by: NEERAJA SANKARAN
It's summertime! Time to grab sand pails and suntan lotion and head for the shore. But not everyone who goes out to sea and wades in the tidepools is there for a vacation. For some scientists, at least, a trip to the beach on a summer's day is all in a day's work.
Scientific Spelunker:Serban Sarbu explores the ecology of isolated systems at the Movile Caves in Romania.
Take the researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Mass. Since it was founded in 1888, this independent, nonprofit laboratory has served as the summer home for a variety of biologists studying the creatures that inhabit the coast along New England, at the convergence of the Gulf Stream and Labrador Current. Although MBL remains operational year-round, with about 200 full-time staff members, director John Burris points out that the laboratory's population "swells to about 1,000 each ...
