Tea 'healthier' drink than water
Sunday September 14th, 2008 09:56 PM by Dima Tokar
Drinking three or more cups of tea a day is as good for you as drinking plenty of water and may even have extra health benefits, say researchers.
According to researchers at Kings College in London, drinking tea may actually be 'better' for you than drinking water. While "Water is essentially replacing fluid[,] Tea replaces fluids and contains antioxidants so it's got two things going for it." says Dr. Ruxton. Get some tea and read more about it's health benefits in this BBC article.
Day 7: Endeavour Ridge
Friday August 22nd, 2008 02:43 AM by Dima Tokar
This was the roughest night as of yet. The ship was moving because we were SeaBeam-ing (mapping the ocean floor with sonar-like device). It felt like the ship was going to tip over any minute. It was nearly impossible to walk around on the ship. This night was a real test for the labs to see if everything was tied down properly. By the morning things were much calmer. I got up at around 630AM thinking that this would be yet another cancelled dive (we've had two cancelled due to bad weather at this point). However, the seas really calmed down overnight. We were finally able to do an Alvin dive. At about 7AM the Alvin operations began. The sub rides on a platform on specially designed tracks to get out of its storage towards the back of the ship. This is where the fun begins. First Alvin is attached to the A-frame (a hydraulic system that lifts the 20000+ lb submarine and hovers it over the water at the tail end of the ship). Simultaneously, a Zodiac boat is deployed over the side of the ship. This has a pilot and two team members dressed in scuba gear minus the oxygen tanks. Once the A-frame descends Alvin into the water, the two swimmers jump into the 40-50 degree water and swim towards the sub. They disconnect any lines and rope that attach Alvin to the A-frame during the deployment. Once the sub is free from the ship, they swim around the sub, ensuring that nothing is tangled and everything is OK. The sub then disappears and the Zodiac boat picks up the two swimmers to bring them back on deck.
At about 3PM as soon as the sub begins its ascent from the bottom of the ocean, I go up to the top lab on the bridge (this will occur every dive). There we communicate with the sub to find out what samples that were collected. I then record all this information in the main lab downstairs. This is how all the scientists know what samples will be available once the submarine is back on deck. The recovery of the sub is an even more time consuming process than the deployment. It all begins when the sub is about 200M from the surface. At this point, the Zodiac boat is dropped in the water and it races ahead of the ship, about 200M in front. About 5-10 minutes after that, the sub surfaces around the area where the Zodiac is. This distance between the main ship is kept so that there is no risk of the sub colliding with the hull of the ship. Then the ship slowly approaches the submarine and the Zodiac boat. This whole process takes 10-15 minutes. Then the A-frame descends and the swimmers attach the rope so that the sub can be lifted back on deck. As soon as the sub is back in it's storage space on deck, research teams rush in to get their samples. I photogaph everything that is collected for our records.
Back in lab, we photograph the collected hydrothermal vent chimney. It has numerous tubeworms attached to it as well as some prehistoric looking worms. In order to collect our microbe samples, we dig at the soft portion of the chimney and collect mud-like sediment that is then inoculated into test tubes and serum bottles. We then pass on the rocks to John to allow him to conduct his geologic analyses.
Day 3 & 4: Astoria
Sunday August 17th, 2008 01:57 AM by Dima Tokar
After a night at the Red Lion Inn, we started the day at about 9AM. We drove the truck towards the dock, went through security and went to check out the ship. Jim gave me a brief tour of the vessel. A few hours later the NOAA van arrived with from Washington and we began unloading our truck onto the dock. It wasn't until after lunch that the crew used the onboard crane to load all of our equipment onto the main deck. Then, we spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening organizing everything that we brought, latching heavy equipment so that it doesn't shift during the cruise. We used a bunch of rope and bungee cords to secure all of our ovens and used tape to attach boxes of our suppled to the tables so that they will stay put if the ship when the ship rocks.
