Ralphie's Lab on Reuters and CNN.com

[BarTopDancer]

WOOHOO! That must be so exciting!

[Alex]

Ralphie, a quick question if you have a moment. How do you keep these creatures of the depth properly presurized for the entire trip from depth to lab?

I know the article says you have special pressurized aquariums but I would think it takes a lot of equipment to replicate 10,000 feet of water above you.

Or are these creatures tolerant of the pressure changes?

[libraryvixen]

Woo Woo! Hooray Ralphie's lab and Ralphie's friend!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

This research is really interesting! Creatures that live at the hottest temperatures...awesome.

What Alex asked!

[Not Afraid]

Well, we ot the explaination to Alex's question tonight when we went to visit said creatures, but I'm going to let Ralphie do the 'splaining. I will say, however, that these creatures of the deep are incredibly fascinating too both look at and learn about. Very cool research and I'm looking forward to a report post-dive in August.

[€uroMeinke]

Best exchange of the evening:

Ralphie pulling out various specimens of deep sea and Mid ocean life

Not Afraid: Pointing at a jar with some peculiar shaped creature -
What's That?

Ralphie: Quickly pulling out other jars of creatures responding with a very matter-of-fact tone -
Oh, we don't know what that is

The lab was very cool and we got to see some of the titanium vessels they'll use to bring back some of these creatures in their natural presurized environment.

[Not Afraid]

I loved the story about the 10 foot octopus they pulled up that was entirerly transparent. Super Cool!

[Snowflake]

Wow, this is totally cool! I'm way behind in reading, but I'm envious and fascinated.

[Ralphie]

Hi Alex,

To answer your question and those of others, it is very expensive and requires lots of specialized gear to keep these animals alive. We've worked with engineers to design titanium pressure vessels that can withstand the extremely high pressures that these creatures experience (approaching 4,000 pounds per square inch). To put this in perspective, that's like balancing a Honda Accord or half of a Hummer over a one inch square area on your head. In addition, we have to also add the chemicals normally found in these environments, including hydrogen sulfide, oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Some of the animals that live at these vents can tolerate pressure changes and we can transport them back to the lab for study. Others can not and we have to study them out at sea on research vessels.

Innerspaceman, you're right. the process by which these animals and bacteria make a living is called chemosynthesis (they convert chemicals from the geothermal activity of the vents to usable carbon compounds like sugars that can then be used for life). You get an A!

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by Ralphie

To answer your question and those of others, it is very expensive and requires lots of specialized gear to keep these animals alive...

Isn't he, like, smart and some junk?