pinger v.— «As searchers continue to comb thousands of square miles of ocean for debris from Air France Flight 447, their success could hinge on a device the size of a small flashlight that may well have been manufactured on Cape Cod. French...
Svensmark cloud n.— «As NASA has corroborated, the number of cosmic rays passing through our atmosphere is at the maximum level since measurements have been taken, and show no signs of diminishing. The result: the seeding of what some have taken to...
ocean ranching n.— «Although these salmon are not conceived naturally, they are also not classified as “farmed” because once they reach maturity they are released for fishermen to catch. This process, called ocean ranching, has resulted in high...
Word nerd Ammon Shea quit his job as a furniture mover in New York City to spend an entire year reading the entire Oxford English Dictionary. The result, in addition to eyestrain, headaches, and skeptics’ puzzlement, was Shea’s new book, Reading the...
lawnmower survey n.— «Over a 20-hour mission the team surveys 5km x 4km sections by running the AUV up and down, building up about 15 overlapping swaths of sonar data in a process known as a lawnmower survey. The multi-beam sonar produces 111 beams...
Pat, a fisherman in San Diego, hears mariners use snotty weather for rough offshore conditions, such as large swells, whitecaps, and wind above 10 or 15 knots. The phrase does not seem to mean cold weather that brings sniffles. Examples go back at...