SPACE OCEANOGRAPHERS: The discovery of life in rocks under the sea floor raises the possibility of similar habitats existing on other planets—and Oceanography Professor John R. Delaney is interested. In a story covering technological advances in undersea science The Chronicle of Higher Education quoted Delaney urging colleagues to contribute to the proposed exploration of Europa, an ice-encrusted moon of Jupiter. “I hear you laughing,” Delaney told a symposium audience, “but think about it.” Researchers from no other discipline are better equipped to study an extraterrestrial ocean environment, he argued. “We know so little, so the modelers could have a field day.” Scientists believe a liquid ocean lies underneath Europa’s ice crust. Delaney and six colleagues have studied recent undersea volcanic eruptions off the coast of the northwestern United States and Canada. They found microorganisms that seemed to be nourished by minerals released in the eruptions.

FOG FACTOR: Coastal redwoods, the tallest trees on earth, appear to survive the dry summers of their native northern California and southern Oregon habitats by capturing moisture from fog drifting in from the Pacific. That was the finding of a University of California-Berkeley study published in the journal “Oecologia” and reported in the New York Times. The study overturns a major piece of ecological dogma, that plants only take water rather than contribute it to a habitat. “Until now,” said forestry professor Tom Hinkley commenting on the study, “these fog phenomena have been largely discounted.” According to the study, incoming fog makes contact with the redwood branches, which are covered with a dense group of fine needles that collect moisture. Water then falls or trickles to the soil below. “This is a story that gets repeated in a lot of different environments around the world,” said Hinkley.

PENGUIN PROBLEMS: Zoology Professor Dee Boersma’s studies of penguins on the Galapagos Islands were featured on the Environmental News Network, an online news service. “I’m certainly not at all convinced that the Galapagos penguin is going to go extinct because of (El Nino),” Boersma told the network. “But I am concerned that the numbers are going to become increasingly low, and we know that with smaller populations they’re just more vulnerable to extinction.”

COMPUTER STRESS: Ordinary folks, it turns out, aren’t the only ones stressed out by the multiplying number of computer programs they’re expected to use. Systems managers reported high levels of stress in a recent survey, and Psychology Professor Earl Hunt was asked to comment. In a story widely circulated by The Associated Press, Hunt said, “People are dumping more and more software on him (the systems manager) faster and faster, and because of its complexity, it’s getting harder and harder to fix.” The manager “doesn’t have time to develop any informal friendly relationships,” Hunt said. “There’s this awful tendency to look on this person as some sort of highly paid janitor.” ¶