A century and a half after HMS Challenger embarked on the first global survey of the ocean, some ideas from the era still linger. They urgently need to be left behind, says Helen Scales
Earth
| Comment
7 December 2022
By Helen Scales
Michelle D’urbano
ON 21 DECEMBER 1872, the converted warship HMS Challenger embarked from Portsmouth, England, on the first ever global scientific survey of the seas. Researchers from the Royal Society of London borrowed the vessel from the Royal Navy for a four-year, 130,000-kilometre voyage, which brought into focus the truly colossal scale of the global ocean and revealed vivid details of its living inhabitants.
Now, 150 years later, the Challenger expedition remains a milestone in oceanography. Scientists still use its enormous collections of marine organisms, including to study how the ocean is changing. Of course, much has altered since the Challenger …
No commitment, cancel anytime*
Offer ends 31/12/2022. *Cancel anytime within 14 days of payment to receive a refund on unserved issues.
Existing subscribers, please log in with your email address to link your account access.
Inclusive of applicable taxes (VAT)
MORE FROM NEW SCIENTIST
Homo naledi may have used fire to cook and navigate 230,000 years ago
Archaeologists say they have found evidence that Homo naledi, an extinct human species with a tiny brain, used fire to cook and light up dark tunnels – though this claim remains controversial
Adélie penguins show signs of self-awareness on the mirror test
Scientists studying a small group of wild Adélie penguins say the birds seem to understand they are looking at themselves when they see their reflection in a mirror, but the results may not show that the penguins are fully self-aware
COP15 target to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 is ‘unrealistic’
Goal to “halt and reverse” biodiversity loss by 2030 – a headline aim of the COP15 biodiversity summit – could take 80 rather than eight years to achieve, say conservationists
How did so many giant meat-eating dinosaurs co-exist in the Jurassic?
It took a lot of meat to feed even one species of large carnivorous dinosaur, so how did several survive side-by-side in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods without starving? We might finally have the answer