20,000 colleagues under the sea (original) (raw)
Fleets of robot submarines will change oceanography
SAILING the seven seas is old hat. The latest trick is to glide them. Sea gliders are small unmanned vessels which are now cruising the briny by the hundred. They use a minuscule amount of power, so they can stay out for months. And, being submarines, they are rarely troubled by the vicissitudes of weather at the surface. Their only known enemies are sharks (several have come back covered in tooth marks) and fishing nets.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “20,000 colleagues under the sea”
From the June 9th 2012 edition
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