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A rover dived to the bottom of the ocean. 15 photos show what it found there.

A rover dived to the bottom of the ocean. 15 photos show what it found there.

Have you ever wondered what it looks like miles below the surface of the ocean?

Image from NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.

The Mariana Trench is the deepest point in the Earth's oceans, and scientists and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are sending cameras down into its depths.

They'll be exploring the deep water around the entire area, from relatively shallow undersea mountains to down in the deep valleys more than six miles underwater. They're scheduled to explore until July 10, 2016, with this incredible camera rover as their eye in the deep.

Image from NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.

The ship is equipped with a fast internet connection, so the entire trip is being live-streamed online — meaning that scientists and researchers and fans of weird deep-sea creatures alike can join in the journey via the magic wizardry which is the internet.

Here are just some of the incredible things they've spotted so far:

1. Amazing beauties like this jellyfish

You're not ready for this jelly(fish). Image from oceanexplorergov/YouTube.

2. Enchanting, fragile deep-sea corals

I'm pretty sure you get one of these when you visit Hawaii. Image from NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.

3. Startlingly flower-like crinoids

Image from NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.

Though it looks like a plant, crinoids (also known as sea lilies) are actually distantly related to starfish. I can't decide whether this is beautiful or terrifying. Maybe both? Terror-eautiful?

4. A whole bouquet of them

Image from NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.

5. There are whole reefs down here! Complete with sharks!

Image from NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.

Despite popular belief, not all coral reefs live up in the shallows.

6. And tiny, adorable fish


"I will call him Squishy, and he will be my friend." Image from NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.

7. Plus some considerably less adorable fish

Aaaah! Image from the oceanexplorergov/YouTube live-stream, May 3, 2016.

8. A swarm of amoebas, each the size of a grape


Aaaaah! AAAAAAH! Image from NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.

9. Weird predators like this tunicate (also known as a sea squirt)

So, uh, what end am I looking at here? Image from NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.

10. Whatever the heck this is

Image from the oceanexplorergov/YouTube live-stream, May 3, 2016.

The scientists on the live-stream said they thought it was a weird type of anemone-like animal called a relicanthus holding on to a sponge, but I think we can all agree it's obviously an alien.

11. Acorn worms, like this guy

It's kind of cute if you ignore the whole "I don't have a face" thing. Image from NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.

12. And this shrimp with some sort of parasitic backpack

Scientists weren't able to identify the parasite, which is the most chilling sentence in the English language. Image from NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.

These are some of the awesome things you'll see if you tune in to watch the NOAA live-stream. It's not all cool creatures and unidentified parasites, though.

The research team has also found some highly uncool items deep at the bottom of the ocean:

13. Things like this beer can

Image from NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.

It was found more than two miles below the ocean's surface on top of an undersea mountain.

14. And this plastic bag

Image from NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.

"You may think that working in the deep sea means that we only see pristine environments, but unfortunately that isn’t true," wrote NOAA expedition scientists Diva Amon and Deborah Glickson in an Earth Day post.

"Even here, in one of the deepest places on Earth, humans have left their mark."

So what's the moral to this story? It might be obvious but...

Don't throw stuff into the ocean. Or anywhere that'll lead to the ocean. I know the ocean seems huge and deep, but it is not going to be improved by a half-eaten container of Spam.

15. Which, yes, they also found

25% less sodium means nothing when you're surrounded by saltwater. Image from NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.

Not only is ocean trash ugly, it can be dangerous. Garbage, especially plastic garbage, can kill wild animals.

These are the kinds of images people need to see — both how amazing the ocean is and how easy it is to de-amazing-ify it through carelessness.

It's a reminder that we should all be more thoughtful about where our trash ends up.

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Pfizer
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#ScienceWillWin

We asked three people about how vaccines have impacted their lives. Here’s what they said.

Images courtesy of John Scully, Walden University, Ingrid Scully
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Since March of 2020, over 29 million Americans have been diagnosed with COVID-19, according to the CDC. Over 540,000 have died in the United States as this unprecedented pandemic has swept the globe. And yet, by the end of 2020, it looked like science was winning: vaccines had been developed.

In celebration of the power of science we spoke to three people: an individual, a medical provider, and a vaccine scientist about how vaccines have impacted them throughout their lives. Here are their answers:

John Scully, 79, resident of Florida

Photo courtesy of John Scully

When John Scully was born, America was in the midst of an epidemic: tens of thousands of children in the United States were falling ill with paralytic poliomyelitis — otherwise known as polio, a disease that attacks the central nervous system and often leaves its victims partially or fully paralyzed.

"As kids, we were all afraid of getting polio," he says, "because if you got polio, you could end up in the dreaded iron lung and we were all terrified of those." Iron lungs were respirators that enclosed most of a person's body; people with severe cases often would end up in these respirators as they fought for their lives.

John remembers going to see matinee showings of cowboy movies on Saturdays and, before the movie, shorts would run. "Usually they showed the news," he says, "but I just remember seeing this one clip warning us about polio and it just showed all these kids in iron lungs." If kids survived the iron lung, they'd often come back to school on crutches, in leg braces, or in wheelchairs.

"We all tried to be really careful in the summer — or, as we called it back then, 'polio season,''" John says. This was because every year around Memorial Day, major outbreaks would begin to emerge and they'd spike sometime around August. People weren't really sure how the disease spread at the time, but many believed it traveled through the water. There was no cure — and every child was susceptible to getting sick with it.

"We couldn't swim in hot weather," he remembers, "and the municipal outdoor pool would close down in August."

