS, and many modern innovations are based, do not work, and salt water kills electronics. We’re forced to innovate.

(Thanks Somerville (Oxford) for the article with video!)

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AUGUST BREAK IN BURGUNDY

9/7/2016

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Last spring three friends made a bet that they could live in a château in Burgundy more cheaply than they could in a two bedroom London flat. They decided on a summer trial run.

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Hrant, a close friend from undergrad, decided to drop in on them for a couple days. We planned to rendezvous at Gare Du Nord. He was making his way circuitously from Armenia back to Stanford, where he’s doing his PhD. I bused and trained in from Oxford via London. Using the bus from Oxford to London and the 4-hour Eurostar from London to Paris as extensions of my office, I’d been working since 6am and was just wrapping up while waiting for him at Starbucks. Hrant and I hadn’t seen each other in more than a year, but I keep finding that with good friends, you pick up where you left off as if no time had passed at all. A quick coffee turned into a “quick” champagne before our next train.

We caught the 6pm to Sens, a smallish city (population ~30k) in Burgundy, southeast of Paris. Our friends met us at the station in a beat-up car they said had broken down last week. They related the comedy of trying to find a French mechanic who didn’t groan “but it’s Saturday...” in response to their repair requests.

On the drive to the château in La Chapelle-sur-Oreuse, we stopped at a bakery to pick up their last pan au chocolat before closing. The back seat was a buttery-flakey mess as we pulled onto rue du château.

The 14th century château was postcard perfect. The sun was seting over its expansive green and yellow fields, illuminating a glass of white wine that rested languorously on a table outside the ivy-covered stone walls.

We ditched our bags and lounged in the unkempt garden to watch sunset. Our host brought out some watered-down pastis, a French anise apéritif. The nine of us were a mix of recent grads and PhD candidates in theoretical physics or engineering from MIT, Harvard, Oxford, or Stanford.

“Is now a good time for the champagne tasting?” one of our hosts asked. Meeting no objection, he dashed inside while another host gave Hrant and I a tour of the place.

Our first stop was the wine cellar, which was expansive and musty, but empty except for two lonely bottles of local red. Our next stop was the main reception on the ground level. Sleeping bags covered couches in front of a massive fireplace. A Ping-Pong table occupied an arched stone alcove, looking incongruous under a brass chandelier and in front of a two-story red velvet curtain leading to the front garden. Empty glass bottles covered all counter space in the butler’s kitchen, waiting to be driven to the nearest recycling center. A long dining table that could easily seat twenty plus guests also occupied the ground floor, but it looked unused. The real living space was on the upper floors.

Up half a flight on the lopsided spiral staircase, we reached what looked like a front door, but upon opening it we found a sheer one-story drop along the château’s stony outer wall –- an effective way to dispose of unwanted guests?

Further up the stairs we encountered a cozy sitting room complete with couches and high-backed velvet chairs around another fireplace. The room connected to a smaller dining area and a fairly modern kitchen. From a terrace adjoining the kitehcn, a château cat surveyed the neighbor’s chickens.

Our host ran the champagne tasting much like ones I’ve had the good fortune to enjoy at Oxford. Two of our hosts had toured the vineyards in the nearby Champagne region and returned with their favorites, so needless to say they really knew what they were talking about. Many of us preferred the slipped in sparkling bourgogne (not technically a champagne; a NV Honoré Louis Crémant de Bourgogne Brut). Ed told us that in blind “champagne” tastings, most people prefer non-“champagnes” (even non-French Proseccos, Cavas, etc.). It reminded me of how susceptible we humans are to marketing and hype; how often we go with the crowd and don’t really know what we want.

Candle wax had already dripped onto the tablecloth by the time we started dinner. After our second bowls of pasta, when I for one would ordinarily be settling into a carb-coma, someone got a Ping-Pong tournament going to German rap and Brittany Spears. Wine and conversations flowed well into the night.

The next day I woke with the sun and roamed the château with everyone still zonked. I felt like the one person awake during a Sleeping Beauty curse. I made a cup of tea and quietly enjoyed the library. People emerged at a more civilised hour and brunch cooking quickly commenced.

Individually, some people worked remotely, connecting to the library Wi-Fi, Skyping with their supervisors, etc. Those not so scholarly employed spent the afternoon reading or cooking. I thought of an advertisement that keeps appearing on my Facebook and Instagram: “Apply for a Remote Year.” The concept is that you pay a set price to travel the world with a group of young professionals who all work remotely. I guess this is how it might work and it’s not bad.

I thought of working, but tried not to. I’d planned in advance enough to be able to take these two days off and had just finished a paper on my summer field work; now was a good time to take a break. The library’s enticing collection books proved a relaxing distraction.

I kept-up a habit I’ve developed recently of taking an hour’s afternoon siesta. When I awoke, the crew was attempting the rather ridiculous endeavor of rigging a sous-vide in the tower bathtub to cook half a lamb. Sous-vide is a method of cooking meat very slowly till melt-in-your-mouth tenderness. I’d learned about the technique from this KickStarter a few years ago, but I had never seen one before, let alone tasted its output.

The sous-vide in place, the team set to frying calamari in a homemade spicy batter. Because of overfishing, I don’t eat seafood except for bivalves, cephalopods, and lionfish (you can read why on my Act Now page), and calamari thankfully falls into the cephalopod category. We enjoyed a late “lunch” in the sunshine, wearing straw hats that came with the château, eating the small batches of calamari as they emerged from the kitchen, where two guests volunteered as chefs. Each batch improved, getting crispier. We finished with a ricotta lime cake topped with grape compote that a kitchen goddess had made from scratch while I was napping. Discussion of the next meal commenced immediately afterward; we had a château conundrum. The sous-vide lamb would be acceptable to eat around 9pm, but it would be at its best, mouth-watering, falling-off the bone, at around 5am. We decided to have dinner with the first round of lamb at 9pm, followed by a breakfast of lamb so scrumptious that it was worth waking up at 7am. No one objected to this plan.

With the next day’s early start in mind, the evening quieted down earlier. In the morning, just hours before Hrant and I departed, we enjoyed an early morning farewell feast of what was indeed the most tender and delicious lamb I’ve ever eaten, paired with eggs, toast, foie gras, and just a little bit of red wine. It was the gastronomic pinnacle of our Epicurean stay and the perfect way to wrap-up our visit.

