Newsroom - 2009

10 December 2009 - SERPENT presentation at the First Lego League Challenge at Intech

The Intech Interactive Science Centre near Winchester, Hampshire, played host to the First Lego League Challenge, a Lego robot building competition for local school teams. SERPENT outreach co-ordinator Rob Curry was invited to present a show entitled “Robots get wet” that highlighted the work of the SERPENT project by focusing on the ROVs we use in our deep sea research work. !60 students and school staff enjoyed the 30 minute presentation and asked lots of questions about the project.

Visit Intech

20 November 2009 - Louisiana State University hosts SERPENT talk

Daniel Jones gave a guest lecture on SERPENT findings at Louisiana State University (LSU), Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Gulf SERPENT is based at the LSU. Read the latest Gulf SERPENT newsletter here.

19 November 2009 - SERPENT UK and Gulf SERPENT in joint visit to Oceaneering

SERPENT scientists Daniel Jones and Mark Benfield visited the Oceaneering ROV production and training facility at Morgan City, Louisiana.

Left: Mark Benfield next to the towering Oceaneering Magnum ROV deployment cage.
Right: Dan Jones poses by the deep sea NEWT diving submersible.

20 -21 October 2009 - SERPENT at Manchester Science Festival

Year 8 students from schools in the West Midlands had the opportunity to take the controls of our Marine Simulation ROVsim™ Deep Seas Simulator at the vibrant Manchester Science Festival. As part of this exciting and high profile event, the "Speedy Science" schools’ programme ran for two days from 20 to 21 October. Taking place in the unlikely location of the Pure nightclub at the Printworks in central Manchester over two days, schools were offered free places to attend a day of activity. The students enjoyed hands-on workshops, a science show and asked lots of questions on the SERPENT stand.

With many thanks to the British Science Association for supporting SERPENT at this event.

7 - 9 October 2009 - SERPENT attends the Total Port Cros Symposium

SERPENT scientist Daniel Jones attended the 5th Fondation Total Port Cros Symposium on Marine Biodiversity, Porquerolles, France.

The Port-Cros symposium is intended to help raise awareness and provide information on biodiversity, with a view to identifying the important issues, as well as the measures necessary to preserve this vital heritage. The symposiums take place on the Ile of Porquerolles in the Mediterranean, off France. This venue represents a model in sustainable stewardship of marine resources.

The purpose of the symposium is to focus on a specific topic linked to marine biodiversity; a multidisciplinary issue is selected so as elicit a rich variety of points of view.

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22 -23 September 2009 - SERPENT at the Biodiversidade Bacia de Santos in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The Biodiversidade Bacia de Santos (Biodiversity of the Santos Basin) Conference was organised by Repsol and BG to initiate discussions toward collaborative environmental monitoring in the Santos Basin as hydrocarbon exploration increases in the area. The SERPENT project, which was represented by Dr Andrew Gates, and DELOS (Deep-ocean Environmental Long-term Observatory System), based at the University of Aberdeen, had the opportunity to highlight the international experience of collaboration with oil and gas. There was enthusiasm about both projects. The visit was successful in raising the profile of both the SERPENT and DELOS projects among oil and gas companies in South America.

11 September 2009 - SERPENT is a hit at the British Science festival

The SERPENT project had an exciting and productive 6 days engaging with the public and schools at the British Science Festival in Guildford this week. Organised by the British Science Association it's one of Europe's largest science festivals that offers the latest in science, technology and engineering. The event ran from Saturday 5 - Thursday 10 September 2009 and showcased more than 350 of the most exciting and innovative science in the UK.

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30 June - 4 July 2009 - SERPENT at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition

What a week! The SERPENT project has been very popular with a constant stream of visitors hugely enjoying our amazing Marine Simulation ROVsim™ Deep Seas Simulator. I suspect the comfy racing chair on the simulator helped - most visitors were really grateful to take the weight off after wandering around the upstairs exhibits and especially on the hotter days, loved the cool of our downstairs exhibition area.

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26 June 2009 - SERPENT at Thomas Hardye School Science Fair

For the second year running, the SERPENT project exhibited at the Thomas Hardye School Science Fair in Dorchester. About 300 children from the age of 15 - 18 had an opportunity to collect specimens using our SERPENT ROVsim® simulator designed by Marine Simulation LLC™. The children, from three local schools were hugely enthusiastic and were brimming with relevant questions about the environment of the deep oceans and the SERPENT project.

19 June 2009 - Local schools visit NOCS in Oceans on Wheels event

Several local schools in the Hampshire and Dorset area visited the National Oceanography Centre today to enjoy the Oceans on Wheels roadshow. The children, excited and enthusiastic year 8 - 9 students found the SERPENT exhibit an irresistible draw and were reluctant to move on.

