Radio Program

Our regular Science and the SeaTM radio program presents marine science topics in an engaging two-minute story format. Our script writers gather ideas for the radio program from the University of Texas Marine Science Institute's researchers and from our very popular college class, Introduction to Oceanography, which we teach to hundreds of non-science majors at The University of Texas at Austin every year. Our radio programs are distributed at to commercial and public radio stations across the country.

October 17, 2011

If the fear of great white sharks has kept you out of the water, then get splashin’. It turns out there are probably no more than a few hundred of them in the northern Pacific Ocean.

October 10, 2011

Fridtjof Nansen was just 21 when he first sailed into the frigid waters of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. The young zoologist, who was born in Norway in 1861, joined the crew of a seal-hunting ship. In addition to catching seals, he recorded details about the oceans, the weather, and marine life. And he developed a love for the sea, the ice, and Arctic adventures.

October 3, 2011

If you’ve ever spent an afternoon at the beach without your sunscreen, then you’re all too familiar with the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation -- it was responsible for that nasty sunburn.

Ultraviolet has a shorter wavelength than visible light, so we can’t see it. But it’s more penetrating -- it can zap right through individual cells. As a result, we feel ultraviolet’s effects. It’s responsible for that nice golden suntan -- and the skin cancers that can follow. It can also cause genetic mutations -- not just to life on land, but to life in the oceans as well.

September 26, 2011

Streamers of sunlight filtering through a clear blue sea are more than just a pretty sight -- they’re the power source for almost all the life in the oceans.

Three forms of solar energy hit the oceans: infrared, visible, and ultraviolet. Some of this energy is reflected back into space, but most of it penetrates the surface. In clear, calm waters under a cloud-free sky, some of the sunlight can travel up to a few hundred feet down.

September 19, 2011

If you dig into the muck at the ocean floor, you’ll find layers of ash deposited by volcanic eruptions and by the impacts of giant boulders from space. You’ll also find minerals, pollen grains, and spores that washed into the oceans from the land, and the skeletons of microscopic animals that died long ago.

These and much more are contained in layers of sediments. Scientists probe them by dropping a hollow tube into the sediments and pulling up layers from as far as two-thirds of a mile down.

September 12, 2011

To understand the history of the oceans, you have to go deep -- not just deep below the surface, but deep below the ocean floor. Over millions of years, sand, silt, volcanic ash, dead plants and animals, and other material settles to the bottom, forming a geological layer cake -- thin bands that record the history of the oceans and the entire planet.

September 5, 2011

How do you make a polar bear float? Mix two scoops of polar bear with a bottle of root beer!

Okay, so that’s basically just another bad joke from the Internet. But it does give us a chance to talk about how polar bears and other creatures manage to stay afloat in the water.

For the polar bear, it’s blubber -- a layer of fat several inches thick. It’s less dense than the water, so it acts as sort of a lifejacket, keeping what’s inside -- the bear -- on the surface.

August 29, 2011

Marine scientists have been probing conditions in the cold current off the coast of Southern California for more than six decades now. During frequent research cruises, they measure the current’s temperature, speed, salinity, and other conditions. They also sample the organisms in the water. And in recent years, they’ve counted a lot more baby fish in the water at much earlier dates -- a change likely caused by changes in ocean temperature.

August 22, 2011

A mouthful of sea water tastes salty. That’s because on average, about three-and-a-half percent of sea water consists of dissolved minerals like chlorine and sodium.

In the open ocean, the concentration of those minerals -- known as salinity -- varies little. But even tiny fluctuations can have a major impact on Earth’s climate.

August 15, 2011

For some pelicans, dinner is a communal affair -- a sit-down activity shared with friends. For others, though, it’s strictly grab-and-go -- an activity for one. Two species of pelican inhabit American coastlines: the brown pelican and the American white pelican. They’re different in more than just color, though. They have different nesting habits, for example, and white pelicans are generally a good bit larger than the brown ones.

One other thing that sets them apart is their feeding habits.

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