LOCH NESS DEEP SCAN

Are the results of the Loch Ness Deep Scan a four letter word?

Twenty-five years ago last week saw a strange happening on the Ness lake in Scotland. A fleet of nineteen boats moved information, using sonar to scan the depths. What were they searching for? Evidence of the famed Loch Ness monster. The results were inconclusive - no monster was dredged up from the depths, but there were transient sonar contacts which were of unusual size.

Photo courtesy of David Firstenberg

I heard this story today and immediately contacted my parents, who had recently visited Scotland, to find out if they had any good pictures of the lake. I appreciate their contribution to this blog.

But the story brought back older memories as well. As a child, my grandmother would occasionally present me with various mysteries - things like the Bermuda Triangle, UFOs, an the Loch Ness monster. Looking back at the conversations I had with her about these and other things, I realize how much she was grooming me to be a scientist. The conversation almost always started with her asking me "what do you think happened?" She never told me her opinion - she would ask me what I thought. And when I presented a possibility, she might tell me more to shoot down my hypothesis, or present some other info and have me explain how it did or didn't fit into my model.

I guess I appreciate her contributions to this blog as well.

Photo courtesy of David Firstenberg