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.
The underside of a polar ice cap doesn’t sound like a very inviting abode for life. But a recent study found massive amounts of microscopic life beneath the Arctic ice — as much as scientists have seen anywhere in the entire oceans.
The rosy glow of a baby’s cheeks is considered a sign of good health. In the oceans, though, a rosy glow can be a sign of poor health — both of the glowing organisms, and of the entire marine ecosystem.
Falcons are among the most majestic creatures on Earth, soaring easily over mountains, forests, and other regions. For one species, the “other regions” include the icy waters around Greenland, where they can spend weeks at a time at sea.
Until recently, all falcons were thought to be strictly land-based. But a study released in 2011 found that gyrfalcons can range far out to sea.
Scientists have been charting the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana for three-quarters of a century. Hundreds of surveys have provided glimpses of different regions, in different levels of detail. But only recently did all of that work come together. Scientists from Texas A&M University compiled decades of work to produce sharp digital maps of the hidden sea floor.
Manatees are some of the most inoffensive creatures on the planet. They’re big, slow, and friendly. Yet their encounters with people often leave them battered and scarred. Over the last few decades, marine biologists have been using those scars to keep track of the manatees — an effort that should yield new insights into how manatees live and how they respond to the changing environment.
A hidden killer can lurk along the coastline, ready to pull unsuspecting swimmers out to sea. It’s not a great white shark, though —or a creature of any kind, for that matter. Instead, it’s a rip current — a narrow channel of water that flows away from the beach, catching unprepared swimmers.
Coral reefs offer a rainbow array of colors — red, yellow, purple, and many other vivid shades. But diseases can strip away that color, leaving the coral as pale as a blank sheet of paper — and just as dead, too.
Coral diseases have spread rapidly over the last couple of decades, affecting reefs around much of the world. The diseases are caused by bacteria, algae, and other tiny organisms. But global climate change, pollution, and other factors may be making the problem worse by providing a more hospitable environment for the disease-causing organisms.
65 million years ago, a mountain-sized space rock slammed into Earth. The impact created worldwide fires and acid rain. It blasted so much debris into the atmosphere that it blacked out the Sun for months, and kept the planet unusually cold for years. Most of the life on land quickly vanished, including the dinosaurs. And without sunlight, tiny marine organisms known as phytoplankton vanished, too, triggering the collapse of the entire marine food chain.
When the Sun makes itself scarce and temperatures begin to plummet, bears and many other animals settle in for a long winter’s nap. They slow their metabolism and live off the fat they stored up during the summer, hibernating for up to several months.
Some of the tiniest creatures in the sea can hibernate, too. But like Rip Van Winkle, their naps can last for decades. And their awakening can be important not just for their own species, but for life on the entire planet.
The Southern Ocean is punctuated by an amazing variety of sounds — chirps and clicks and notes that sound like they were created for a sci-fi movie. Yet they’re produced by seals and whales, by grinding icebergs and cracking ice sheets, and by things that scientists are still trying to identify.
