Life Science log

Prosanta Chakrabarty works with visualization expert to map data on extent of oil and chemical impact on wildlifeTo establish a baseline for measuring and predicting the biological impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a LSU ichthyologist and an Ohio biomedical informatics researcher are using Ohio Supercomputer Center, or OSC, systems to help map data on the extent of the spill and chemicals and the distribution of various fish species."We know very little about deep-sea life and even less about the interactions between this biota and these toxic chemicals," said Prosanta Chakrabarty, curator of ichthyology at LSU's Museum of Natural Science. "The northern Gulf of Mexico is home to more than 600 species of fish, and new ones are being described every year. Through our efforts and by making the informatics tools available over the web, our aim is to map baseline data about nearly every northern Gulf of Mexico species that may be impacted."Several universities and federal agencies, inc