{"id":2075,"date":"2026-07-15T17:58:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/?p=2075"},"modified":"2026-07-15T17:58:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:58:55","slug":"transect-magazine-new-technology-for-ocean-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/?p=2075","title":{"rendered":"Transect Magazine: New Technology for Ocean Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This story originally appeared in the <\/em>Summer 2026 edition of Transect<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the Artemis II crew celebrated a successful return from their groundbreaking mission to the moon, a team of scientists, engineers, and artists were preparing for a mission of their own to an environment only slightly less extreme \u2014 and certainly no less mysterious.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Designing the Future expeditions through Schmidt Ocean Institute, including the most recent cruise in the South Atlantic, allow scientists to test and refine technological advances in robotics and underwater imaging that are enabling new research on fragile marine life in the deep sea.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In April, as part of Schmidt Ocean Institute<\/strong>\u2019s Designing the Future 3<\/strong> expedition, Bigelow Laboratory <\/strong>senior research scientists John Burns<\/strong> and David Fields<\/strong> spent two weeks in the South Atlantic studying the diversity of the ocean\u2019s vast midwater region. The creatures there are some of the planet\u2019s weirdest \u2014 with long, gelatinous bodies that make them well suited for their dark, high-pressure home but difficult to study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funded by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation Ocean Shot program<\/strong>, Burns and a team of collaborators have been designing genomic techniques and new robotic and imaging technology to study these fragile, understudied members of the animal kingdom. They can take 3D images from the ROV of transparent animals, for example, that capture their external and internal structures and provide precise physical measurements. The ultimate goal is to create tools to sample these animals non-invasively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe technology we\u2019re developing is opening up this ecosystem to scientific exploration,\u201d Burns said. \u201cIf this cruise is any early indication, the discoveries made in this realm are going to be really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the course of two weeks, they stumbled upon a lanternfish, which brightly lit up the black expanse the moment the ROV turned its lights off. They found delicate animals that may be 100s of years old. They tracked tiny crustaceans whose refined senses and strong swimming skills allowed them to evade the ROV. And they observed the peaceful fall of \u201cmarine snow,\u201d the steady stream of organic material sinking from the surface that helps sustain all of this life.<\/p>\n\n\n