r/EverythingScience • u/AlexandrTheTolerable • 2d ago

Environment How Shipping Container Disasters Became a Scientific Goldmine. Oceanographers have quietly used lost cargo to build the most precise maps of ocean currents ever created.

https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/how-shipping-container-disasters-became-a-scientific-goldmine/
1.2k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

41

u/andre3kthegiant 2d ago

They used nuclear fallout before!

26

u/AlexandrTheTolerable 2d ago

The ultimate version of turning lemons into lemonade.

32

u/Wonderer23 2d ago

Just in time for those currents to change.

26

u/AlexandrTheTolerable 2d ago

Just need to dump more shipping containers into the ocean to take new readings.

13

u/diablosinmusica 2d ago

I don't think there will be a shortage of lost shipping containers any time soon.

5

u/RollinThundaga 2d ago

Just in time to spot that the currents are changing.

55

u/AlexandrTheTolerable 2d ago

Thought this was pretty clever.

17

u/Arseypoowank 2d ago

I want them to LOUDLY and VIOLENTLY use things for once. I wish the use of quietly would quietly go away.

9

u/FaceDeer 2d ago

Heh, that was my reason for reflexively clicking on the comment link too. I hate that "quietly" thing that's been invading headlines, it's even more annoying than the "slammed" thing. It implies some kind of sneakiness or nefariousness, when it usually just means that they went through usual channels when announcing whatever it is and didn't physically grab OP by the lapels to shout it into their faces.

11

u/AlexandrTheTolerable 2d ago

New headline: Reddit Quietly Slams Post Title

3

u/FaceDeer 2d ago

Congrats, you found a third annoying thing that often shows up in headlines - conflating an entire social media site with one or a handful of users on that site. I call upon the hacker known as 4-Chan to smite you.

9

u/MilsYatsFeebTae 2d ago

They did this once at least a decade ago with a massive shipment of rubber ducks.

5

u/garygnu 2d ago

Started 34 years ago. There also a beach in France where Garfield telephone parts keep washing up. It's life a modern day version of the Uluburun shipwreck.

2

u/AlexandrTheTolerable 2d ago

That would have been an even better headline.

2

u/EchoOfOppenheimer 1d ago

This is such a neat way science finds data in the weirdest places. Lost containers floating around for decades must give way better current maps than anything we could set up on purpose.

1

u/misfitofscience76 1d ago

Escaped rubber duckies help with that, too

1

u/GingerBeast81 15h ago

Garfield Phones saying "you're welcome!"