Marine Scientist, Ocean Data Expert, Little Sister.
Carrie C. Wall has one of the best jobs ever. She’s a marine scientist who has studied sea lions in Alaska, tracked dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico, and dived deep underwater around the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Today, Wall is leading the development of an archive for water column sonar data at the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. What does all that mean? I have no idea, but since she also happens to be my little sister, I thought I’d give her a call and find out exactly what she’s doing, and why it’s so important.
HEY SIS. SO AN ARCHIVE FOR WATER COLUMN SONAR DATA. BREAK THAT DOWN FOR ME. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY SONAR DATA?
Sure! Basically, there are two ways sound can help us learn about the ocean. One way is using what we call passive acoustics. That’s putting a microphone in the water and listening to the sounds animals create. Like a whale singing! The other way is active acoustics, which uses sonar. Sonar instruments send out a sound pulse that bounces off anything it comes in contact with. And I mean anything. The sea floor, shipwrecks, fish, plankton, even gas bubbles. A device on the ship can then interpret these bounces into sonar data (information we can read). It lets us peek into the water column.
GOT IT. AND WHAT’S A WATER COLUMN?
The water column is the surface of the ocean, all the way down to the sea floor.
SONAR LETS YOU SEE EVERYTHING GOING ON UNDERWATER?
Denne historien er fra November/December 2018-utgaven av Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
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Denne historien er fra November/December 2018-utgaven av Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
THE PROBLEM WITH PALM OIL
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.
