The way the weather acts in Wichita is almost theatrical. One morning, you step outside into warm, almost pleasant air with a northeast breeze and a temperature of 22 or 23 degrees. It’s the kind of morning that makes Kansas seem underappreciated. The mood of the sky has completely changed by early afternoon. The breeze becomes edgy as dark clouds build up along the horizon. This is not out of the ordinary here. In the Air Capital, it’s just June. Wichita is currently experiencing a temperature of about 26°C, clouds are hanging over the city, and afternoon thunderstorms are a…
Author: Derrick Lester
Derrick Lester
Derrick Lester is a professor and editor at indeep-project.org. His academic career has been molded by a single, enduring obsession: the sea and all life in it. Drawing from marine biology, oceanography, and the kind of hard-won field knowledge that only comes from spending significant time on and under the water, Derrick's writing has the depth of a scholar thanks to his years of research and teaching experience. His writing delves into the science of marine life with the inquisitiveness of someone who has never fully moved past the wonder of what exists beneath the surface. Derrick hopes to introduce readers to a world that encompasses over 70% of the planet and is, in many respects, still largely unexplored through his contributions to indeep-project.org.
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On a Saturday, there’s a certain kind of low-key drama that takes place in federal courtrooms; there are no cameras, no crowds, just a decision that lands in an inbox somewhere and spreads. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacated an IRS notice that had been silently stifling the nation’s wind and solar project development pipeline for months. Before it became front-page news, it wasn’t. After that, it was difficult to ignore. The “Five Percent Safe Harbor,” a rule that permitted energy developers to receive federal tax credits by merely spending five percent…
A certain type of video will stop you in the middle of scrolling. Not because a dramatic event occurs. Not because someone is falling off a table or pulling a practical joke. simply because the content on the screen is so breathtakingly beautiful that your thumb loses track of what it was doing. When @Elite_grandglow_cattery uploaded a video of their Snow Bengal kitten to TikTok, almost two million people hit “like” before they had a chance to fully comprehend what they were seeing. They’re just holding her. That’s all. Wrapped in fur the color of warm cream with the slightest…
Observing the Pacific Ocean change has an almost unsettling quality. It doesn’t make a big announcement; there isn’t a single storm or a Tuesday morning breaking story. Rather, over thousands of miles of equatorial water, sea surface temperatures start to gradually rise. Eventually, NOAA forecasters issue an advisory, and the entire story becomes clear. In 2026, that moment came again. El Niño has formed in the tropical Pacific, according to NOAA’s National Weather Service, and the statistics supporting this claim are strong. Sea surface temperatures in the Niño-monitored region have a 63% chance of rising more than 2.0°C above average,…
Arthur wasn’t meant to be much of anything. A mild tropical storm that drifts northeast off the coast of Texas with maximum sustained winds of 45 miles per hour and no real desire to get stronger. It appeared doable on paper. However, anyone who has observed storms along the Gulf Coast for a considerable amount of time is aware that a National Hurricane Center advisory’s wind speed may only provide half of the information. Arthur’s stubbornness more than made up for his lack of anger. A slow-moving system that stretches from mid-Texas through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, bringing with…
Like a name that has been waiting on a list all year, the first named storm of the season typically makes an appearance with some fanfare. Arthur. It sounds almost soft. However, the residents of Sargent, Texas, and Morgan City, Louisiana, are not considering the name as the storm bearing that name moves northeast along the Texas coast. The water is on their minds. The forecast pushes Arthur inland, across the Texas–Louisiana border, and into the soft, flood-prone country beyond. Tropical storm warnings cover the entire coastal seam. The western Florida Panhandle, southern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and a portion of…
Somewhere off the Aleutian chain, miles beneath a surface most people will never see, there are sponges that have been growing since before Alaska was a state. Coral formations stretch nearly seven feet tall, branching out like something from a dream rather than a seafloor survey. Scientists who have studied these waters describe the experience the way you might describe stumbling onto a hidden room in a house you thought you knew. It’s the kind of discovery that makes a person pause. And it’s exactly what’s now sitting in the path of a federal mining proposal that environmental groups say…
Something has been subtly altering the laws of biology 13,000 feet below the surface in an area of the Pacific seafloor that most people will never consider. Twenty-four new amphipod species have been discovered by researchers working in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a large plain of sediment between Hawaii and Mexico. Tucked away within that count is something even rarer: a completely new superfamily, a new branch grafted onto the tree of life itself. It’s the kind of discovery that seems insignificant until you realize how big of an impact it has. Researcher Tammy Horton of the National Oceanography Centre in…
Most drivers on Highway 90 have probably never noticed a building close to Ocean Springs. The Thad Cochran Marine Aquaculture Center is located behind a stretch of coastline that is more known for its beach houses and casinos than for federal science. That’s going to change, at least somewhat. In an effort to rebuild America’s seafood supply from the water up, the University of Southern Mississippi has joined a new national initiative supported by NOAA. The Cooperative Institute Fostering Aquaculture Research and Markets, or CIFARM, is a cumbersome bureaucratic name for the program, but its concept is quite straightforward. Initial…
Every deep-sea mining company’s planning documents contain a passage where the focus switches from robots to ships. It’s not a glamorous change. Investor decks are not written about it. However, it may prove to be more significant than anything occurring on the Clarion-Clipperton seafloor four kilometers below. After a harvester scrapes polymetallic nodules off the abyssal plain, how do you actually transport them to an onshore refinery? This is an oddly difficult problem to solve despite its seemingly straightforward form. It sounds like a typical shipping inquiry that any port authority deals with on a daily basis. It isn’t. The…