Thanks to @erc.europa.eu #Deep-C, we’re building reactors that reproduce the ocean’s most serious pressures, the kind you really don’t want to “beta test” at sea. We’ll revisit old mysteries from HMS Challenger, & bring deep-sea microbes into the lab to see what life does when the pressure is real.

CaCO3 takes less volume dissolved between water and salts than as a crystal. Two consequences: higher pressure favors dissolution, and carbonate dissolution from acidification (very) slightly lowers sea level. Yep! Guaranteed to spice up the family dinner conversation. 🧠

We spray the samples into a bright ball of plasma, which enables them to be made into ions and sent into the mass spec. Perfect for our tiny carbonate samples home-grown in the lab.

(a nano-gramme is 10^-9 grammes, a billion times less than a gramme!). In the Mission Control room (love this feature...you can pilot the instrument and drink coffee!) we carefully input the sample information and let the automated machine do the rest.

Ship time *scheduled!

And...you. 🫵🏼! If you want to come work with us then get in touch.

Message us here, or head to the website in our profile details. 'Tis the season*.

*Of @cnrs.fr applications, good luck to everyone who is applying!

12 scientific papers 💻, 11 months of good weather 🌞, 10⁴ foram babies 🐚, 9 visiting scientists 👩🏼‍🔬👨🏾‍🔬, 8 successful boat missions 🛥️, 7 website visits 🙏🏼, 6 new hypotheses 💡...*5 gold rings*...4 defended masters 📜, 3 #ForCry mass spec methods 🔍, 2 #Deep-C reactors 🧿...

Read the European Marine Board report here: 📘👀
www.marineboard.eu/publications...

At exoCean, we're ahead of the game, been dissolving carbonates for ages, for free 🧑‍🔬! We stay fundamental: carbonates, dissolution, pressure. Ocean alkalinity enhancement sits right at the overlap, so we look at what “more alkalinity” does to things like forams. Mechanisms before megatonnes 🔬

In CNRS Le Journal (and to journalists brave enough to ask what alkalinity is), the message is simple: scientists don’t vote “yes/no” on mCDR, we provide the cards for society to decide, based on values, political choices, economical priorities. No MRV, no scaling. lejournal.cnrs.fr/articles/rec...

Phronima are pelagic amphipods, tiny, transparent crustaceans drifting in the open ocean: pure sci-fi. Some species hollow out a gelatinous salp and turn it into a floating “barrel” shelter. Those big eyes are built for the dim mid-water world, where everything is either invisible or glowing.

...The visit to Mainz is also a great opportunity to share samples. Thanks to everyone there for helping us out with some exciting new material.

Sample sharing is great, more people should do it. More info, less waste, & more collaborations.

The @exoceanlab.bsky.social is always open to sharing.

As well as being a great opportunity to network, and wow people with their work on planktic foraminifera. Evolution and its impacts on foraminifera geochemistry for Jaime, and modern problems and data gathering for planktic foraminifera for Sonia...