The neighbor’s excitable dog joined the party bidding us farewell. The guests remaining had seen posters advertising a circus in town that night, so planned to attend and host an impromptu after-party. I was tempted to stay, but by that time Hrant would be flying over the Atlantic and I’d be at a Royal Geographic Society (RGS) conference in London thinking of what we were missing.

The experience was not unlike ones I’ve had on boats and expeditions. You learn to savor moments with the people around you because, well, you are stuck with them. You’re not in the city, so you can’t bounce from one attraction to the next, or pick-and-choose with whom you hang out. There’s no compulsion to check your phone all the time because no one else is doing it and, frankly, why? After the RGS conference, rather than venturing into the city, I spent my time in the quiet of my Oxford apartment working more productively than usual. I wonder how I’d feel after a full “European August” off in such a lovely spot.

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Malta Revisited, Above and Below the Waves

5/23/2016

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This autumn I was in Malta for a hot second filming for U-Boat Worx submarines with my friend and Mission 31 fellow crewmate Billy Snook. They make some beautiful submarines, mostly for yachts and yacht-owners (and their explorer friends). Check them out on their website. This was my first time in a submarine. It was thrilling!

Part I: In Malta on a Submarine
I created this "book" in a cool app called Steller (https://steller.co/).

Part II: Above and Below the Waves in Malta

Photos from the books laid out below...

We had a FANTASTIC set of afternoon SCUBA dives with Adventure Diving Malta! Highly recommend!

More blog posts:

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Reflection on Sailing Across the Atlantic

1/20/2016

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I’m sitting in the St. Thomas airport waiting for my flight to Heathrow. Toting a hiking bag stuffed with salt-encrusted clothes, I search for an outlet to charge my laptop; it’s been dead nearly three weeks. My hair is still wet from this morning’s dip in the ocean.

“You get off a boat?” asked the man ahead of me at check-in. I wondered what gave it away. Was it my freckled skin and I-don’t-care ponytail? My callouses? My travel partner joking about peeing in a bucket?

As I sit down to write this blog entry, I find reflecting upon the last 22 days somewhat overwhelming. In that time we, eight friends, sailed a 65’ boat across the Atlantic. Every aspect of my daily routine changed dramatically and abruptly during those days at sea. I was pleasantly surprised that, apart from friends and family, I didn’t miss land much. It feels as if a year, or several, passed in those days. It was an adventure of a lifetime.

For me the journey started about three weeks before we left port. While out in London at a celebration, I received the following text from a friend:

Hey, crazy idea and no doubt you already have plans… but want to cross the Atlantic Ocean? Dec 18 – Jan 5?

The friend is the founder of a non-profit called <SailFuture>. The reason behind the last minute request is a somewhat of long-story, see <previous blog post>. We chatted details, but all I could say initially was “still trying to work out logistics; haven’t forgotten.” Finally it worked out, in large part to the encouragement of my friend Elizabeth (“Bizzy”) Walton, and the support of other friends and family.

Before I explain the sail further, let’s get some “FAQs” that usually come up in conversation out of the way.

Q: When did you leave?
A: We departed the afternoon of December 19th, 2015 from Las Palmas, Canary Islands. We originally planned to leave December 18th, but a faulty pulley on our jib took us back to the marina for the night.

Q: How long did it take?
A: It took us 22 days to cross the Atlantic. We originally anticipated a 14-day journey, but some mechanical hiccups took us slightly off course and slowed our progress. More on this later.

Q: What’s the boat like?
A: It’s a 65’ McGregor: [photo] You can also see photos from when I sailed on the boat last July; <see previous post>.

Q: Were there showers and toilets?
A: Showers no; toilets yes. We rinsed with ocean water. This is common among racing sailors and isn’t that bad really. Even if the boat’s proper showers had been functional, we wouldn’t have used them because we needed to conserve fresh water.

Q: Who was on the boat?
A: We had eight crew, five guys and three girls. All of us were somehow acquainted with our Captain, Mike. On each shift, our roles sorted roughly into skipper, first mate, deckhand, and steward.

Q: Were you scared?
A: No; see previous post <Anything scare me underwater?>. I'd like to write a longer post on this question, which I get often and that I've noticed females get far more often than males regarding adventure. It's like asking someone if they're scared to take their driver's exam... No, I've trained for the situation and know the range of things to expect.

Q: Did you see other boats?
A: Yes; but not many. We saw about a dozen other vessels total during our 22-day crossing. Most were container ships. On Boxing Day we made contact with another sailboat over the radio. Nothing but clear blue ocean surrounded us during the vast majority of our journey.

Q: What did you eat? How’d you cook?
A: Lots of pasta and sandwiches. Fresh veggies for the first week, or until things went bad. We had a gas stove aboard. Lesson learned: Even when rationing fresh water, don’t cook pasta in ocean water; it’s too salty. We also bought a leg of Parma ham that lasted two weeks. It got super creepy at night accidentally running into that hoof though, or watching the hoof sway with the boat.

Q: What marine life did you encounter?
A: We had several dozen dolphins at a time follow our boat for about 10min on three different occasions. One of our helmsmen is certain he saw a whale on his shift as well. We spotted two sea turtles. Sometimes, even in the middle of the ocean, we’d see a lone bird flying around. A pigeon landed on our deck our second day at sea. We saw flying fish dance out of the water, and even onto our deck, many days.

Q: What was it like celebrating (insert: Christmas, birthday, New Year’s) in the middle of the ocean?
A: Fantastic. I missed family and friends, but we used our satellite phone to each make a short call home. We were blessed Christmas day with calm weather, so we could go for a swim. We had a great dinner too. On my birthday, the crew surprised me with a chocolate cake they managed to make in the oven. On New Year’s Eve you could say we all enjoyed a sunset cruise with some of our closest friends. It was great!

Q: What was harder, living underwater for 15 days or sailing across the Atlantic for 22 days?
A: I know it’s the boring answer, but the answer is simply that they’re different. Both had unique challenges. Living in Aquarius prepared me to live in close quarters for an extended period of time. For Aquarius though, by the end of our intense training I felt comfortable dealing with almost any imaginable emergency situation. We had two full-time habitat technicians living with us plus a full topside support crew, many of whom had run similar missions dozens of times in the past. This meant I could just focus on science work with other researchers. On this sailing trip, however, we were all doing this for the first time. We had to figure things out as they came up, and, moreover, figure them out without the aid of Internet or anything that wasn’t already on the boat.

