Scientists in the Field – serie

Part of the award-winning Scientists in the Field series, The Octopus Scientists takes readers to the waters off of Moorea, Tahiti, to study the mind of the mollusk. Follow scientists as they uncover the secrets of its advanced intelligence and learn what these thinking, feeling creatures have to teach us about the oceans, its animals, and ourselves.  

In this addition to the critically acclaimed Scientist in the Field series, scientist Robin Tanamachi and her team are trying to save countless lives across America’s heartland, chasing one tornado at a time.

Robin Tanamachi has been captivated by tornadoes and extreme weather her entire life. When she realized people researched weather for a job, she was hooked.

She now studies tornadogenesis, or how tornadoes form, and what causes them to get weaker versus strengthen. For her, driving around in a Doppler radar truck aiming towards storms is a normal day in the office. The data she collects is then modeled and studied on computers—with math, physics, and computer science working hand in hand with meteorology.

At the end of the day, knowing exactly how, when, and where these violent storms happen can give more warning time for everyone involved.

Aided by an army of beachcombers, oceanographer Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer tracks trash in the name of science. From sneakers to hockey gloves, Curt monitors the watery fate of human-made cargo that has spilled into the ocean. The information he collects is much more than casual news; it is important scientific data. And with careful analysis, Curt, along with a community of scientists, friends, and beachcombers alike, is using his data to understand and protect our ocean. In engaging text and unforgettable images, readers meet the woman who started it all (Curt’s mother!), the computer program that makes sense of his data (nicknamed OSCURS), and several scientists, both on land and on the sea, who are using Curt’s discoveries to preserve delicate marine habitats and protect the creatures who live in them. A Boston Globe–Horn Book Award Honor Book for Nonfiction.

Sibert Medalist, National Book Award Honoree, and New York Times bestselling author Sy Montgomery dives below the surface to study giant manta rays in Ecuador in this final installment in the award-winning Scientists in the Field series.

On the vast Pacific, the ocean heaves and sighs like a beating heart. But dive beneath the surface, and angels appear. Giant manta rayswider than a car is long, with wingspans stretching up to twenty feetglide past with balletic grace, then vanish into the murky blue. They can soar to depths of nearly a mile, race at twenty-two miles an hour, and live more than fifty years. With the largest brain of any fish on Earth, they are among the ocean's most intelligent and mysterious creatures.

But even the most magnificent creatures are fragile. Because mantas grow up slowlyreaching maturity only at seven to ten yearsand raise just a single pup once every few years, they are uniquely vulnerable. Only recently did scientists discover that these ';angels of the sea' are hovering on the edge of extinction.

Bestselling author Sy Montgomery and Patrick Joyce joins scientist Michel Guererro and his team to search for mantas in Ecuador's plankton-rich waters, record their sightings, chart their locations, and note their behaviors and the conditions around them. The work will test and challenge them. But as they struggle and learn, they will also be transformed by their encounters with one of the largest, most mysterious, and most imperiled beings ever to swim the sea.