"David Gallo shows underwater astonishments" -Holden Telfer

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_gallo_shows_underwater_astonishments.html

The TED talk that I chose is on the beauty of sea creatures and some of their more peculiar qualities. This talk interested me because it had to do with the beauty of sea creatures and it talked about the pretty lights that the fish give off. What drew me most to the video was the humor and complete interest that the speaker conveyed and I could really tell that he was passionate about what he was teaching.
This talk was by David Gallo who works at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute as the director of special projects. Gallo attended New York Sate University at Albany and received his PhD in oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. He has recently named as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which is an extremely high honor. He also took part in the finding of the RMS Titanic and the German Battleship Bismarck. Finally he was on of the first scientists to map the ocean floor using submarines and robots.
This talk showed many amazing sea creatures that shed off light and can camouflage into their background with extreme accuracy. These fish are mostly cephalopods and can reshape their bodies and change their color so they math their surrounding almost perfectly. There are also fish at the bottom of the ocean that can light up there bodies and create dazzling arrays of light in total darkness. This is amazing to think about, especially because scientists used to believe that nothing could survive down that far. We now know that this part of our world is teeming with life that is just waiting to be discovered. The ocean contains about 90% of the world’s inhabitants yet we haven’t even explored 5% of it. Imagine all of the crazy creatures we have found and then try to imagine the one’s that are still to be discovered. The ocean covers about 70% of the planet we live on, but we barely know anything about the creatures that live in that space.
Gallo is challenging us to try and explore where we haven’t yet. He is trying to inspire by showing the stunning things we already have found as a preview of what could be to come. I would actually be very interested in interning at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) because it would give me a chance to meet some brilliant people who working the field that I am interested in and it would give me opportunities to go explore the open ocean in some of the many operational submarines that they have in use.
If you haven’t guesses I would like to major in Marine Biology/Oceanography and am looking at most of the UC’s, the University of Oregon, and some schools on the east coast. I would like to study sharks, but after watching this video I have become increasingly more interested in cephalopods. Marine biology has everything to do with the ocean which also interests me because it is so unpredictable and it is almost like outer space in the way that it is uninhabitable for human unless special equipment is used and even then you are out of your comfort zone. It is all very wild and untamed and has a sense of danger to it that brings you back for more. The fact that I was lucky enough to live in California helps a lot because I am constantly around water and can see the beauty of the ocean and the creatures that lurk beneath its depths.