Woods Hole

As an English major, I never had heard of Woods Hole Institute.  My husband, however, has been wanting to see Woods Hole since before he and I met.  He wanted to be a marine biologist and do research at Woods Hole.  Instead, he went to WVU and became a computer/software engineer working as a government contractor.  This trip has made his dreams come true...in a fashion.  We made it to Woods Hole!!!!  

Here they are in the model of the Alvin.  For those who don't know, Alvin is a deep sea explore vehicle.  Diving to depths of 15,000 ft or so, scientists who use Alvin have found out so much for us, it's amazing.  And there's still so much to be discovered and explored.  The whole village of Woods Hole (which one of the scientists we spoke with said is actually a part of Falmouth) is filled with research. We went to three or four different locations to learn about sea creatures, Alvin, work with different bacteria and such.  It was a great day.  And honestly, I loved walking around the town and having so many different labs around (even though most aren't open to the public).  When we were in Los Alamos, even though the town grew with the labs and the work on the bomb, the town itself was not focused around science.  You've got the government labs, but the science seems to be contained to that.  Perhaps because Woods Hole is right there at the ocean, scientists have flocked to the area and set up a huge community.  Totally cool.    

The aquarium is small, but it's free.  And it's got cool fish like these.  They talked about human interruptions to marine life.  One of the things mentioned specifically was noise pollution.  I've been getting more and more sensitive to noise, so I feel their pain.  Interestingly, as weather changes, noises actually add another layer of congestion in my head, as though it changes the pressure in my sinuses.  Wouldn't it be great if we spent some resources on figuring out how not to be the noisy neighbor next door?              

We went to the upstairs in the aquarium, beyond the displays, to where they do the actual work of taking car of the fish.  We spoke with the marine biologist who was making the fish food for all the beasties in the aquarium.  She cuts up the small fish into smaller pieces, blends them up in a food processor, adds some spinach and other veggies, kicks it up a notch with vitamins, then cuts up the mess into cubes.  Not really how I want to use my food processor.  Blech.  But talking with her was fascinating, so I'm glad we went over and talked to her when I saw her making the food.  All in all, a great way to finish up our visit to Massachussets.