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Just Keep Breathing

Research assistant Justin Ossolinski (yellow) and assistant scientist Ben Van Mooy (orange) examine Niskin
bottles stowed in an incubation tank on the stern of the research vessel Oceanus during an April 2008 expedition in the North Atlantic. The bottles were hooked up to a new “respirometer” being developed by WHOI engineer Sheri White and Van Mooy to understand the rate at which marine bacteria consume oxygen. The tank on the ship’s deck was set up with flowing sea water to keep the bottles at near-constant temperature, as if the bacteria inside the bottles were still living in the surrounding water.
(Photo by Kim Popendorf, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)