Backstory in 2011

Murray Gingras and colleagues examined lagoon goo for signs of life from the comfort of a moonlit rooftop in the Caribbean.

Daniel Donato and colleagues exercised their acrobatic skills while measuring mangrove carbon stocks.

Brett Carpenter and colleagues got more than they bargained for when cleaning the mud off a metre-long piece of core from the San Andreas Fault.

Samantha Joye and her colleagues donned respirators and safety suits to survive the fumes when tracing an underwater gas plume following the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Richard Iverson and colleagues made enough of a din to scare the bears when sending large amounts of debris down a 95-m-long flume to find out what difference wet sediments make to an avalanche.