Blog offers experience of FSU deep-sea venture off the Pacific Coast

The R/V Point Sur is the flagship of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratory.

Buz Wilson demonstrates mechanics of one of the multi-corer's eight coring devices.

Through the miracle of blogging, you can join David Thistle, a faculty member in Florida State University's top-ranked oceanography program, and a veteran of numerous research missions in the Pacific, as he leads a team of FSU students for a deep-sea venture off the Pacific Coast to study the bewildering variety of microorganisms that live in deep, muddy ocean floors. Visit the mission's blog to see what this research means — professionally and personally — to tomorrow's generation of oceanographers.

The blog of the three-week trip is written by Frank Stephenson, the editor of FSU's Research in Review, a magazine dedicated to informing the public about the university's scholarly activities. Stephenson is shadowing as well as assisting the science crew to bring fresh, first-hand accounts and commentary on how science is done aboard a research vessel — in this case, the R/V Point Sur.

For more, drop in on the researchers at www.rinr.fsu.edu/GoesToSea.