SoylentNews

hemocyanin writes:

"Ocean topics always interest me, and this morning I awoke to two interesting ones. First, a diving suit certainly has been done before, but this one will descend to 1000 feet and has a little power pack with four 1.6 horsepower thrusters. In the near future, it will be used to gather information on deep bioluminescent species, in particular, testing the theory that such fish use light patterns to distinguish amongst themselves for mating purposes. The diver involved has dived that deep before, and even with only 7 minutes to work at that depth, found new species. In contrast, the suit can keep a diver alive for 50 hours and it doesn't require elaborate surfacing techniques to avoid the bends, though most dives are expected to be 3-5 hours long. With a fiberoptic tether to the surface and the ability to remain at depth for hours, this is sure to result in interesting discoveries. There's also a little bit in the article about a different researcher who wants to make GM brain proteins with bioluminescent materials so he can watch brain activity directly.

Secondly, this article has a great picture of an amazingly 3D fossil of a trilobite and a neat chart of trilobite variations."