Scavenging for Knowledge

I carefully lifted the small glass vial from the box and gently pulled its cap off. Careful not to spill the ethanol on my clothes, I slowly poured a little onto the microscope tray. Then I used tweezers to lift out the preserved specimen. It was a deep-sea amphipod about the same size as a grain of rice. I typed the information into my spreadsheet as I went . . . date: February 20, 2017 . . . specimen number 417. Peering down the microscope, I carefully measured and dissected the specimen.

These tiny amphipods live in the deepest parts of Earth’s blue oceans. Humans have explored space and looked back at our blue planet. More than two thirds of it is covered in water. But how and why do we dive down deep