OCEAN SCIENCE LECTURE SERIES EVENT |
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"There is in the world no other such majestic flow of waters." So said Mathew Fontaine Maury, the
19th century oceanographer, of the famed indigo waters of the Gulf Stream. This massive, warm ocean
current inspired some of Ernest Hemingway's most famous works, and it performs such vital functions as
transporting heat and marine plants and animals out of the tropics and into the North Atlantic.
On Jan. 29, as the next event in HARBOR BRANCH's Ocean Science Lecture Series, Dr. Ned Smith, a physical
oceanographer, will be taking the audience along on a riveting trip down this "river" without banks. He
will cover everything from historical references to the Gulf Stream, to the oceanographic functions it
performs. He will also discuss the deepwater currents thousands of feet below the Gulf Stream, which link
the North Atlantic with other oceans in a system known as the Global Conveyor Belt.
Ned Smith is from Wisconsin, but nonetheless managed to acquire a love for the sea thanks to a 93-day oceanographic cruise during graduate school that took him to such ports of call as Bermuda and Senegal. The voyage convinced him to get a Ph.D. in oceanography, which he accomplished in 1972 at the University of Wisconsin. He came to HARBOR BRANCH in 1977 and since then has studied shallow-water currents around Florida and in the Bahamas. Results of his work answer such questions as whether polluted water from the Florida Bay makes its way through the Keys and out to the state's coral reefs. Dr. Smith will give his talk, titled "What Goes Around Comes Around: The Gulf Stream and the Circulation of the North Atlantic Ocean," at both 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Jan. 29 at the main auditorium of the Johnson Education Center at HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution, 5600 U.S. 1 North, Fort Pierce, FL. The talk is free to the public. FULL SCHEDULE FOR 2003 OCEAN SCIENCE LECTURE SERIES: January 8 - Shirley Pomponi & Don Liberatore - Submersible Science at Harbor Branch: Looking from the Inside Out January 15 - John Tucker - Marine Foodfish Culture and Stocking January 22 - Edie Widder - Bioluminescent Oddities and Wonders January 29 - Ned Smith - What Goes Around Comes Around: The Gulf Stream and the Circulation of the North Atlantic Ocean February 5 - Greg Bossart - Emerging Diseases in Marine Mammals: Should "Flipper" Be Worried? February 12 - Tammy Frank - Lifestyles of the Very Hot, the Very Cold and the Very Deep: How Do They Survive There? February 19 -Clay Cook - "Hunger Makes Strange Bedfellows": Symbiosis of Algae with Corals, Sea Anemones and other Marine Organisms February 26 - Joe Lopez - The World as a Classroom: Molecular Studies of Marine Biodiversity in the Field March 5 - Lee Frey - Robot Explorers: A Look at Unmanned Underwater Vehicles March 12 - Amy Wright - DBMR: The Deep Sea-Link to Drug Discovery March 19 - Megan Davis & Ken Riley - A Fish Eye's View of Aquaculture March 26 - Dennis Hanisak - "The Gleaming Indian River with Its Waves of Blue": Poetic License or Remembrances of Things Past? (Kermit Returns) HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution, Inc., is one of the world's leading nonprofit oceanographic research organizations dedicated to exploration of the earth's oceans, estuaries and coastal regions for the benefit of humankind. CONTACTS: Mark Schrope - Science Writer 772-465-2400 x433) • schrope@hboi.edu Jan Petri - Government and Public Relations 772-465-2400 x241 • petri@hboi.edu |