Science behind TV's Octonauts
If you want to feed the fascination of your little ones with the ocean, the Octonauts adventures are great - they firmly feature real science. So here are a few of my favourites with the links to the actual research papers that they're based on:
S1E14 "Octonauts & the Albino Humpback Whale" - natural sunscreen properties of mushroom coral mucus: Drollet et al. (1993) https://t.co/03nrqT8oWg
(& sightings of rare albino humpback whales such as Migaloo here - https://t.co/qsyE6tKBvX) /2
— Dr Jon Copley (@expeditionlog) November 21, 2017
S1E16 "Octonauts & the Enemy Anemones" - how groups of anemone clones go to "war" with each other: Ayre & Grosberg (2005) https://t.co/JjNJ8pGI5t /3
— Dr Jon Copley (@expeditionlog) November 21, 2017
S1E19 "Octonauts & the Snapping Shrimp" - Dashi's slow-motion video reveals that the shrimp's snap comes from bubbles collapsing when it shuts its claw very fast - the same method used to investigate it by Verluis et al. (2000) https://t.co/WuexB951hL /4
— Dr Jon Copley (@expeditionlog) November 21, 2017
S3E17 "Octonauts & the Immortal Jellyfish" - the astonishing jellyfish species that can transform from an adult back into earlier stages of its life cycle: Piraino et al. (1996) https://t.co/YnW9y6fzbU /5
— Dr Jon Copley (@expeditionlog) November 21, 2017
S3E18 "Octonauts & the Urchin Invasion" - sea otters as a "keystone species", maintaining kelp forests by feeding on grazing urchins: Estes et al. (1998) https://t.co/NhDU8MkMyq
(a classic "trophic cascade" previously covered in my Masters marine ecology module!) /6
— Dr Jon Copley (@expeditionlog) November 21, 2017
S4E7 "Octonauts & the Loneliest Whale" - a whale with a song at a frequency unlike any others: Watkins et al. (2004) https://t.co/AmZUgZngMJ
(I'm particularly fond of that one, as I was the first science journalist to cover the story in Dec 2004: https://t.co/Ef2TnfxjDi) /7
— Dr Jon Copley (@expeditionlog) November 21, 2017
S4E8 "Octonauts & the Tree Lobsters" - discovery of "tree lobster" stick insects on Ball's Pyramid: Priddel et al. (2003) https://t.co/rULUK4U8MK
(recently in the news again showing they're the same species as those extinct from Lord Howe Island - https://t.co/ZamgSHwjit) /8
— Dr Jon Copley (@expeditionlog) November 21, 2017
S4E12 "Octonauts & the Bomber Worms" - deep-sea worms that grow bioluminescent "bombs" that they can eject to confuse predators: Osborn et al. (2009) https://t.co/zt9d1XOhUY
(& nice BBC news article by @Vic_Gill about them here too: https://t.co/lth4vRDHjT) /9
— Dr Jon Copley (@expeditionlog) November 21, 2017
"Octonauts & the Over, Under Advenutre" special - "brinicles" that grow from sea ice were shown experimentally by Martin (1974): https://t.co/DXA3oc6yMF
& filmed, inc freezing marine life, by @kathrynjeffs @hughdmiller Doug Anderson for Frozen Planet https://t.co/iGiSV4AwEt /10
— Dr Jon Copley (@expeditionlog) November 21, 2017
"Octonauts & Operation Deep Freeze" - not a specific research paper for this, but the "bloop" sound traced to icequakes by Prof Natquik was the work of Dr Robert Dziak & colleagues, monitoring Antarctic underwater sounds (https://t.co/uXcJnGehfW): https://t.co/A7PbfNcCFA /12
— Dr Jon Copley (@expeditionlog) November 21, 2017
Jon Copley, November 2017
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