Bringing The Ocean To The World, In High-Def

Thousands of miles of fiber-optic cables are strung across the worldus oceans, connecting continents like so many tin cans in this age of critical global communication. So the fact that about 800 more miles of fiber-optic cable will soon thread the sea floor off the coast of the Pacific Northwest might not seem particularly revolutionary. Until you meet John R. Delaney, part oceanographer, part oracle. uA…aˆ?This is a mission to Planet Ocean,uA‚A? said Mr. Delaney, a professor at the University of Washington. uA…aˆ?This is a NASA-scale mission to basically enter the Inner Space, and to be there perpetually. What weure doing is bringing the ocean to the world.uA‚A? Under a $331 million program long dreamed of by oceanographers and being financed by the National Science Foundation, Professor Delaney and a team of scientists from several other institutions are leading the new Ocean Observatories Initiative, a multifaceted effort to study the ocean u" in the ocean u" through a combination of Internet-linked cables, buoys atop submerged data collection devices, robots and high-definition cameras. The first equipment is expected to be in place by 2009...