THE SCIENTIFIC PROJECT

A short story

There she was sailing on a calm beautiful Pacific Ocean, her graceful three hundred and fifty foot snow white hull contrasting with the blue of the ocean and sky. She was known as The Sea Explorer, a ship devoted to the science of marine biology.

The grace of her hull was slightly marred by the protrusion of crane arms used for diving equipment,

Aboard was a motley crew of experienced sailors and six of the most prominent marine biologists in the world. One was actually a Nobel Laureate - but he never talked about it, a modest man indeed.

Aboard also was the latest state of the art of diving equipment including a submersible vehicle that was in effect a submarine. Accompanying it was a crew of six specialists known affectionately as "jacks" for Jack of all trades. But be not fooled, these men were top flight technicians in the field of marine biology.

There were also three men on board who seemed to have no purpose, but no one asked any questions.

It was in the late afternoon that the Explorer quietly came to a halt at her destination a spot half way between Hawaii and South America, a place she had visited before and was returning to for more exploration and a project.

Although not discussed openly, there was a large black crate associated with the project. Only the Captain, the Jacks and the biologists knew its content.

On her former trip, the submersible had plumbed the ocean floor three thousand feet below the surface - and made a very interesting discovery.

There was life down there!

As it turned out, where normally at that depth there would not only be total darkness but no oxygen in the water - which would be deathly cold.
Thus, no life.

But there was life and it flourished, both fish and plant life. How could that be?

One reason was immediately apparent, there was a fissure in the floor that extended down to a depth where there was live magma from the earth's magma layer the same magma that spews from volcanoes.

As is common knowledge, the earth is mainly this terribly hot magma surrounding an inner core of what is called plasma. This is a different state of matter caused by the tremendous pressure of all the matter above. This basically is a ball of molten rock, metals and minerals capped by a relatively thin layer known as the mantle dirt and rock to you.

When the mantle is pierced by a fissure, the magma heats the water where life can survive. The area

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