DeepZoo

I feel like I haven't seen Johanna in weeks, because...well, I haven't. She's in town. She's working hard. But she's been spending her time at WHOI's engineering hub, AVAST, instead of in the lab. When I asked her for an update recently, she had nothing but good news to share. 

DeepZoo components in assembly at AVAST.
Photo by Johanna Weston.

You see, Johanna's main postdoc project has been developing a one-of-a-kind hadal zooplankton sampler. She realized soon after joining our lab that there was no way to collect the types of samples we work with (larvae) from the areas in the ocean that fascinate her the most - the hadal zone, below 6,000 m depth. So Johanna set to work. She and I wrote a grant proposal to make the case for the new instrument; the proposal was awarded funding, and Johanna has worked full-steam-ahead ever since. 

The design process has gone through multiple rounds. We use the term "iterative" in science to describe a process that progresses in stages. You have your vague ideas, then your preliminary sketches, followed by revision after revision and eventually a final product. The process of designing Johanna's sampler has definitely been iterative, but we're now at the point that all those ideas and discussions have coalesced into reality. The CAD models and 3D printed mock-ups are being replaced with actual machined parts. 

Johanna has affectionately named her sampler DeepZoo. I'm proud of the work she's put in, the skills she has gained, and her vision that is finally becoming reality. The only question remaining is - where should we deploy it first?