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The Challenge of Ocean, Earth, and Sky
| Article
# : |
19722 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1991 |
2,523 Words |
| Author
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Joseph M. Lubin
Joseph M. Lubin is a free-lance writer based in California
and
the former science editor for Voice of America. |
In the early days, it was enough for Scripps scientists to gather their specimens walking along the shores and from boats launched along the coast. Later, they put out to sea in ships, going farther and staying longer--in search of sea life that in their myriad forms and in their biological and chemical diversity would enlarge our understanding of the ocean world.
"In my lifetime," explains Roger Revelle, a former Scripps director and one of the great giants of modern oceanic exploration, "Scripps has changed from a little coastal station to a world-girdling, comprehensive earth sciences institution." [For more on Revelle, see "A Statesman among Scientists," THE WORLD & I, September 1990.]
While not present at Scripps' creation, Revelle, now in his early eighties, has seen firsthand a good deal of the amazing transformation that occurred over the past 88 years. "In its beginning, there were five professors and five graduate students. Today there are more than 1,200 on staff, nearly 200 of whom are graduate students. The change in funding has also been dramatic: from an original $100,000 to more than $70 million in the current annual budget," reflects Revelle. Another change over the years has been the incorporation of Scripps as a graduate school of the University of California, San Diego, after the campus was developed in the early 1960s.
Investigations now encompass all the world's oceans as well as the land and overlaying atmosphere. Today Scripps scientists sail to tropical islands and venture under the polar ice in search of rocks, exotic sea life, and other specimens for study in their laboratories. They search for the sake of understanding, but also to find drugs to cure diseases, to evaluate mineral resources, to unveil undersea mountains and plains, and to assess the damage of man's waste deposits in this once pristine domain of nature.
Ever since the beginning, for those involved, Scripps has been--and remains--the great adventure of their lives. According to Scripps chronicler Elizabeth Shor, to call oneself an "oceanographer" refers to a "state of mind" as well as a discipline.
"They might begin as biologists, chemists, physicists, geologists, even engineers, but it isn't long before they are referring to themselves simply as 'oceanographers.' And their talk of science," Shore notes, "is sprinkled with Navy terms and fishermen's jargon. Geography of the edges of the sea is as natural to them as was that of the
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