5 - 7 June 2009 - SERPENT makes a splash at the Times Cheltenham Science Festival

Described as a "Mind-tingling feast of debate and entertainment", the Cheltenham Science Festival in the UK hosted the SERPENT project as part of the University of Southampton's "Oceans on Wheels" Roadshow. For three days at the beginning of June, SERPENT presented at the exciting and bustling Discovery Zone. Patient queues of children (along with some adults!) were rewarded with an opportunity to pilot a deep sea ROV using the SERPENT ROVsim® simulator designed by Marine Simulation LLC™. SERPENT teams were able to discuss the project with adults and children alike who were amazed at the huge diversity of the creatures found in the deep ocean and fascinated by the research being undertaken by the SERPENT project.

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12 May 2009 - SERPENT presents to IADC

SERPENT scientist Dr Andrew Gates today gave a presentation entitled "Effects of Drilling on Deep-Water Seabed Communities" to the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) at the 2009 IADC Environmental Conference & Exhibition at the Clarion Hotel in Stevanger, Norway.

The conference covered all aspects of drilling on the environment from CO² emissions to invasive species and oil rigs with the work of SERPENT covering much of the subject of sea bed impacts.

Andrew spoke about how effects are evaluated across a range of scales: from effects to individual organisms to effects to whole communities. The data obtained on metabolic changes in a common starfish shows the value of small-scale experimental assessments in understanding broad effects. A synthesis of broad-scale community data shows common effects across the northern North Atlantic. In addition, data on recovery of communities from drilling after three and ten years has shown evidence of partial recovery after 10 years. The effects of areas with deep cuttings and cement were also discussed.

The presentation generated interest from numerous parties about the work of the SERPENT project.

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21 April 2009 - SERPENT at Queen Mary's college

Around 300 year 12 students at Queen Mary's College in Basingstoke, UK, had an exciting opportunity to have a go with the SERPENT Deep Sea Simulator today when the Oceans on Wheels Roadshow again unveiled it's fascinating range of deep sea science projects. The students developed skills by collecting specimens from the seafloor using the ROVsim® simulator designed and supplied by Marine Simulation LLC™ and learned about the work of the SERPENT project.

19 March 2009 - SERPENT in FLIPSIDE magazine

The SERPENT project has been featured in the exciting new FLIPSIDE magezine. Flipside is a teenager-focussed subscription-only magazine aimed at schools and colleges around the world. It is produced by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) with funding from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA).

The article, entitled "Dark World" is about how the SERPENT project uses industrial robots to undertake deep sea research. It also contains information about the new SERPENT Deep Seas Simulator (see below).

15 March 2009 - New SERPENT Simulator at Oceans and Earth Day 2009

SERPENT unveiled our new Deep Seas Simulator at the National Oceanography Centre at the weekend. The stand was innundated with a constant stream of children who thoroughly enjoyed trying to capture sea creatures in the virtual environment provided by the excellent ROVsim® simulation software from SERPENT partner Marine Simulation LLC™. Many thanks to Shade-a-babe for generously providing the Nomad sun shelter for the stand.

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20 February - 12 March 2009 - Dr Daniel Jones visits the Stena Carron for BBC filming of the Coast programme

Dan and a BBC camera crew spent the last two weeks filming aboard the ultra modern drillship the Stena Carron in the Faroe-Shetland channel. He gathered some exciting footage using the new High Definition (HD) video camera system deployed on the Oceaneering Magnum ROV. The material will be screened in a forthcoming new edition of the popular BBCTV series "Coast".

See the mission Minisite

17 - 24 February 2009 - Dr Andrew Gates visits the Transocean Leader at the Asterix prospect

Dr Andrew Gates has recently returned from a successful visit to the Transocean Leader rig off the coast of Norway in the Asterix Prospect for StatoilHydro. You can see the mission report now by going to the Missions page and selecting the Asterix mission from the Norway missions listing.

See the misssion Minisite

12 February 2009 - Science Aglow, Pembrokeshire

Rob Curry visited Pembrokeshire College at Haverforwest today to present the SERPENT project to 80 local Schoolchildren on the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth. The children, year 5 - 6 students, were fascinated by the images and asked lots of relevant questions. The event was organised by the The Darwin Centre for Biology and Medicine based at Pembrokeshire College and was broadcast on BBC Radio Wales.

Visit the Darwin Centre web site

21 - 23 January 2009 - Arctic Frontiers 2009, Tromsø

Dr. Andrew Gates and Dr. Daniel Jones attended the 2009 Arctic Frontiers Conference in Tromsø in Northern Norway.

Both presented posters about the effects of drilling disturbance on benthic organisms in the Poster Session at the conference. Dr. Jones displayed the initial results from a study of recovery from drilling in the Faroe-Shetland Channel while Dr. Gates’ work focussed on the changes to meiofaunal diversity following a drilling disturbance. The conference was a good opportunity to discuss SERPENT’s research with scientists working in similar areas.

Visit the Arctic Frontiers web site

Please see the News Archive page for older news items.

For further information on SERPENT news stories contact Rob Curry.