News Archive

The CTD has been recovered from its journey to the deeps, and is now working again. We are all of us relieved to be able to get back to our normal pattern of work.At 2am we collected the water for our third bioassay experiment. Everything went smoothly and efficiently and within a few hours we had…

Most work has not been possible today, due to a problem with the cable that the CTD is lowered on. Thanks to some hard graft from the ship’s engineers, it looks to be repaired now and we hope to be back at work tomorrow morning early.One line of work that has not been affected is the research on…

A decision that ensures the future provision of remotely operated vehicle (ROV) capability for the UK marine science community has been taken by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), working with its partners.This ends a period of uncertainty following a shipboard incident in late January that…

The latest acoustic instruments for probing sediment processes were recently deployed by NOC engineers and scientists in the Dee estuary on the new frame SEDbed (Sediment Experiments on Dynamics and bedforms).The SEDbed frame has been developed in support of the EU HYDRALAB-IV programme and houses…

The last few days have seen fairly high winds and big waves (see photos). Some stops for water sampling have had to be cancelled because it has been too dangerous to lower the CTD into the water.Portholes have had to be screwed down, rims be added around the dinner tables to stop plates sliding off…

Almost two weeks are goneThe first time I went on board the RRS Discovery I was disorientated and a bit worried about the life on board a ship. Some people were working to take on all the research equipment, there were boxes everywhere and the ship seemed to be a labyrinth!Our blog entry today has…

Today our routine of collecting scientific samples has been interrupted by the arrival of the predicted rough weather. We are now heading out towards the deep Atlantic, roughly at the location shown by the red dot on the cruise map.The last couple of blog entries have described ways in which we…

Coccolithophore blooms, almostToday’s blog entry is written by Jeremy Young, University College LondonJeremy uses both a normal light microscope and an electron microscope to work out the biodiversity of the phytoplankton at each location and through the bioassays.In the 19th century seamen…

Lord Marland, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change, learned about the National Oceanography Centre’s research and its role as a provider of national marine capability on a visit to Liverpool yesterday (Thursday 16 June). He was accompanied by The…

Warm congratulations to Pam Talbot, formerly departmental secretary for Biology, Biogeochemistry and Ecosystems, who received an MBE in the recent Queen’s birthday honours list. The award is for services to the National Oceanography Centre and its predecessors over a period spanning 45 years.Pam,…

On the cruise so far we have already seen large differences in the dominant phytoplankton present in different places. In just the last three days we have seen some places where diatoms dominated, others where coccolithophores dominated, and another where dinoflagellates were the most numerous…

Yesterday evening and today we have enjoyed sunny weather and calm seas, as shown in the photos. Those who were feeling a bit queasy earlier in the trip are now feeling much better. However, we are forecast to be heading into rough weather later in the week, when we will be visiting the most…