Q: Did you have any bad weather?
A: Not really. We were very fortunate with weather. We didn’t encounter any storms or rough patches that we couldn’t handle. We had some spouts of rain, but nothing major. The strongest winds we encountered were about 30 knots.

Q: What surprised you?
A: The songs stuck in your head when you leave land stay stuck in your head. I couldn’t shake Adele’s “Hello."

I really trusted our Captain, Mike. One of the first things you see below deck is a handwritten sign reading “No Bullshit” taped in the galley. When I agreed to join the crossing, I trusted him not only to lead us safely across the Atlantic, but also to pull together a competent crew with good group dynamic. Here’s a story from our fourth day at sea that confirmed our faith in the Captain; it’s taken from an excerpt of my journal entry three days before Christmas.

Sometime close to midnight, Maddie and I were below deck chopping greens when we heard a jibe. A jibe is when the boom swinging violently across the boat due to a change in the wind direction along the sail. Jeremy, one of our most competent helmsmen, was at the wheel, so it can’t have been caused by ineptitude or carelessness. Something was wrong.

Mike bolted out of bed at the noise. Yep, something is very wrong. He knows the boat, all the noises it can make. He’s not taking for granted that the boat will sustain that kind of force.

Both our captains and a 1st mate are on deck, plus one of our crew who is violently seasick. Maddie and I remain below, waiting to be asked to do something if help is needed. Space is so small up deck that especially in borderline-chaotic moments like this excessive crew can be in the way.

Staying calmly below, just waiting, gives me a particular feeling I’m not use to dealing with. Part of me feels that I, as a sailor and mechanical engineer by training, should be handier on deck. I want to be up there, rain hitting me sidewise, climbing the mast, pulling in lines, shouting orders, whatever it takes. Another part of me realizes that while I may have more basic sailing knowledge than some of our crew with different experiences initially, I’m not as physically strong (able to winch in heavy winds or yank the oft-stuck halyard cleat in heavy winds) as our male crewmembers. I’m not the first person to come into mind when the Captain needs someone to furl in the Genny, for example. Is part of this because the high-adrenaline “survival mode” situations are bringing out some of the guys’ instincts to protect women? There’s room for a psychology experiment here (hello PhD prospect!). It’s just our first few days at sea, however. Roles will pan out. Everyone on this boat is a team player, which means we will do whatever is best for the group to reach our objective. I’ve been cooking or taking care of the ill the last few days because it’s been best for the group and I want us to reach our goal.

As Maddie and I sit, braced between the navigation station desk and galley cabinets listening to orders cast above, Biz emerges from the main sleeping cabin, extremely seasick. She stumbles awkwardly to the floor and crouches in front of the stove, clinging to a bucket. She can’t keep even water (or Dramamine) down. I’m concerned she’ll soon be severely dehydrated. We try getting water with hydration salts to her.

Above us, the three men shout across the length of the boat. From below, it’s unclear what the problem is, but things seem tense. My body wants to worry, but my brain remains even-keel, the only way it knows, “Grace Under Pressure." Whatever, I still feel useless.

Mike starts singing “It’s a great day to be alive // I know the sun’s still shining’ when I close my eyes // There’s some hard times in the neighborhood // But why can’t everyday be just this good.” He’s either a lunatic or a thoughtful leader who has just goofily but purposefully quelled the unspoken anxieties of all his crew. It takes a few more days at sea to confirm the latter.

As he darts below deck he takes a moment to tell Bizzy something sweet, like he’s never seen someone look so gorgeous while puking. It’s stupid but it makes her smile and she needed that. I know that not only is she dealing with crushing seasickness, but she’s also wondering if it was really a good idea for her to be here. She’s been the bravest of any of us, signing up for this adventure knowing only me and not having spent more than half a day on a sailboat. This is one of the times when I appreciate how aware Mike is of everything on the boat, mechanically and emotionally.

Everyone is awake at this point; although I get the feeling that at best only the three on deck know what’s going on. Maddie and I are docile below, but we still need our brains turned on. For example, one of the guys passes down the fishing rod for us to secure. The quickest thing would be to wedge the rod between the table and bunk in the middle cabin, but we think one step ahead and find some less convenient place where no one in a hurry will accidentally step on it. This is one of those instances where you can’t be lazy and always have to be thinking ahead, of what might go wrong.

As you learn in all aspects of life, but maybe more so in engineering, when there’s one problem, it’s easier than ever for things to snowball into a multi-layer problem.

Maddie, taking a meta perspective, identifies issues on deck that we will remedy tomorrow. For example, those on deck might not realize it but they are wasting time rummaging around for headlamps only to find one of the headlamps has a dead battery. Tomorrow we'll organise the lamps and batteries in a reliable place. We also keep life vests and safety lines in a reliable location. We make a list, but must leave it for tomorrow.

Even though our adrenaline is spiked, Maddie and I sleep. Plenty of crew is available. Someone will need to be rested tomorrow when the others aren’t. This is one of those times when my ability to completely ignore my surroundings and fall asleep, no matter the noise or chaos, is more useful than annoying to my companions. Perhaps counter intuitively, by being able to sleep I feel useful finally.

[The full journal entry is below...]

People make the boat.

We had no Internet or contact with the “outside” world during our crossing, apart from a satellite connection reserved for emergencies. This meant that all of us onboard couldn’t hide behind our phones or laptops; we had to hang out old-school style. It took perhaps two or three days to shake the habit of wanting to check my phone for updates. It took us no time to get to know each other. I guess hours and hours of uninterrupted conversation does that to people. If there was ever a lull during a night shift we’d play “would you rather” or go around telling stories. When our phones were all dead and unchangeable, we sang songs totally out of key.

We got on like a house on fire. Thank goodness, because this would be a very different crossing if not. Maybe the circumstances forced us to get along, but I don’t think so. We actually did all get along. Mike, the one who brought us all together, must’ve had a feeling we all would.

People dynamics have the potential to make all things sour when you’re living confined in close quarters 24/7, everyone out of their comfort zone in some way or another. If one person is in a funk it quickly infects the group.

