Under Water to get out of the Rain: concluding :Why oh why oh why did I not become a marine biologist?

It is such a cool thing to be. You get to scuba dive in varied locations collecting data; it involves looking at beautiful things in a beautiful environment, you design great experiments for changing ecosystems to see what works and what doesn't work, and you meet other people who love the same things as you!

It is all the fault of Miss Johns, who taught us Biology. She was a large, toothy woman who was quite diffident. She must have hated her ungrateful, giggling pupils, and she never showed us anything from the real world of nature. We copied the text book and diagrams on the board. I remember that ferns (or mosses) do something quite interesting in their life cycle and I hoped she would bring in an example of the thing that they became, but nope! I am still trying to become less ignorant. I collected my O Level.  But was that education? I believe children are taught better now, that there is some connection between the student and the life form studied.

History was taught and tested in the same way. You learned a story and you wrote it out in grammatically correct sentences. No wonder I preferred English Lit. You actually dealt with the book which contained its own world. It was not a step away from the actual subject under investigation.

My father was a keen gardener and I liked being in the garden with him. I was very fond of worms and used to collect them while he was digging. He told me how important the worms were for the soil. He was also keen on making compost heaps and enjoyed seeing them break down into compost as much as he enjoyed seeing the plants grow. (I am a bit like that now) One day I inspected the roses and I pointed out to him that some were covered with blackfly. I asked him if there was some kind of poison for the blackfly to get rid of them. "Yes," he said. "They tried that. They got some DDT and sprayed it and killed all the pests." "So that's a good idea then?" "Well. Then the birds started to die..." He didn't need to say any more. He had just explained ecology in 2 sentences.

But back to marine biology:" Under Water to get out of the Rain" includes so many interesting stories about things like, why did the Californian giant kelp forests start to diminish? they are vital to the food industry. Who was put on the case and what experiments did he do to solve the puzzle?

What happened to Cannery Row? Who was "Doc" the marine biologist that John Steinbeck wrote about? Now I know the answers I have to read "Cannery Row" again.(What an unlikely place for literature - a row of smelly factories for fish processing.)

I picked up this book by serendipity - my friend Amanda asked us round for a Christmas quiz and gave me this book to rest my answer paper on. I flicked through and I was intrigued. It's a terrific read, and unlike our  bad role-model Professor Steve Jones, Professor Trevor Norton lists at the end all the books he has consulted : A long, long list, and credits everyone, especially those who died at sea.

Under Water to get out of the Rain - Part 5 - 2 strange plants

This probably isn't at all interesting to most people, but I found it very interesting. Here is Trevor on an island called Graciosa:

There are other sand binders such as Caulerpas, seaweeds that resemble green leaves, fern fronds or clusters of tiny grapes. They arise from creeping runners, much as strawberry plants do, and the underground cobweb of runners keeps the sand in place. Unlike all the other plants and animals, which are built of millions of tiny cells each independently controlled by its own nucleus, Caulerpa shuns compartmentalisation in favour of tubular construction. No matter how many metres its runners spread, or how numerous its upright fronds, the entire plant is a continuous hollow tube without interruption. As it doesn't waste energy manufacturing cross walls, the tube can extend at a phenomenal rate. Floating in the film of protoplasm that lines the inside of the tube are billions of nuclei, although how these coordinate its activities is hard to imagine. Caulerpa's non-cellular success shows that there is another way to construct living things that works. Surprising then that few other organisms have followed suit.

Caulerpa racemosa

caulerpa taxifolia

I read something more on the internet about these plants (alga) and it turns out that they are not usually admired because they are terribly invasive, and 9 types of them are banned in California. Few fish can eat them so they ruin the local fishery. The fish that do eat them become not suitable for human consumption: it turns out that they become hallucinogenic. So although interesting they are also quite creepy.

On with Trevor Norton:

My favourite plant from these submerged sands was Acetabularia, a formidable name for such a delicate plant. Imagine a tiny parasol perched on a thin stalk, the whole thing apparently made from pale green chalk and resembling a beautifully stylised daisy carved by a Japanese craftsman. Yet it is merely a relative of Caulerpa reinforced with calcium - a common ploy to make it less appetising to grazers. [??? I thought they didn't like it.] It also has an internal surprise. Whereas Caulerpa has a superabundance of nuclei, Acetabularia has only a single mega- nucleus at it base, which manages to supervise the growth, development and daily activities of the 'root', stem and umbrella of one of the prettiest things in the sea. 

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