Being there: The continuing need for human presence in the deep ocean for scientific research and discovery

Abstract

We see with our mind's eye. This poetic phrase attempts to describe a complex set of human interactions by which we take in and process information about the physical world around us. For millennia, scientists and philosophers have relied on our ability to apply the uniquely human traits of perception, cognition, memory and motor action to scientific observations and experiments. “There is no authority higher than the human eye,” observed Leonardo Da Vinci, and his statement still holds true; as most field scientists will attest, there is no substitute for direct observation.