Cold Spring Harbor LaboratoryWikimedia, AdmOxalateLast week, we reported on the destruction at New York University’s Smilow Research Center on the eastern edge of Manhattan, which lost thousands of lab animals, biological samples, and reagents due to extensive flooding that killed the facility’s backup generators. Researchers at NYU’s main campus off Washington Square and at the Koch Cancer Research Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore were also feeling the storms effects. Now, reports are coming in that Hurricane Sandy has also devastated a high-frequency radar network that measures ocean currents just offshore. According to ScienceInsider, 17 of the 28 radars in the network, which runs from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, were knocked out by the storm.
It's unclear what became of the 17 silent radar sites, physical oceanographer Scott Glenn of the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University told ScienceInsider. Some may still be collecting data, for example, but failing to send it ashore. That may be wishful thinking, however, Glenn noted. “We've seen some pictures of where our radar sites should be, and there is nothing but sand.”
But against the backdrop of devastation, stories of resilience are emerging. According to a sign posted at the entrance to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) buildings on the North Shore of Long Island, ScienceInsider reported, science will prevail: "Sandy versus Science,” the sign reads—“Science Wins."
Thanks to eight diesel-powered generators—and extensive disaster planning—CSHL has continued to supply power to ...
