Show Date: March 16, 2005

YOUR NEXT VACATION AND JURASSIC PARK
Pam Eastlick for the Marianas Variety

Greetings and welcome to The Deep column and the deepest radio show on Earth. The Deep is the science talk radio program that takes you from the depths of the ocean to the farthest reaches of the universe. This week on The Deep hosted by Jim Sullivan and aired at 6:00 this evening on K-57, we’ll peer into the immediate future and perhaps look at your next vacation. Then we’ll talk to a man that’s trying to recreate, well, not Jurassic Park, but something close. There will be other expedition calls and our science news updates and we’ll take your phone calls as well. Tune in tonight! Don’t forget to log on to www.thedeepradioshow.com for all the latest and deepest news!

GOING DEEP TO RELAX

Here on Guam we live in one of the greatest scuba diving locations in the world. A big part of The Deep radio show is news about the ocean and scuba adventures. But most people in the world have never been scuba diving and the beauties of coral reefs and fish remain a mystery to them. But a gentleman named Bruce Jones is looking to change all that.
Mr. Jones, the owner of U.S. Submarines, a company that makes luxurious submarines that range in price from $1 million to $80 million is quite well aware of the obstacles that have to be overcome. His Poseidon Undersea Resort will be built 50 feet underwater in the Bahamas. Completion is scheduled for late 2006.

The resort will have 20 suites. About 60% of each suite’s walls will be transparent acrylic providing stunning views of the surrounding ocean floor. Guests will be able to feed the fish from their rooms and each room has lights to illuminate the ocean floor at night. This is a luxury resort and each suite will lavishly furnished and contain a Jacuzzi. And in case you were worried about showing your own fins and scales to more than just the fish, each suite is covered with a reflective film that makes it nearly impossible to see into them during the day. At night, you’ll be able to make sections of the view ports opaque to increase your privacy.

The hotel will not be an undersea habitat that you can only approach with scuba. This one will be reached by an elevator and the pressure inside it will be the same as surface pressure. You can go to the resort and stay as long as you like without getting wet (except in the Jacuzzi!)
The hotel will also feature a revolving restaurant. You’ll be able to take a table near the windows and watch the view outside slowly change as you complete a full revolution in about one hour.
So how much will all this cost you? Try $1500 per night. Of course, that’s the going rate for a penthouse suite on Guam and you’ve got to admit the view will be unique. So, I’ve got two questions. When will it really open and when do we get one on Guam?
Tune in tonight on The Deep as we talk to Bruce Jones about this incredible adventure.

RAISING THE DEAD

This preserved carcass of a mammoth calf found in 1977 in Magadan, a city facing the Sea of Okhotsk in Russia, is believed to be 40,000 years old. KYODO PHOTO

We all remember Jurassic Park, that safe haven of cloned dinosaurs that turned out not to be so safe after all, at least for the humans involved. So what are the odds that there will someday be a real Jurassic Park? One of our guests tonight on The Deep will be Dr. Akira Iritani, a Japanese scientist who has the knowledge and credentials to bring Jurassic Park to life.
Dr. Iritani is a well-known and respected researcher at Japan’s Kinki University and has had a long and distinguished career in the fields of DNA research and cloning. Since Dr. Iritani knows what he’s talking about, he knows that the chances of actually finding viable dinosaur DNA are virtually nil. After all, they’ve been gone for 65 million years! Dr. Iritani has a slightly more modest dream. He dreams not of Jurassic Park, but Pleistocene Park. For you see, Dr. Iritani doesn’t want to clone a T-rex. He wants to clone a mammoth.
In 2002, he led a team of researchers to remote Yakutia Province in Siberia. There, he and a team of Japanese and Russian scientists scoured the ground for mammoths frozen in the permafrost. Several have been discovered over the centuries so the odds are not impossible.
"The best way to clone one of these animals is to find frozen sperm, but that is very difficult," says Dr. Iritani. "Alternatively, a portion of muscle, skin or any piece of tissue can be a good source of viable DNA. "The most important thing is to find a good carcass. We need to find specimens that were frozen immediately after death and have remained at a temperature of between -25 and -30 degrees C ever since."
Dr. Iritani didn’t find any mammoths in 2002, although they did find the frozen carcass of a wooly rhinoceros. Join us tonight on The Deep as we ask Dr. Iritani about his latest research (spinach genes in a pig?) and his upcoming quest to find that elusive mammoth.