Research Highlights: Archives 2007

Heavy Metal

Scripps scientists offer new insight into natural iron fertilization occurring in the world's oceans

Drake Passage, a stretch of water between the southern tip of Chile and the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, is well known as one of the roughest stretches of water in the world. Strong winds blow constantly and waves over 10 meters (30 feet) high are commonplace.

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Banking on Fish Populations

Method used on Wall Street applied to fish population forecasts

Tapping into the same tools that banks and hedge funds have used to forecast financial markets, scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have developed a powerful new method for forecasting fish populations. The new technique could have a hand in future ocean management decisions that rely on ecosystem-based data.

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Remote Magnetism

Researchers Offer New Technique to Explore Earth's Magnetic Field

pair of Scripps geophysicists has taken to the skies to explore the deep earth in a novel way.

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Gore, IPCC win Nobel Peace Prize

UN Science panel includes leading scientists from Scripps

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations-sponsored body of scientists that includes several from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with former Vice President Al Gore.

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Seeing the Light

Researchers discover fluorescence in important fish-like animal

In late summer of 2005, Dimitri Deheyn was going about his business inside the Experimental Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

Deheyn, a Scripps project scientist, was screening a variety of marine animals using a blue light, a device used to evaluate which organisms emit fluorescent light.

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A Lingering Hazard

Public health implications of wildfire smoke studied

While wildfires were threatening much of San Diego County and its residents last month, several researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego were analyzing the soot in local air to better understand the implications of urban fires as well as their implications on climate.

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All-Natural Ingredients

Researchers replicate natural process for developing drug products

Historically potent medicines derived from nature—such as penicillin—are based on chemical structures that are often too intricate to easily reproduce artificially.

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Hitting 400

Scientists achieve milestone earthquake instrument deployment two months ahead of schedule

When a large earthquake ruptures in a populated area, news of the temblor travels the globe in an instant through television and the Internet. Most people don't realize that hundreds of earthquakes unfold throughout the world every day with little or no fanfare.

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A place of 'special instability'

Funny things happen at 28.8 degrees North, Scripps researchers find

As any child on a swing knows, you have to pump your legs just so to achieve maximum air.

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Water Crisis on the Horizon

Soot-filled "brown clouds" a major contributor to warming, glacial melt in the Himalayas

The soot and other pollution that make up "brown clouds" in skies over Asia warm the atmosphere as much as greenhouse gases, according to a team led by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego atmospheric chemistry professor V. Ramanathan.

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Carving Out a New Idea of the Past

There was bad news and good news aboard the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaking vessel Healy during a 2002 voyage to the Arctic Ocean.

The bad news was a disturbing lack of sea ice, which, combined with strong winds, prevented the vessel from maintaining a steady position in the Arctic's Chukchi Sea. The harsh conditions hindered a multi-institutional research team's ability to extract seafloor sediment cores, one of the principal goals of the expedition.

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Destination: Dean

Scripps-designed buoys dropped in path of monster Gulf hurricane

Twelve research buoys designed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography took on Hurricane Dean and provided more evidence to storm trackers that the devices are an important new tool for measuring and forecasting extreme weather events.

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Cold Storage

Iceberg armada is seeding Antarctic ocean waters with nutrients

Like giant pellets of fertilizer, an ever-growing number of icebergs is changing the ecology of certain areas of the Southern Ocean. These "hotspots" of nutrient infusion are also altering the chemistry of the waters in their immediate vicinity, according to a research team that includes current and former researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

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Scientists Crack the Code of Potent Sea Organism

Genome Sequencing of Bacteria Paves the Way for Possible New Natural Treatments

When we think of the Bahamas we think of sun, vacation, and paradise. The last thing that comes to mind for most of us is the mud found at the bottom of the ocean.

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Back at the Helm

Recovery of state funds takes student-led cruises out of dry dock

After a a five-year funding drought, students at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego are welcome to submit proposals to serve as chief scientists aboard any of the four Scripps research vessels.

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Clouds of Mystery

Scientists get the most direct look ever at giant trans-Pacific dust plumes

Like smoke signals issued from a distant fire, huge puffs of dust and particulate pollution have spent the month of May traveling across the Pacific Ocean from Asia to North America in bursts every three or four days.

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The Network Behind the Network

UC San Diego awarded $29 million for Scripps-led cyberinfrastructure project

A national consortium of oceanographic institutions has chosen UC San Diego to receive a $29 million award to create a computer cyberinfrastructure that will enable a vast network of ocean-observing instruments to communicate with scientists, students, and members of the general public.

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Research Delves into Fruit Flies and Free Will

Methods originally developed for oceanic data were key for novel experiment

Reaching into the realm of philosophy, scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have contributed to a new study that addresses the free will of animals.

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A Break From the Past

Female contingent of science party comes a long way to take part in field research

Veteran physical oceanographer Janet Sprintall of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego can remember being the only woman aboard research cruises when she began her career. Many older members of the oceanographic community recall when women weren't allowed to take part in research cruises at all.
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Survey off San Diego Details Sand Movements

Scripps scientists find geological features cause sand buildup

Scripps/UCSD geophysicist among team finding evidence that plate tectonics began 3.8 billion years ago before any currently known geological record.
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Black Carbon: Major Pacific climate force

Soot and other particulate pollution from Asian sources make up more than 75 percent of black carbon transported at high altitudes, according to Scripps-led study
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Ancient Plate Tectonics

Scripps/UCSD geophysicist among team finding evidence that plate tectonics began 3.8 billion years ago before any currently known geological record.
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Searching for the Source

New method developed at Scripps pinpoints the origins of tiny mussel larvae
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Water Deep Under the Ice

Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego study finds complex plumbing system beneath West Antarctica ice sheet and it's more active than expected.
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Call of the Whale

Scripps scientists discover more about blue whales by studying their calls.
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Positive ID

Engineers 'creating a new paradigm' to improve observations of krill, fish populations
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Surf City, Here We Come

Scripps scientists test a method for tracking ocean pollution at Huntington Beach, one of America's favorite surf spots and tourist destinations.
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The State of Climate 2007

Scripps scientists contribute expertise to key climate change study.
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