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Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 Bursting Your BubbleCurrently Meagan Moore, a second-year graduate student in Prather's UC San Diego lab, is studying the transition of particles from water to air in a lab setting before replicating experiments in the field. Using Mason jars of collected seawater, she is studying the effects of chemical compounds called surfactants that tend to collect at the surface microlayer, the "skin" of the ocean that's only micrometers thick. In early results, she has found that a surfactant called oleic acid seems to stifle the production of cloud-creating aerosols.  
In the same lab, project scientist Hiroshi Furutani, credited with coming up with the thesis that launched the project, is studying what kinds of organisms tend to get ejected with sea salt. He has found that the journey from ocean to air can increase the concentration of particles 50 to 100 times. In a recently completed research paper, he and Prather report that organic matter seems to have an easier time leaving seawater through bubbles than through atomizing actions that are more typically associated with discharges through sea spray. Furutani has also found that smaller organisms such as viruses tend to be especially concentrated when ejected into the air. Evidence like that is spurring Prather to see if cloud-making microbes also have a human health side effect. She is interested in exploring possible links between respiratory health and episodes in the ocean like sewage spills or algal blooms. In early April, the Unified Port of San Diego awarded her a grant to use her group's recently developed mobile lab to study air pollution in the San Diego Bay region. "It's definitely something to think about," Prather said. "There are large numbers of asthma sufferers in San Diego with our supposedly clean air and this could be a part of it. At this stage, no one knows for sure." |
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Feeling the Heat: The Climate ChallengeGet the facts on the world's hottest topic How will global warming impact your life? Discover the answers through interactive activities for all ages at Birch Aquarium at Scripps's newest exhibit opening Saturday, May 19, 2007. 
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