Mad, Bad and Marine Biological

Mad, Bad and Marine Biological

galway.net , 3 Mar 2003

Trevor Norton, a renowned marine biologist with a quirky sense of humour will give a public lecture in Room 102, on the Ground Floor of the Martin Ryan Marine Science Institute, NUI Galway, at 8.00 p.m. on Wednesday, 12 March, 2003. His lecture is entitled: Unbelievable and underwater - an Irish adventure.

At school Trevor excelled at failing examinations. Then a television series in which a handsome Austrian, Hans Hass and his beautiful wife, Lotte, went Diving to Adventure, convinced him that he too must become a handsome Austrian and go diving. To everyone’s surprise, he began to pass examinations!

He is now Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Liverpool and Director of the Port Erin Marine Laboratory in the Isle of Man, where he researches marine ecology. His quirky history of diving pioneers, Stars Beneath the Sea, gained him the accolade “Bill Bryson underwater.” His second book, a true-life Irish adventure entitled Reflections on a Summer Sea, has been described as ‘truly magical.’

His Irish adventure gives the lie to the idea that scientists are dull. Certainly Jack Kitching was anything but dull! In 1932, he put a milk churn over his head and strolled underwater to study the kelp forest. In his book, Reflections on a Summer Sea, Trevor Norton tells of his misadventures while spending fourteen summers at Kitching’s privately owned marine laboratory in West Cork.

Kitching’s laboratory was a rather strange research space. It included babies’ feeding bottles full of warm jelly and other unusual paraphernalia, while Jack himself dined on Guinness omelettes. Norton’s book brings out the magic and fun of being a marine biologist. His talk in NUI Galway provides a great opportunity to hear a brilliant and highly entertaining scientist share his knowledge of and passion for his work.

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