Headline of the Day

Down into the Ocean’s ‘Twilight Zone’ with Boaty McBoatface

—BBC

Yeah, I know, "Boaty McBoatface," is so last decade, and I still think that they should have named the boat that, and not just the remotely piloted submersible.

Still, it's nice that Boaty is doing science:

Battling choppy waves and high winds, three engineers pulled ashore a yellow submarine in Scotland this week.

With sheets of water pouring from its body, the UK’s most famous robot - Boaty McBoatface - was winched up after 55 days at sea.

“It’s a bit slimy, and ocean smells have seeped in. There’s a few things growing on it,” says Rob Templeton, now dismantling the 3.6m robot in Leverburgh, on the Isle of Harris.

Boaty has completed a more-than-2,000km scientific odyssey from Iceland that could change what we know about the pace of climate change.

It was hunting for marine snow - “poo, basically” in the words of one researcher. This refers to tiny particles that sink to the ocean floor, storing huge amounts of carbon. 

………

The public originally picked the name Boaty McBoatface for a polar ship in 2016. That didn't happen, but instead the name was quietly given to a fleet of six identical robots at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton.

They said that they would name the next research based on the public vote, and then they ignored the voice of the public, and named the boat RRS Sir David Attenborough.

No offense to Sir Attenborough, but Boaty was robbed.