There was only one day that I felt we got anywhere close to the “Mutiny” scene in Life Aquatic. I won’t go into the details, as they are mundane and have lost context; but we got over it by listening to each other and saying nice things before the evening meal.

There’s an unspoken rule for me when living in any form of inescapable tight quarters: If a person has headphones on or has retreated to a spot on the boat away from others, leave them alone. On land if you saw your friend sitting at an edge of a café you’d of course approach them even if only for a quick hello. On the boat there is zero private space. There are times when you feel superfluous, question your usefulness, and become insecure. Other times when you, rather vainly, think what would this boat do without me?

We’ve plenty of sea stories. I kept a detailed daily journal. Nearly all of it I wouldn’t publish. It’s personal, but also needs a good deal of context. Maybe I’m just a bad storyteller, but chatting with friends I quickly realize only a few of the stories really click, even if they weren’t the most telling for me. Here’s one of them: On Boxing Day, I woke up in the middle of the night from what I thought was me falling asleep at the helm. I tried adjusting the wheel to the heel of the boat that I felt, but it was pitch black. We’re use to sailing in just moonlight, a small light illuminating our heading on the compass. I woke up the crewmember sleeping next to me. “Turn on the compass and windex lights! I can’t see anything! The boat isn’t responding!” They were confused. I was dreaming, of course, a very vivid dream. I laughed, relieved, once I realised I was in my bunk. Two days later another helmsman had the same dream. It became a recurring phenomenon.

Family and friends were the only things I genuinely missed about land. I especially missed my sister on her 18th birthday. She was playing squash for Team USA at the British Junior Open for squash (yes, she’s impressive) in England and I was supposed to be there. I wondered if she was going out for a drink since she’d be legal in the UK. I wondered how she was feeling about her game. I wondered if she was mad at me for missing her. Thinking more about it made me sad.

I also reflected on the high seas from a geopolitics perspective, something related to my PhD work. Appropriately, the week before departing I attended a workshop on the high seas sponsored by the <Global Ocean Commission> at my college in Oxford. All the proposed suggestions had a very tangible meaning now that we were out here on the high seas.

Many have likened the high seas to the Wild West. It’s true that you can get away with anything out here. There’s no one around. It is lawless. Check out the <New York Times’ fantastic expose on “Lawlessness on the High Seas">. On one side of the debate, there is the beautiful dream that the high seas could be a place, indeed an opportunity, for international peace and cooperation. But humans largely need a sense of ownership to act responsibility. I’m no exception. I remember sharing a bedroom with my sister when we were younger. She’s messy and I’m neat. There was a line in the room, dividing messy from neat. I never cleaned her side although she wouldn’t mind it. I’m also thinking of the high seas in terms of the game we often played on nightshifts. Would you rather have to respond to a radio call from a government every time you entered a country’s territorial waters, and perhaps even pay a toll for sailing across their waters? Or, would you rather have total freedom, but allow the ocean decline from overexploitation? What’s the balance? This issue begs for a longer discussion in a separate piece.

The thing I most wondered about before the trip was, how would it feel to be completely surrounded by nothing but ocean? For 22 days we saw nothing but ocean to all edges of the horizon. There was no reference for size or location. You could easily go crazy. If you didn’t trust the compass or maps you’d wonder, have we moved at all? Never have I seen so many consecutive sunsets and sunrises. Every day the sky put on a different show, between sunset, moonrise, and sunrise. Bizzy, a keen eye, saw nearly three-dozen shooting stars during the voyage.

My six-hour flight back to England over the same ocean was surreal. I’ll never look out the window during one of those crossings and view that ocean the same way.

Here’s a “FAQ” to end with:
Q: Would you do it again?
A: Absolutely.

Journal Snippets Continued

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BRINGING "DEFY THE ODDS" Home ACROSS THE ATLANTIC

12/14/2015

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For three weeks over Christmas I'll help sail SailFuture's vessel Defy the Odds across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands to the US Virgin Islands. See previous posts about SailFuture's #SailforJustice program (why the boat is currently in the Canary Islands) and about my time onboard last July.

After landing in the US Virgin Islands, Defy the Odds will take guests on week-long trips between January and April before the next iteration of its central mission -- providing high-risk juvenile offenders a transformative alternative to incarceration through training and teamwork at sea. Learn more about their "Vacations with a Purpose," and maybe you'll wind up on the boat as well!

I likely won't have Internet again until about January 6th. More updates to come after that! I'll be taking plenty of photos and keeping a journal, so until then, bon voyage!

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Introducing the #SailForJustice Program

11/11/2015

I spent an incredible week on the #SAILFORJUSTICE boat in July (see post). The nonprofit SailFuture helps troubled teens break the cycle of behavior that keeps them in the criminal justice system by living, learning, and training together on a donated racing yacht and other sailing programs. You can read about their fantastic success and transformational program on their website.

Their crew of formerly incarcerated teens is now training for a 2,700-mile race across the Atlantic Ocean. Follow their story by signing up for updates. Here's the most recent status report from the program's founder and executive director, Michael Long:

Right now, five of America's highest-risk juvenile offenders are on board 'SV' Defy The Odds somewhere between Spain and Morocco. They left everything they've ever known for the opportunity to transform their lives.

In 26 days, they will race 2,700 miles across the Atlantic Ocean against 217 other sailboats crewed by 1,200 of the world's most experienced sailors.

A weekly video series takes a deep look into the lives of our crew and explores how they landed in the justice system. Join us for the chaos, progress and beauty of these young men working to transform their lives and come together as a team to win the 2015 Atlantic Rally.

Watch the program overview and first episodes below.

Help them spread the word. Click this link to sign up for updates.

SailFuture utilizes the ocean as an alternative to incarceration for high-risk juvenile offenders and innovative mentorship practices to prevent at-risk high school students from entering the juvenile justice system.

UPDATE

Trying and learning is all part of success. See important update from the #SAILFORJUSTICE team.

(12 Nov 2015) After an emotional week filled with tough conversations, Dee, Pluto, Ridge, Tyler and Gavin have returned to the United States.

Lying, stealing, and a lack of willpower led us to decide that we weren't a strong enough team to compete in the race across the Atlantic Ocean. We could not sacrifice safety and ignore warning signs for the sake of the story.

