All posts by D_Aldridge

If water is clear, why is the ocean blue?

People often mistakenly think that the sea is blue because it reflects the sky, but the truth is that pure water is very slightly blue. It is just so pale that in small quantities it appears clear.

light reflection
Water is blue because it absorbs red, yellow and green light, but scatters blue light.

Fundamentally, what makes water blue is the fact that it absorbs light that is red, yellow and green, and scatters light that is blue ─ this is because blue light travels as shorter, smaller waves that are scattered more easily (this is essentially the same reason why the sky is also blue). The reason a small amount of water appears clear is because not much light is scattered. In larger bodies of water there are more water molecules for light to collide with, resulting in more blue light being scattered. Think of it like throwing a bucket-full of tennis balls against a tree from a distance: the chances are that most balls will miss the tree and keep going. But if you stand in a forest and throw tennis balls, more balls will hit trees and bounce back. It is exactly the same when it comes to light hitting water molecules: if there are more water molecules in the way, more light particles will collide with them and be scattered, making the water appear a deeper shade of blue.

Continue reading If water is clear, why is the ocean blue?

Why is the ocean salty?

Imagine that all of the water in the oceans evaporated, just leaving the salt (sodium chloride) behind. Now imagine that you gathered up all that salt and spread it equally over the Earth’s land surface (perhaps with a little help from a few million other people). How deep do you think that layer of salt would be? One estimate is 500 feet, or just over 150 meters!

Kinda ka and salt
If you evenly spread all the salt in the ocean over the surface of the Earth it would completely bury the tallest rollercoaster on the planet! Image credit: Dusso Janladde/ Wikipedia commons.

Continue reading Why is the ocean salty?

It is finally here!

For the last year, I have not been publishing many blog posts. I can now reveal that the reason for this is not laziness (at least not entirely), but due to the fact I have been writing a book about the oceans. The book is called “Do Fish Sleep?: and 38 other ocean mysteries” and it is available to buy for kindle* via Amazon for a very reasonable price ($2.99 in the US, £1.99 in the UK, and EUR 2,99 in Europe). Over the next few months I will be publishing the entire first chapter of the book (Ocean Secrets), one “ocean mystery” at a time, on Words in mOcean, starting tomorrow with “Why Is the Ocean Salty”. It is my hope that you will enjoy what you read and go on to buy the full copy of the book. For more information, please read the “preface” below or visit the Amazon page.


Cover with blurb

Continue reading It is finally here!

16 awesome ocean songs

Whether you are on a boat trip or cruise and want some appropriate songs, or whether you just want to imagine that you are out at sea whilst in the office or lab, we have some tunes for you. Below are 16 of the best ocean songs out there, including some beauties from The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra and Led Zeppelin.

The Kooks – Seaside 

Disney – Under The Sea 

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Scientists observe what might happen if ocean circulation slows

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Phytoplankton waiting game perhaps key to their success in ocean deserts

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Every academic to live on campus by 2020

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This satirical article on The Daily Mash made me smile today, and seemed to be begging to have a few words changed around in order to make it even more appropriate for academia. Enjoy:

Universities have revealed new measures to help you spend all your time doing work and publishing papers.

As well as radically extending university opening hours, universities will demolish your house and put your children in “permanent daycare” as part of plans to ensure all academics live on campus by 2020.

Continue reading Every academic to live on campus by 2020

‘Battery’ PhD students to increase UK university productivity by ‘up to 75%’

By Jeff Hawkes

New plans to rejuvenate working conditions for Ph.D. students in the UK were revealed today, receiving a poor reception. The plans are being introduced due to an explosion in PhD student recruitment over the past few decades.

Picture2“It used to be that having a degree was fantastic for ones employment opportunities, but over the years the UK has allowed the value of higher education to decrease and become gradually less relevant to a candidates eventual job.  Now go-getting youngsters who want to ‘get the edge’ on their rivals are having to earn an extremely specific research doctorate in order to apply for any job earning more than minimum wage”, said social analyst Frank Bosser.

“We’re expecting that over the coming years the average Joe will need some years of teaching experience at university level in order to leave higher education with any employment prospects whatsoever”.  It’s quite a normal ‘educational inflation’ effect when there aren’t enough jobs to go around and so people by default continue to get more qualifications.  The problem is that the universities stay the same physical size, so ‘something’s gotta give’” Continue reading ‘Battery’ PhD students to increase UK university productivity by ‘up to 75%’


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Continue reading The future of marine science in the UK: It’s all about the money money money…