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How deep does life go?


Geologist James Powell chronicles the evolution of our understanding of life in the deep-sea biosphere.

The most notable of these early vessels was the two-person “Bathysphere” used by famed scientist and author William Beebe (1877–1962), whose books with their photos of bizarre deep-sea creatures fascinated and inspired youngsters of an earlier time. Prior to these dives in the Alvin, scientists believed that photosynthesis was the ultimate and indispensable source of the energy needed to support life, meaning that living creatures could not exist in the blackness of the ocean depths. The detection of life beneath the seafloor was the goal of one of the earliest Deep Sea Drilling Projects (DSDP) voyages, Leg 15 in 1970, led by chief scientist Wallace Broecker of Columbia University.

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