Our mission was to create a transformational experience that would lead to transformational life changes for some of America's highest-risk juvenile offenders. We believe we did that.

Ridge had never left his reservation in Peach Springs, Arizona before embarking on his journey with SailFuture and visiting 5 different countries and 25 cities.

Dee and Pluto were fresh out of jail with no direction. After 100 hours of work shops and life coaching sessions, they have a path forward. In a few weeks Dee and Pluto will move into a SailFuture donor's home in Florida to begin working and apply to attend college at the University of South Florida.

Tyler and Gavin came into the program with uncontrollable anger and fought violently or escaped from every program they have been placed in. We had 0 violent incidents on board and we are proud they have developed new ways to cope with conflict and anger.

We're working with each of the guys to start their transition plans early. If you can assist with job placement or temporary housing, reach out to Mike at [email protected]

As for SailFuture, we'll be debriefing with partners, staff, and youth to evaluate lessons learned, and we are already preparing for the next SailFuture Odyssey program in late April.

Starting in mid January, we are offering unbelievably affordable weeklong vacation in the Caribbean onboard SV Defy the Odds. We encourage you to grab some friends and join us for a week: http://www.sailfuture.org/itinerary/

All of us at SailFuture, staff and students, have felt an extreme sense of community, love, and support from your facebook comments, emails, and phone calls. Thank you for being part of this journey and standing by us through both the calms and the rough seas.

BOOK RECOMMENDATION

8/21/2015

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I'm one part shy of finishing Snyder and Murphy's The Wake, a graphic novel about ocean exploration gone awry. I recommend! And for other action-packed stories of ocean adventure, check out Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson (a true story!) and the Dirk Pitt Adventures by Clive Cussler (whose son Dirk visited us in Aquarius during Mission 31!).

Sneak peak of The Wake

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BLISS

7/14/2015

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This week 15 volunteers sailed the Aegean with SailFuture Captain Mike Long on his journey from Turkey to Florida, bringing a donated vessel to the non-profit’s headquarters. Half of us knew each other previously; half of us didn’t. We were all somewhat acquainted with Mike.

Mike founded the non-profit, SailFuture, which teaches at-risk youth responsibility through sailing as an alternative to incarceration for teens with extensive criminal records. Their goal is to help troubled teens break the cycle of behavior that keeps them in the criminal justice system and prevents them from being responsible and happy members of their communities. You can read about their fantastic success and transformational program on their website. I also had them highlighted on the ACT NOW page a few weeks ago. I can’t speak highly enough of the program.

This year a generous donor gave SailFuture a 65' racing yacht (a MacGregor Pilot House for the boat nerds out there). Mike and his first mate Jeremy repaired the boat and are sailing it from its donation point on the Black Sea in Turkey to its destination point in Florida. Along the way they’re picking up a ragtag bunch of SailFuture friends and supporters to help sail each leg of the journey home. For the uber-curious, here’s my day-by-day account of the week.

In short, my leg of the trip was wonderful. Mike and his team’s passion and dedication not only impressed me, but invigorated my own endeavors. Not to get all soppy, but it was a seminal week that I’ll forever remember -- easily the most fabulous week of the year. I’m look forward to supporting SailFuture’s endeavors as best I can going forward. They’re currently fundraising to race a misfit group across the Atlantic. You can learn more at SailFuture, or reach out to me or Mike with questions.

Other crew posted about the trip as well:
Elizabeth Linzer: “The Best Way to Vacation: With Purpose”
Kristen Moran: “Greece 2015 with Sail Future”
Francisco Gonzalez: "Americans Stimulate Greece on Sail Future’s Week 4 Expedition"
And! From our onboard reporter: "James O'Keefe Goes Undercover in Greece During Financial Crisis"

SailFuture’s donated vessel. More photos coming soon. Photo credit Mike Norton.

Vacation over.

After Greece I pit-stopped in Oxford to repack gear. I flew out early in the morning to begin the three day journey to meet up with the rest of the Oxford research team at our research site on the island of Utila, off Honduras. I’m looking forward to the adventure and to testing new technologies and gathering data for my PhD.

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SUBMARINE MIGHT EXPLORE SEA ON SATURN'S MOON

7/13/2015

Image credit: NASA

Aside from Earth, Saturn's largest moon Titan is the only place in the Solar System with bodies of liquid on its surface that we've discovered so far, making it a rather attractive place to explore.

Step forward the Titan Submarine, a proposal that NASA has just awarded a second round of funding through their Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. It is very much just a concept at the moment, but it is promising nonetheless.

Similar to an Earth-based submarine, the cylindrical vessel about the length of a car would plunge through the thick atmosphere of Titan and dive into its largest liquid hydrocarbon sea, Kraken Mare.

Read more in Jonathan O'Callaghan's "This Titan Submarine is one of Several Futuristic Projects NASA is Funding" or at nasa.gov. Thanks friend Nick for bringing this to my attention. I'd also like to chime in -- Wouldn't it be easier to develop these technologies on earth before we ship them to space?! :)

FEATURE IN TIME Modern Explorers MAGAZINE (!)

6/19/2015

Hey there! Mission 31 made it into TIME Magazine's Modern Explorers Edition! Check out the magazine at news stands or via collectors on Amazon.com. TIME's online coverage here.

TIME Modern Explorers 2015 Edition

^ recognize anyone? :P

SICILY

6/4/2015

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I'm currently with Professor Carlo Beltrame's team diving shipwrecks off the coast of Southern Sicily. More to come when I've better internet! Check out their recent papers here.

UPDATE: Photos!

^Team from University of Porto testing underwater robot

^Dive to 1st century shipwreck

^Cute-as-can-be kittens in dive shop by the harbor

^Sunset snorkel on #WorldOceanDay at archeological site

^Boat trip out to Roman shipwreck, passing stunning landscape of Taromina, Sicily

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MARSHALLS IN NORTHERN IRELAND

5/25/2015

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I’m grateful for the Marshall program for exposing me to policy issues and giving me an education in UK government and international affairs, topics I normally wouldn’t have exposure to in my engineering-focused graduate work. Yet they are critically important to the ocean, especially in the coming decade as multinational bodies shape the future of our waters, for better or for worse.

