Assistant professor of earth sciences Andrew Fisher took time before his two-month cruise this summer to pose in front of his seafaring home: the 470-foot JOIDES Resolution, shown at its port call in San Francisco. Fisher was cochief scientist of an expedition to study the flow of fluids beneath the seafloor off the Pacific Northwest. The former oil-exploration ship, with 110 scientists and crew members aboard and a derrick towering 202 feet above sea level, is the world's most advanced floating research laboratory for scientific drilling.

Photo: Robert Irion