The Deep-Sea Podcast

It’s February, the month of love and there’s love in the deep ocean too. We talk reproductive strategies in the deep sea with Professor Craig Young , Dr Autun Purser and Dr Mike Vecchione . How do you find a mate in the sparsely populated deep ocean? How can egg and sperm meet when you are fixed growing on a rock? How can your babies disperse and find a suitable habitat, especially if you live in...

As promised in the Christmas special, we call the ‘squid-phone’ – a special line used by scientists globally when they seem something strange and squiddy. On the other end of that line is Mike Vecchione, the expert on cephalopods. We talk giant and colossal squid (to audible groans from Mike); the bigfin squid (Magnapinna), most famous for being the squid with the long trailing arms that’s often u...

We like to let our hair down a little for the Christmas episode and do something a little different. We recorded video this episode! You can find the video version of this podcast on our YouTube page. Me and Alan crack out some mulled wine and decide to interview each other for this episode. Things get a little off the topic of deep sea but it’s all in good fun (if a little dark at times). We won’...

https://www.armatusoceanic.com/podcast/018-sound   We think of the deep sea as an eerily quiet and spooky place but that isn’t completely true, animal communication, seismic activity, human noise and even the sound of rain and waves from 10 km above. We chat with undersea audio expert Dr David Barclay about the fascinating audio properties of the deep ocean. As we are talking audio data on an audi...

https://www.armatusoceanic.com/podcast/017-going-to-sea   We love going to sea, it is probably the best part of the job. That’s where most of our adventures happen, that’s where most of the exciting discoveries and firsts happen and it’s where we meet some of the most interesting people. We want you to have a great time at sea too and not be put off by a bad first experience. Poor packing or a fau...

https://www.armatusoceanic.com/podcast/016-biodiscovery   We are in desperate need for new bioactive compounds. Superbugs are on the rise as evolution finds a way of thwarting our antibiotics. We are also continually on the hunt for compounds that can fight disease, ease suffering or get your teeth super white. The natural world has been experimenting for millions of years and has come up with sol...

https://www.armatusoceanic.com/podcast/015-space-pt2 We hunker down behind the blast doors and quickly record part 2 of our space episode before 426 manages to get through. That’ll make more sense once you hear the episode, or maybe it won’t! I may have gotten carried away on the sound design on this one. We are still exploring the parallels between space and deep-ocean exploration. It feels like...

Sorry for the lateness of the episode, we were rather ambitious with this one. Thom and Alan get access to a sound stage and get to actually record the podcast in the same room for the first time. In recent news there seems to be some pop-culture discoveries, the Eye of Sauron and Spongebob and Patrick have been found in the deep sea. Finally, we try not to get too depressed about ocean warming an...

https://www.armatusoceanic.com/podcast/013-submarine-special   Thom thought he had the podcast to himself, but it turns out the professor is back after 88 days at sea. It’s time for our submarine, or human occupied vehicle (HOV) if you’re posh, special. First we reunite ‘Vegemite and Haggis’ and talk to submarine pilot Tim Macdonald about his and Alan’s undersea adventures around Australia. Mangan...

Natural history collections, huge archives of carefully curated specimens, are an invaluable tool for the scientific community. They are also a place where the public get to interact with active research and meet scientists. Forget what you’d imagine working in a museum to be like, no two days are the same and both the collections and the talented people who work with them are in constant demand....

Alan is stranded out in the Pacific and Thom is left to present a show on genetics, a topic so confusing to him it may as well be magic. Luckily, friends of the show are on hand. Dr Heather Ritchie is tricked into co-hosting and we talk to Dr Johanna Weston about the things we can learn about the deep sea from genetic analysis.   Alan has found a way to get audio logs to us (pretty sure a Holtzman...

Tales of monsters persist to this day and there’s no better place to hide them than in the deep sea. We are joined by paleontology student and cryptozoology blogger Tyler Greenfield to look at some of the most famous sea monsters and see if there is any truth to the stories. We discuss megalodon, globsters, plesiosaurs/Nessie and all manner of strange carcasses that wash up from time to time. We h...

We are both biologists and a little bias toward the deep-sea critters, but the deep ocean contains a wealth of geological discoveries, after all, it is the geology which creates the deep sea. We catch up the latest news, including life discovered 100s of km under the ice, slowing water currents, vampire squid history and the rules of naming something new, be it a species or an undersea feature. We...

Working in the deep sea is entirely dependent on technology and the incredible forces push engineering to its limit. If you are doing something that no one has done before, chances are you are going to have to make some of your own tools. Unfortunately, we must spend a lot more on our equipment for the same data as shallower science. This makes funding difficult but also makes the deep sea quite a...

We impact the deep sea in many ways we don’t realise. Some are deliberate, some are accidental, some we didn’t even notice at the time. We talk about ways we have impacted the deep sea and touch on the huge problem that is marine plastic, a particular problem in the isolated Mediterranean Sea. His serene highness Prince Albert II of Monaco tells us about his experience diving to the deepest point...

It’s the holidays so we decided to get together, have a few drinks and tell some stories from life at sea. We even get Märvel – the barons of high-energy rock and roll on the line for a festive chat.   This is a silly/gross episode, even by our standards. There are stories of seasickness and competitive food fungus… you have been warned.   podcast@armatusoceanic.com   Theme – Hadal Zone Express by...

Our world is rapidly changing. As we move away from fossil fuels and our use of electronics increases, demand is climbing for a handful of metals key to the manufacture of modern technology. Mining the deep sea may meet these demands but is probably the most contentious issue the community is facing right now. Is there a net benefit for the deep sea; funding research and understanding, addressing...

In this episode we explore the power of storytelling and complete the arc of our first five episodes: science communication and perception of the deep sea. We talk with multiple New York Times bestseller Susan Casey (https://susancasey.com/) about telling a good story and engaging people with a narrative, while still being scientifically accurate. Don Walsh (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Walsh...

It’s the October episode and that means it’s our Halloween Spooktacular, what better time to turn the spotlight on ourselves and wonder why humanity seems to have an intrinsic fear of the deep sea. Glenn Singleman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Singleman) joins us to give a psychological explanation for why we feel differently about the deep sea and seem to have an aversion to it. Even some...

Can we use art to help people engage with the deep sea? We stop trying to explain things and let artist Alex Gould ( alexandragould.co.uk ) help us see deep-sea animals for the first time all over again. We talk about the aesthetic of deep-sea fish, is it shaped by our expectations? Can we save the blobfish from bullying? Can art help us with the horror of tongue eating parasites and fish absorbin...

On January 23, 1960 Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard were the first people to dive to the deepest point in the ocean, Challenger Deep. Would you believe that Don's full of other stories at least as interesting as that? We talk science communication and exploration with Don, realise that actually we do know a lot about the Mariana Trench, and we cross the equator. podcast@armatusoceanic.com Music by H...

 ‘We know more about the moon than the deep sea’ isn't just a bad analogy, it’s wrong. We talk scientific writing and Alan confesses why, after becoming the world’s deepest Brit, he was hunched emerging from the sub. podcast@armatusoceanic.com Absence of sharks Music Harvey Jones

Just a quick hello to introduce the podcast (and check I know how to do this). Official episode 1 coming soon.   Dr Thom https://twitter.com/AllLittleFishes