Each year the Marshall Scholarship, the program funding my PhD, takes scholars on a trip to Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland. This year’s destination was Northern Ireland. Our first stop was Belfast, the capitol. We toured the Parliament buildings there, received an overview lecture on Northern Ireland’s history, and a tour focused on the political history by Dr. Dominic Bryan, Director of Institute of Irish Studies at Queen’s University.

During the 4-day trip we also went on a walking tour of the walled city of Derry and attended a reception hosted by US Consul General Greg Burton. I particularly enjoyed the afternoon at the University of Ulster, chatting with graduate students in the Department of Computing and Intelligent Systems. It was a packed schedule! More photos on Instagram.

The highlight of our trip was a talk by Anne Applebaum over a delightful lunch in Queen’s University Great Hall. Applebaum is a Marshall alumna, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist, and wife of Poland's former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Radoslaw Sikorski. She spoke to us about her research on communism. Her talk was one of the Marshall Scholarship’s 60th anniversary lecture series.

Many thanks again to the Marshall program, including administrators, alumni, sponsors, and my fellow scholars for the intellectually stimulating and action-packed week.

After the official program I spent the weekend in Dublin with a few other scholars. A day trip to the Cliffs of Moher was the highlight of the weekend. More photos on Instagram.

I had the chance to reunite with a PR2 robot at University of Ulster, Department of Computing and Intelligent Systems.

The Cliffs of Moher. I feel so fortunate and grateful to be living and working to better understand this great ecosystem lapping at the shores of the cliffs.

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UPCOMING ADVENTURES

2/5/2015

Next week I'll be temporarily leaving the comfort of Oxford for an exciting round of adventures. It starts in New Orleans, for the Underwater Interventions conference sponsored by the Marine Technology Society, where I'm giving talks on the ultra-slow motion underwater camera from Mission 31 and the stereo-camera system for monitoring fish from NOAA. From there, a friend and I will road trip through the alligator-infested swamps of Louisiana for a few days before flying to Washington DC to see family and move the exhibit of ultra-slow motion underwater photography from MIT to its next stop, The Potomac School in McLean, VA. I'll then rendezvous with our Oxford research team in Miami, where fellow aquanaut Adam Zenone has kindly been accepting our shipments of research equipment, before heading to Utila, Honduras, where we'll spend four weeks training on rebreathers and flying the openROV over mesophotic coral reefs. And finally, back to the comfort of Oxford!

"I DARE you, while there is still time, to have a MAGNIFICENT obsession." William Danforth

A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.

Above and Below the Waves in Malta

11/13/2014

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This Monday I had the good fortune to get a last minute ticket to Malta to join Mission 31 dive master Billy Snook on an epic adventure with U-Boat Worx. The company makes ultra-luxurious personal submarines. Billy and I will be SCUBA diving alongside the submarines making a marketing video for the company. It's fun diving with someone you've spent a lot of time in the water with because you know how to communicate with each other. It's also great to be back the water! My last dive since Mission 31 was with Boston in friend Max Jamilly, who's currently a dive instructor in Indonesia.

Check out this storybook from the first two days of the trip, "In Malta on a Submarine":
https://steller.co/stories/382560750733887168

And from the rest of the trip,
"Above and Below the Waves in Malta"
https://steller.co/stories/391163227385366233

Their subs are designed to be launched off private yachts. Credit Dick Holthuis.

While onboard the ship here in Malta I got to virtually meet an all-girls robotics team (the "Gear Gals") back at my high school. These girls have got it going on! Check out their website.

Last week I had the pleasure of connecting with Joe Grabowski's 8th Grade Science & Technology class in Canada. You can read more about our chat on their blog.

Earlier this month students in Costa Rica asked about living underwater and becoming ocean engineers. They've an incredible ocean-awareness curriculum spearheaded by their teacher, Nacho Esquivel. More info.

View of Port Of Valletta, Malta :) Took this picture with my iPhone (!)

Outreach

#MITAlum twitter chat coming up

Next Tuesday (November 18) at noon EST follow and Tweet to the hashtag #MITAlum to join a Twitter chat with me and fellow MIT alum and Mission 31 coordinator Saul Rosser.

The last Twitter chat with #MITAlum was about space exploration. Read more about it here.

UPDATE: You can view a summary of the chat at http://oceans.mit.edu/featured-stories/aquanaut-grace-young-lived-undersea-15-days-cousteaus-mission-31-live-qa!

Got 12 MINUTeS? Watch steve's Inspiring talk

One of the graduate students who worked in Neri Oxman's lab with me last spring stayed awake while doctors removed a baseball-sized tumor from his brain. He's an absolutely incredible human being, to say the least. He shared his story in the talk at right. It's well worth watching.

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WHAT'S IT LIKE LIVING UNDER The SEA?

6/27/2014

What's it like to live underwater?
Aquarius is currently the only working undersea laboratory in the world. It's located just off the Florida Keys and is about the size of a school bus. There are enough bunk beds, three stacked on each side, for six aquanauts to stay at one time.

Aquarius, the world's only working undersea lab, bolted 60 ft. below

Fabien Cousteau looking out at the sea from inside Aquarius' bunk viewport

The Magnificent Exterior

Let's begin with the exterior of Aquarius, which has become a living coral artificial reef. Aquarius is located in a marine sanctuary and run by Florida International University (FIU). I never tire of living among the beautiful vibrant colors here. Take a look at this video to find out what makes living undersea so important for ocean research. FIU describes the lab this way:

Aquarius is a "global asset providing an unparalleled means" to study the ocean enabling "an ideal combination of research, education and outreach that is both vital and timely given the state of our global ecosystem and societal needs."

A diver and a school of fish outside Aquarius in the Florida Keys where Fabien Cousteau is leading the historic Mission 31 expedition. Photo by Brian Skerry, National Geographic Creative

This beautiful photograph of the exterior of Aquarius was Bing's homepage yesterday. It was taken by Stephen Frink, the most published underwater photographer, who visited Fabien this week. I never tire of living among these vibrant colors undersea.

Just Another Day at the (Ocean) "Office"

We can spend entire days working outside the habitat in the ocean at this depth because we are fully saturated. For example, the other day, Liz spent six hours consecutively in the water while I operated equipment from inside the habitat. Having unrestricted time in the ocean is a huge advantage for conducting research and collecting data. We can accomplish six months or even years worth of data collection in just 31 days on this mission without the time constraints required by surface dives to this depth.

