The Challenger Deep

I recently started following a marine science blog, and while perusing through the different articles, I read a few articles in particular that caught my interest. James Cameron, a film director as well as deep sea explorer, set out on a solo expedition to the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the ocean known to human kind. If you took Mount Everest at sea level and put it on the ocean floor, there would still be over an entire mile of sea above it. The water pressure at this point is incredibly high, and the fact that Cameron could make this trip by himself is amazing.



While Cameron was in the deep, dark bottom of the Pacific Ocean for three hours, he managed to pull up half a sediment core. This is basically a pile of wet, sandy mud.

I know what you are thinking. Great, a pile of muck. What can we learn from 50 milliliters of mud? And what exactly was the purpose of this exploration in the first place? Exploration certainly plays its role in science, but is this more of the science fiction type of exploration, done just for the purpose of doing it and seeing what is down there? Or will this sample reveal things we never even thought of?

Well, this sample has the potential to change the way we look at geological science, the ocean, DNA, evolution, and so many other parts of science. This part of the ocean has never been explored before, and only time will tell what new species of archaea, bacteria, and fungi are found.

Perhaps the reason I am so exhilarated and excited by this adventure of Cameron's is because it is what science should be about: exploration and imagination. We need more people like Cameron in the world to be brave and go where no one else has gone. Because of his dive, many people are being put to work trying to learn from the sample. Many people are reading about him and being inspired by his story. But on the other side, part of me wonders if it had been a scientist who had gone down to the Challenger Deep, and not a celebrity, if the story would have gotten as much publicity as it did.