HOST Damond Benningfield
DISCUSSION
During the 1930s, millions of Americans in the Great Plains saw their farms literally blow away. A deadly drought, combined with poor farming techniques, created the Dust Bowl. Millions of […]
Radio Program
Our regular Science and the Sea™ radio program presents marine science topics in an engaging two-minute story format. Our script writers gather ideas for the radio program from the University of Texas Marine Science Institute’s researchers and from our very popular college class, Introduction to Oceanography, which we teach to hundreds of non-science majors at The University of Texas at Austin every year. Our radio programs are distributed to commercial and public radio stations across the country.
HOST Damond Benningfield
DISCUSSION
Imagine skimming across the waves in a long, skinny boat with a few hundred siblings. Some of them paddle, some steer, some throw fishing lines in the water, and the […]
HOST Damond Benningfield
DISCUSSION
In just about every movie involving a submarine, there’s a dramatic attack scene. The sonar operator monitors the sound of the propellers of ships passing overhead, or sends out a […]
HOST Damond Benningfield
DISCUSSION
A trip to the grocery store usually requires a basket to hold all the goodies. But a relative of the well-known sea star doesn’t need to grab a basket to […]
HOST Damond Benningfield
DISCUSSION
It’s hard to think of anything quieter than melting ice. But when the melting ice weighs thousands of tons and is thousands of years old, it can sound like a […]
HOST Damond Benningfield
DISCUSSION
Most birds are creatures more of the land or sea than of the air — they spend far more time on the surface than in the sky. But not the […]
HOST Damond Benningfield
DISCUSSION
For most of the 17th century, the Sun pretty much went to sleep. That appears to have been good news for the ships that plied the waters of the New […]
HOST Damond Benningfield
DISCUSSION
A species recently discovered in the Antarctic is the anemone equivalent of a bat: it hangs upside down, from the underside of a massive sheet of ice. In 2013, researchers […]
HOST Damond Benningfield
DISCUSSION
Just because something has never been seen before doesn’t mean it can’t happen in the future. And in the case of hurricanes, what hasn’t been seen before could be especially […]
HOST Damond Benningfield
DISCUSSION
The oceans transport heat around the globe, keeping the temperatures fairly mild across the entire planet. But a big change in ocean salinity could change that pattern, altering ocean currents […]