Being saturated, however, also means that we can no longer just swim to the surface. In a few days, we'll need to decompress for 18 hours before returning topside. Fellow aquanaut Adam explained his decompression experience from the first half of the mission, and here's a video from the mid-mission switch describing what's involved in decompression that's necessary before we return to the surface.

Liz (left) and I (right) collect plankton samples for Northeastern University. Just another day at the office. Credit Mission 31.

Checking the time underwater on my DOXA watch while filming an educational Mission 31 video about light waves and color underwater.

Amazing Views (every minute) from the Viewport

What's the view like living undersea? All sorts of beautiful sea creatures come right up to our kitchen table "window" (technically called a viewport in the Aquarius lab) to to investigate us aliens below. I can sit and stare at them for hours. There are fish, plankton, eagle rays, squid, divers, and a host of other creatures swimming by.

Here are some views from the viewport. The views change every moment, but are always magnificent. Can you imagine this view out your window everyday/hour?

Hi Eagle Ray at our viewport! Credit Liz.

Good morning from Aquarius. Credit Fabien.

Astronaut Clayton Anderson by the table viewport.

Goliath grouper outside our bunk viewport.

Video: a shark watches a grouper attack a barracuda. Click on the image as a link to this video.

The Life-Sustaining Mechanics of Aquarius

As an engineer, the mechanics inside Aquarius also fascinate me, but more on this later.

Don't hit the red button! Note the fire extinguisher; the O2 is twice as much at this atmosphere, so the danger of fire is real.

These valves control the air in Aquarius. It takes 24 people topside to support six aquanauts undersea. Astronauts also train here as a "foreign" environment.

Working undersea with the Mission 31 team has been amazing. It's surprisingly comfortable down here. We are connected to the Internet due to the many Skype-in-the-Classroom lessons and other ocean outreach events that we conduct daily, and we also have many short-term (no more than an hour at this depth) visitors. Frankly, I could imagine having an undersea vacation home someday, though I'm not sure how feasible that would be. It has taken 24 people topside to maintain Aquarius for this mission. I'll post part two of living underwater with some science questions answered soon.

Three more days and so much research and exploring still left to do undersea!

Take a look at A Few Snapshots from Yesterday in Aquarius, my previous post.

ADVENTURES IN THE MANGROVES

6/14/2014

Yesterday I ventured with Matt and Brian to the Content Keys, where we met with two guides who took us on an adventure through the Florida mangroves. Mangroves are trees that grow partially submerged in the ocean. It felt like we were filming a Discovery Channel special (like this one on mangroves).

We were there because we wanted to learn more about the grouper from an expert, our guide Don, who formerly hunted the fish but now tries to protect them. Matt and I will attempt to film the grouper's unique feeding strike during our saturation on Mission 31.

Mangroves are amazing plants. They thrive in the salt water either by filtering out the salt at their roots or secreting excess salt through their leaves. They form forests in the middle of the ocean that harbor juvenile fish, filter water, and serve as attachment points for other water-filtering marine organisms. In addition, animals, such as pelicans and other costal birds, find shelter in the branches. There are even stories of monkeys living in the Florida mangroves!

We snorkeled in the mangroves for several hours. Swimming under their branches, it was an alien world, like a scene from Avatar. We saw grouper, many snapper, some horse shoe crabs, and tiny crabs. The sounds were like nothing I've heard before. I could hear branches creaking and snapping, the rush of the current, and some popping noises from fish. Matt and Brian used the fancy RED camera to film the experience in incredible quality. The RED camera has more than 5 times the number of pixels of the very best HD camera. You'll have to wait to see their footage -- it'll be worth the wait!

Intrepid M31 photographers Brian and Matt setting up the RED camera. Their footage will come out later; it's worth the wait! Samantha, our German shepherd mascot, retweeted this photo :)

Our captain Mike knew the mangroves like the back of his hand. this was a good thing! The mangroves were like a thorny maze.

Eerie!! The entrance to the mangroves is mostly bare and dying trees, weathered by hurricanes.

The mangroves entrance reminded me of the thorny forest in Sleeping Beauty.

This is what the mangroves looked like, although this isn't my photo. Credit floridarambler.com. Sometimes I'd look up and not see the end of our path. It'd be easy to get lost in the maze, but thankfully we had an excellent guide.

The video shows a 6 second snippet of our hour long boat ride to the mangroves. It couldn't have been a nicer, more sun-shinny day.

We went out in a small motor boat, perfect for maneuvering in the shallow water.

Mangrove Update

Update: Our guide Don just sent me a copy of July's National Geographic with a terrific piece with amazing photos about the Goliath Grouper in the mangroves that they've been working on for years. I'll write a separate post soon about his fascinating work and this interesting creature that can be up to 800 lbs and nine feet long! (added 6/21/14)

A REASON TO SMILE: Thank You Notes

This afternoon I got a very pleasant surprise in the mail. The students at Birches, whom I chatted with last week, sent me many thank you notes. It put a huge smile on my face! The letters have more excellent questions too. Kids are so curious! Have you seen anything cool? Have you swam with sea snakes? What other animals have you seen? Will you send me a 'pikshr'? My first visit with this school was in the fall, and it was great (blog post here).

One thank you note asked, "Do you know which valves to turn on your helmet?" Another said, "Grace, We miss you very, very much!"

Some Work, Some fun

The past few days I've also been helping prepare science research, so everything is ready for our saturation on June 17th. The Northeastern surface team, who has a fantastic blog here, started shipping their gear last week, and it's slowly arriving at base. One of the things I was most excited to receive was the plankton traps from graduate student Amanda Dwyer. On our first day in Aquarius, fellow aquanaut Liz and I will deploy a dozen of the traps over different regions of the coral reef. All traps are small, so they are minimally invasive. They will collect zooplankton that rise into the net. Each day and night we'll then collect samples from the net, and Amanda will analyze the results. She'll be able to tell the health of the reef from the samples, and learn more about the zooplankton's nocturnal behavior. Plankton are an incredible resource on earth; they provide at least half of the oxygen we breath! I'm excited to help learn more about their important role in our ecosystem.