By dinner time, we were all starving. Rika (PhD student from UW), John (PhD student from University of Ottawa), Helene (PhD student from UMass) and I went out to a tavern for lunch. I ordered a Worker's Burger which turned out to be a pretty damn good burger. It was a regular hamburger except with a fried egg, ham, bacon and two types of cheese. When we asked them about what beers they had on tap they said Bud and Bud Light. We thought that was pretty funny. A good meal nonetheless. After dinner we headed back to the hotel. Helene and I watched Olympics for a while. Unlike the East Coast, the Olympics on the West Coast are prerecorded, even during primetime. It didn't feel right watching Michael Phelps earn his eighth gold while knowing that we could just go online to check the event which is aired a few hours later here.
The next day we ate breakfast at the Inn and then checked out and drove over in the NOAA van to the dock to bring our luggage into our rooms. After that we spent the afternoon finishing our lab setup, and meeting with other microbiologists and then later in the after noon with all of the scientists that will be onboard in the library on the ship. We went around the circle as introductions and then briefly went over the dive plans for the next few weeks.
For dinner we went to a Mexican restaurant here in Astoria. Pretty good. After dinner, a quick Safeway run to get the last-minute items: shampoo, styrofoam cups, some candy. Back on the ship I took a pretty easy evening and relaxed.
We set sail tomorrow at 9AM PST.
Day 2: Seattle
Friday August 15th, 2008 05:20 PM by Dima Tokar
Today was our first full day in Seattle. Having arrived late last night (2AM EST) we headed straight to The College Inn in the University District in Seattle. We got up at around 7 and headed north on I-5 to Shoreline, a very green town north of Seattle. We rented a 14" UHaul there to pack all the equipment that had been shipped to the University of Washington Oceanography Department. We then drove down to the dock of the one of the Oceanography buildings back at UW. We met up with a two graduate students both of whom will be going on the expedition as well. It only took us about an hour or so to load th UHaul with all of our and their equipment and supplies. We loaded three ovens, about 10 plastic rubbermaid containers, and several boxes. This left us with a lot of spare room which we will use to help out another lab that ran out of room in their truck.
After loading the truck Jim took us on a campus tour. If there is a campus that's worth touring, this is it. We started at the bottom of the hill in the south part of campus where we visited the relatively new oceanography building. A cool thing about that building is the archicture is such that when you are going on stairwell, the walls are curved in a way that make it look like you are on a ship facing the bow (that means front of the ship). We then went around the other parts of the campus including a really modern building that houses the Genome Science and Bioengineering departments. Interestingly enough, the construction of this building was funded by the government of Singapore!
The campus is really beautiful throughout. There are many building that were built in the 1920s that have a distinct architectural style. Not really sure how to describe it. There are 32 libraries on the UW campus. We visited the graduate library, which puts all the other libraries I've been to to shame. One of the study rooms has a church-like appearance. It has high ceilings with tall windows decorated with stained glass, desks fitted with reading lamps.
We then had lunch at a Lebanese restaurant and after several meetings and wine and cheese headed to Ivar's seafood restaurant and ate on the dock overlooking the lake.
At about 6:30 we began our drive to Astoria on I-5. The most notable things we passed were numerous RV dealerships in Fife, WA and then the paper mills with their distinct smell. We then crossed over into Oregon via the Lewis and Clark Bridge. As soon as we got off the bridge we saw red blue flashing lights reflecting from the rear view mirrors of our UHaul. Oddly enough we got pulled over by a Rainier County police office for doing 47 in a 35mph zone. Thankfully he let us off with a warning. This was our welcome into Oregon. The rest of the drive was rather uneventful, (trees and more trees). It took us about four hours from Seattle to get into Astoria. We checked in at the Red Lion Inn after purchasing a pad lock for the truck in Safeway.
We were finally ready to get some rest. As we entered our room we noticed that there was a slight problem. Only one bed. At that point I was too tired to care, and with the help of some spare blankets and bed covers I found it comofortable enough to fall asleep on the floor.