Ken Kostel is a science writer and web editor at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a job he has had since 2010. Before that, he worked at several different non-profit scientific research organizations, including the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, American Museum of Natural History, and Wildlife Conservation Society. He has master's degrees in journalism and environmental science from Columbia University, a photography degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and part of an engineering degree (the easy part) from Washington University in St. Louis. He lives in Falmouth, Massachusetts, with his wife, Anne-Marie, and enjoys kayaking, hiking and cooking.
To Hades and Back: Here Be (No) Dragons
ABOARD THE R/V THOMAS G. THOMPSON—Everything is out of the water and on deck. The bio lab is quiet and the cold room is empty, save for the samples that have to remain at hadal temperatures for our transit to port.
To Hades and Back: Nereus Lost
ABOARD THE R/V THOMAS G. THOMPSON—In the early morning hours of Saturday, May 10, we were on the seafloor in the deepest part of the Kermadec Trench when all of the video screens in the Nereus control room went dark.
To Hades and Back: Snailfish Surprise in the Kermadec Trench
ABOARD THE R/V THOMAS G. THOMPSON—On the scale of the Pacific Ocean, the Kermadec Trench looks like a thin line snaking down from southwest to northeast just off the northeastern tip of New Zealand’s North Island.
To Hades and Back: One Trench Among Many
ABOARD THE R/V THOMAS G. THOMPSON—Challenger Deep is the deepest spot in the ocean—that we know of, at least. The seafloor is so poorly mapped that there could easily be something deeper out there, but that’s not all that important to us.
To Hades and Back: Feeding Frenzies of the Deep
ABOARD THE R/V THOMAS G. THOMPSON--While waiting for the weather to die down and for solutions to problems with our winch and the vehicle, the rest of our non-Nereus science program has continued.
To Hades and Back: Under the Weather
ABOARD THE R/V THOMAS G. THOMPSON--Our operations have been halted for a second day now while we wait for a storm on the other side of New Zealand to spin itself out.
To Hades and Back: Exploring the Deepest Part of the Ocean
Humans have been to every corner of the planet and built either an Internet café or a Starbucks in almost every city. You can find plastic in the middle of the ocean and Mt.