The tools for other research, including for the sponges DNA, coral-stress, and sponge metabolism studies, arrive this week as well. More on that to come! Other exciting news is that the underwater housing for the Edgertronic camera is on it's way here, thanks to the Sexton Corporation, who has amazingly designed, created, and tested a modular system for using the Edgertronic underwater.

Graduate student Amanda designed and assembled plankton traps we'll use for her research during Mission 31. She describes the process in her blog post.

We tested her traps in the pool this week. They look good! We just need to add weight so they'll sink. The net and the jar at the top will collect plankton.

This is what zooplankton actually looks like. They're incredibly tiny animals, barely visible to the naked eye. See Amanda's blog post.
Credit cmarz.org

I still think of the plankton character in Spongebob whenever I think of plankton... Despite knowing more about plankton now than I ever did before.

M31 team member Billy found mascot Samantha (follow her exciting Twitter account!) at a serious moment at mission headquarters, reading papers about plankton, sponges, and coral reefs to prepare for Mission 31 science. Someone said that the world would be a better place if more dogs had twitter accounts.

Friday night (+Friday the 13th!) full moon celebration on the beach, complete with fire dancers, fireworks, and a Latin-African fusion band. I tried taking a photo of the moon with my phone, but it just looked like a flashlight hanging in the sky.

Beautiful! Did an interview on the beach yesterday for Univision TV. Couldn't imagine a better back drop! The only issue was that we sometimes had to wait for a paddle boarder to pass in the background :)

Also beautiful! Credit to Jeremy Childress at the Sexton Corporation, who made this underwater housing for the Edgertronic. He also connected the Edgertronic to a battery and screen that will fit inside the housing.

RETURN FROM THE AMAZON (AND SAVING A TURTLE)

6/9/2014

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Today Mission 31 team members Matt and Brian returned from the Amazon, where they were shooting a continuing project with Fabien Cousteau's sister Celine. You can see photos, showing how the Amazon has changed during the lifetimes of three Cousteau generations, in the ebook Return from the Amazon available in the iTunes Store. Matt and Brian told us the Amazon was scorching hot, over 105 degrees F. The 80-degree weather here in sunny Florida must now feel like a cool spring day! The intrepid explorers also shared stories of the bugs and difficulty in traveling around the Amazon. What an experience! I can't wait to hear more over dinner.

Meanwhile, I continue preparing Mission 31 science research from topside. Today we sent out plankton nets for a research project designed by Northeastern graduate student Amanda Dwyer. I'm also counting down till saturation -- 7 more days!

Billy found me working late yesterday, preparing experiments for Mission 31. In front of me are tubes that will store zooplankton for Amanda Dwyer, a researcher at Northeastern University.

The Turtle Hospital

Last Friday I had the opportunity to visit the Turtle Hospital with production team member Billy Snook. I was completely blown away at the incredible organization. It pained me to see how turtles have suffered from human causes, even indirectly. For example, sea grass absorbs fertilizers that run off into the ocean that turtles eats. The chemical fertilizers can develop tumors called fibropapilloma that will slowly and painfully kill the turtle. If the fertilizers in our crops do that to turtles, what are they doing to us?

I posted this story to my Instagram. Thankfully the turtle made it into the hospital's care and is on the road to recovery.

This photo shows one of the recovered turtles; without the care of the Turtle Hospital this turtle would have died from human causes. Let's be optimistic!

Turtles unfortunately suffer from a variety of human impacts. The turtle hospital helps by removing tumors, helping a turtle eat again, and more, so a turtle can have a second chance in the wild after a human-caused incident.

This turtle developed fibropapilloma tumors from fertilizers that ran-off into the sea grass it eats. If fertilizers are doing this to turtles, what are they doing to us?

I could hardly believe, all these debris the hospital found inside a single turtle; the turtle can't digest the debris, not only giving it stomach cramps, but also causing gas to form in it's digestive track. The gas ruins the turtle's buoyancy, causing it to float, unable to dive for food. The turtle hospital can't remove all the plastic from a living turtle, but the can help by adding weights to a turtle's shell so it at least don't starve to death on the surface.

On the ride home I had a lot to think about. How can we help marine creatures from their impending doom? We take them for granted, but all the creatures help keep the ocean ecosystem in a healthy balance, and the ocean is our live support system. We need more turtle hospitals! And less reasons for turtles to need to go to the hospital from human impacts!

If you extra specially care about sea turtles, check out The Turtle Hospital (maybe even call or donate!). There's also a fantastic non-profit called the Sea Turtle Conservancy; I follow them on Facebook to stay up-to-date on all their work (and see pictures of sea turtles on my news feed.)

A DIVING DRONE

I forgot to tell this story. On Spalshdown Day, the Mission 31 production team smartly deployed quadcopters to capture aerial footage of the excitement. Well, there was some problem with one of the copters (never really understood what happened), and it fell into the ocean. Luckily, one of the Navy divers, Carter, without missing a beat, dove in and rescued the copter on a breath-hold dive to 10m. Amazing! Sometimes robots need the Navy to rescue them too.

Mission 31 video editor Toby Wallwork in front of one of the flying quadcopters. Credit to Mission 31.

There's also blog posts: "Shellebrate" -- It's World Turtle Day! and Sea Life Just Fish? Think Polar Bears Too!

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​​​BLOG BY GRACE C. YOUNG ﻿﻿

PROGRESS

Other Update from Yellow Rectangle

Update

ANOTHER NOTE ON POSITIVE MESSAGES

What We'RE Doing and Why

Still #TeamOcean

Preliminary Results

1

2

3

UPDATE - 12 Sept 17

Update - 20 Nov 17

Update - Jan 2018

WHAT’S NEXT.

Still Team Ocean

UPDATE

Vacation over.

UPDATE: Photos!

Outreach

#MITAlum twitter chat coming up

Got 12 MINUTeS? Watch steve's Inspiring talk

​The Magnificent Exterior

​Just Another Day at the (Ocean) "Office"

​Amazing Views (every minute) from the Viewport

​The Life-Sustaining Mechanics of Aquarius

Mangrove Update

A REASON TO SMILE: Thank You Notes

Some Work, Some fun

The Turtle Hospital

A DIVING DRONE

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Categories

BLOG BY GRACE C. YOUNG

The Magnificent Exterior

Just Another Day at the (Ocean) "Office"

Amazing Views (every minute) from the Viewport

The Life-Sustaining Mechanics of Aquarius