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Hunt for Life

November 7, 2014

Postdoctoral investigator Maria Pachiadaki (left) and Shipboard Scientific Services Group(SSSG) technician Allison Heater deploy Deep-SID, a robotic biology laboratory designed for the deep ocean. The instrument collects water samples and mixes them with the fixative, preserving any organisms they contain. A new version of the instrument, Vent-SID will be used on an upcoming expedition to the East Pacific Rise to help study the organisms that thrive in hydrothermal vent fluids. Deep-SID and Vent-SID were was developed at WHOI by microbiologist Craig Taylor, along with Stefan Sievert, Virginia Edgcomb, Ken Doherty, and members of McLane Research Laboratories in Falmouth, Mass.(Photo by Cherie Winner, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)