The role of marine gel-phase on carbon cycling in the ocean

✍ Scribed by Pedro Verdugo

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 52 KB
• Volume: 92
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0304-4203
• DOI: 10.1016/j.marchem.2004.06.037

✦ Synopsis

In 1989, I gave a seminar in the Department of Oceanography at the University of Washington. It was the first public presentation of a phenomenon that, in attempting to develop a nanogel drug delivery system, had serendipitously jumped on the counter. Selfassembly in polymers solutions is a well-established process in polymer physics. However, the finding that alginates could quickly self assemble forming nanogels was surprising. By implication, the question of whether alginates and perhaps other marine biopolymers might self assembles in seawater started to claim for an experimental test. I was presenting the preliminary results of that experimental test at this seminar. There was not much of a response from the audience except for two people: Peter Jumars and John Hedges. With Peter, we started a collaboration that was unfortunately discontinued by his later departure from Seattle. For John and myself, this was the beginning of a friendship that was tragically interrupted and that is the motive of this session. We started meeting regularly. Every week, we spared a couple of hours to brainstorm and to teach each other the respective tricks of our trades. I learn geochemistry 101 from the source, and John with his