Researcher Spotlight
Meet David “Paddy” Patterson
Senior Scientist, Josephine Bay Paul Center, Lillie 307
To understand how devoted Senior Scientist Dr. David “Paddy” Patterson is to his work at MBL, one need only know what he gave up to be here: Australia and tenure. Those two words would set most biologists hearts aflutter, but as head of the biology department at the University of Sydney, Paddy found that administrative drudgery kept him from the work he loved: studying the diversity, evolution, and classification of protists.
As a young cell biologist, Paddy realized that what he truly enjoyed was observing and describing organisms, particularly the ones he needed a microscope to see. “[Taxonomy] is often regarded as an old fashioned thing to be doing,” admits Paddy. “Fortunately, the world has changed to realize that we have custodial responsibilities for the biodiversity around us, and the collective knowledge of that biodiversity is absolutely critical to its proper management.”
Having spent time at the MBL while on sabbatical in 2000, Paddy found a kindred spirit in Mitch Sogin, director of the Bay Paul Center. The two share an interest in unraveling the evolutionary history of the microbial world, which comprises some of the most diverse and least described organisms on earth. Paddy also recognized that the MBL was an institution truly unlike any other in the world. “I think it’s a combination of the passion and the standards that the place sets,” says Paddy. “It has been for me an amazingly supportive environment.” Paddy’s current research was in fact inspired by his collaboration with MBL’s former informatics manager David Remsen. Although Paddy still finds time to help identify microbes like those living in the oxygen-depleted waters of Cariaco Basin off Venezuela, Paddy’s raison d’être these days is creating computer technology that can do what taxonomists like himself have always done—collect and organize information about organisms. Along with MBL colleagues Cathy Norton and Patrick Leary, Paddy is building uBio, the world’s mightiest electronic taxonomist, capable of managing all biological information that is stored electronically, and making it available online for anyone to use.
Ultimately, Paddy hopes to apply this technology to the biggest bioinformatics project imaginable: the Encyclopedia of Life. Famed biologist and naturalist E.O. Wilson inspired the idea in 2003 when he wrote, “Imagine an electronic page for each species of organism on Earth, available everywhere by single access on command.” Paddy envisions a dynamic, web-based encyclopedia that continually collects data from all over the Internet and generates pages customized for each user. The MBL is working with a consortium of five institutions to secure funding to support the visionary endeavor.
Paddy misses Australia, its bewildering wildlife, and its unspoiled vastness. And he misses his students’ naive enthusiasm. “It’s the strangest thing,” he laughs, “they have not yet learned that the world is really a rotten place.”
And though he may lament spending more time with a computer than with a microscope, he knows it’s worth it. “This thing that we’re doing now, I personally think that it is a revolutionary development. I think for biology it has the potential of transforming the way that we access information and use information, and that it would be churlish to want to stick with the microscope.”
—Katy O’Connell
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Employee Spotlight
Meet Steve Mills
Seawater Technician, POM Shop, Lillie
Turn on the seawater faucet in any MBL laboratory and briny liquid flows out seemingly with ease. Running seawater is a marine scientist’s dream for sure, but keeping it pumping smoothly through the laboratory is no easy task. That’s where long-time employee and “keeper of the seawater systems,” Steve Mills comes in.
For almost his entire 41-year career at the MBL, Steve has worked on the laboratory’s seawater systems. It is his responsibility is to make sure that seawater flows properly, from the moment it’s captured in Great Harbor, until the time it reaches the end user, the scientists, who rely on fresh seawater for their research.
Many employees may not realize how seawater is collected from the ocean and distributed throughout the institution. Seven hundred and fifty gallons of water per minute is pumped from 11 feet below a dock jutting out into Great Harbor. From Great Harbor, water is pumped through pipes below Water Street and up three stories along the outside of the Lillie building where it is then dispersed into nine 5,000-gallon holding tanks on the Lillie roof. These tanks feed seawater to four buildings—Lillie, Loeb, Marine Resources, and the Rowe Laboratory (formerly Whitman). This seawater “circulatory system” relies on about three miles of piping.
On a typical summer day, the MBL pumps around 750,000 gallons of seawater, although, according to Steve, the lab has been known to pump as much as 1.3 million gallons in one day. Like a master clockmaker listening to each tick of his clock, Steve knows the sound of the pumps and can tell if something isn’t right just by walking into the Water Street pump house and listening. Working with MBL machinist Rick Langill, Steve makes sure that the MBL’s three 38-year-old titanium pumps, the workhorses behind the MBL seawater operation, stay in optimum condition.
Anyone who has ever dealt with a nasty household drain clog will appreciate the care it takes to keep the MBL’s seawater pipes running freely. Over the years, Steve has done an amazing job of keeping everything flowing smoothly. In addition to daily checks of pumps and pipes, Steve is diligent about periodically cleaning the Lillie holding tanks, which he says goes a long way in keeping the seawater arteries free and clear of debris. That’s why three times a year, he rounds up Plant Operations and Maintenance, and Buildings, Services, and Grounds staff for the messy, but crucial, job (see photo, above).
Steve’s seen a lot over the years. He’s been here for every hurricane, every hurricane threat, and has even braved single-digit temperatures out on the dock, using a blowtorch to keep the pipes from freezing over night. “There have been many evenings I’ve slept at my desk,” he says.
But like so many MBL employees who work behind-the-scenes to keep the laboratory humming, it is because of Steve’s skill, dedication, and commitment to his work that the MBL is able to provide a productive research environment for its scientists.
So, the next time you open that seawater faucet in your lab or walk through the Marine Resources building, think of the path the water has taken to get there, and of Steve Mills, the man who makes it all possible.
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Seawater pumped to MBL laboratories from Great Harbor passes through a screen with holes just 3/8” wide to prevent large animals from entering the pipes. But that doesn’t stop tiny larvae from entering and thriving in the seawater holding tanks located atop the Lillie building. To keep pipes flowing freely, Plant Operations and Maintenance and Buildings, Services, and Grounds staff are charged with periodically cleaning the tanks. Here Mike Toner and guest cleaner, Communications Assistant Director Gina Hebert are poised to do the job. During a routine scrub last month, starfish were found in greatest abundance, but mussels, crabs, and oysters also make the tanks their home. MBL Seawater Technician Steve Mills has found starfish as big as his hand and even once collected a whole pail of bay scallops from the tanks.
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