Then, in 1954 clinical trials began for Dr. Jonas Salk's vaccine against polio and within a year, his vaccine was announced safe. "I got that vaccine at school," John says. Within two years, U.S. polio cases had dropped 85-95 percent — even before a second vaccine was developed by Dr. Albert Sabin in the 1960s. "I remember how much better things got after the vaccines came out. They changed everything," John says.

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Joe Biden called George Floyd's family to say he's 'praying' for them as they await the verdict

via US Secretary of Defense / Flickr and The Today Show

As the nation braces itself for the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial, President Biden has embraced the family of George Floyd at what has to be an incredibly stressful time.

Following closing arguments in the Chauvin trial on Monday, Judge Peter Cahill has sent jurors to deliberate. The verdict is expected to come in the next few days.

"He was just calling," George's brother, Philonise Floyd, said about the president. "He knows how it is to lose a family member, and he knows the process of what we're going through. So he was just letting us know that he was praying for us, hoping that everything will come out to be OK."

Biden lost his wife and one-year-old daughter in a tragic car accident in 1972 and his son Beau to cancer in 2015.

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TurboTax Live
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Communities

The past year has been tough. That’s why TurboTax Live gave these people a little lift.

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2020 was difficult (to say the least). The year was full of life changes, losses, and lessons as we learned to navigate the "new normal." You may have questions about what the changes and challenges of 2020 mean for your taxes. That's where TurboTax Live comes in, making it easy to connect with real tax experts to help with your taxes – or even do them for you, start to finish.

Not only has TurboTax Live helped millions of people get their taxes done right, but this year they've also celebrated people who uplifted their communities during a difficult time by surprising them with "little lifts" to help out even more.

Here are a few of their stories:


Julz, hairdresser and salon owner

"As a hairdresser and salon owner, 2020 was extremely challenging," says Julz. "Being a hairdresser has historically been a recession-proof industry, but we've never faced global shut down due to health risk, or pandemic, not in my lifetime. And for the first time, hairdressers didn't have job security."

Julz had to shut down her salon and go on unemployment benefits for the first time. She also had to figure out how she was going to support herself, her staff and her business during this difficult time. But many other beauty industry professionals didn't have access to the resources they needed, so Julz decided to help.

"My business partner and I began teaching basic financial literacy to other beauty industry professionals," she says. "Transitioning our business from behind the chair to an online academy was a challenge we tackled head-on so that we could move hairdressers into this new space of education, and create a more accessible curriculum to better serve our industry.

Julz connected with a TurboTax Live expert who helped her understand how unemployment affected her taxes and gave her guidance on filing quarterly estimated taxes for her small business. "I was terrified to sit at a computer and tackle this mess of receipts," Julz says, so "it was great to have some virtual handholding to walk me through each question."

In addition to giving Julz the personalized tax advice she needed, TurboTax Live surprised her with a "little lift" that empowered her to help even more beauty professionals. "When my tax expert Diana surprised me with a little lift, I was moved to tears," says Julz. "With that little lift, I was able to establish a scholarship fund to help get other hairdressers the education they deserve."


Alana, new mom

Alana welcomed her first child in 2020. "I think my biggest challenge was figuring out how to be a mom, with no guidance," she says. "My original plan was to have my mom by my side, teaching me the ropes, but because of COVID, she wasn't able to come out here."

She was also without a job for most of 2020 and struggled to find something new.

So, Alana took it as a sign: she decided to launch her own business so she could support her new baby, and that's exactly what she did. She started a feel-good company that specializes in creating affirmation card decks — and she's currently in the process of starting a second, video-editing business.

TurboTax Live answered Alana's questions about her taxes and gave her some much-needed advice as she prepared to launch her businesses. Thanks to their "little lift," they provided her with a little emotional support too.

"I got my mom a plane ticket to finally [have her] meet [my daughter] for her first birthday," Alana says. "I was also able to get a new computer," which helped her invest in her new business and work on her video editing skills. "It's helped my family and me so much," she says.


Michael, science teacher

When schools shut down across the country last year, Michael had to learn how to adapt to a virtual classroom.

"As a teacher, I had to completely revamp everything," he says, so that he could keep his students engaged while teaching online. "At the beginning, it was a nightmare because I had no idea. I had to go from A-Z within a couple of weeks."

Michael's TurboTax Live expert answered his questions about how working from home affected his taxes and helped him uncover surprising tax deductions. To top it all off, his expert surprised him with brand new science equipment and supplies, which allowed him to create an entire line of classes on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. "Now I can truly potentially reach millions of children with my lessons," he says. "I would never have taken that leap if not for the little lift from TurboTax Live."



Ricky, motivational youth speaker

As a motivational speaker, Ricky was used to doing his job in person, but, he says, "when COVID-19 hit, it altered my ability to travel and visit schools in person [because] schools moved to fully virtual or hybrid models."

He knew he had to pivot — so he began offering small virtual group workshops for student leadership groups at middle and high schools.

"This allowed me to work with student leaders to plan how they would continue making a positive impact on their school community," he says. He wasn't sure how being remote would affect his taxes, but TurboTax Live Self-Employed gave him the advice and answers that he needed to keep more money in his pocket at tax time — and the little lift he received from them has helped him serve even more students.

"[It] has been a major blessing," he says "There will be multiple schools and student groups from across the country that I can hold leadership workshops with to empower them with the tools to be inspirational leaders in their school, community, and world."

Plus, he says, it was great knowing he had an expert to help him figure out how being remote affected his taxes. "I felt confident and assured in the process of filing my taxes knowing I had an expert working with me, says Ricky. "There were things my expert knew that I would not have considered when filing on my own."

Filing your taxes doesn't have to be intimidating, especially after a year like 2020. TurboTax Live experts can give you the "little lift" you need to get your taxes done. File with the help of an expert or let an expert file for you! Go to TurboTax Live to get started.

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