American researchers want to fill the oceans with sensors

THERE IS TWICEDARPA as much water on Earth as land. Oceanographers are nevertheless fond of saying that science knows less about the high seas than it does about the moon. If John Waterston gets his way, though, that could soon change.Mr Waterston is the head of the “Ocean of Things” project at the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (), an American military think-tank that has helped develop everything from the internet to stealthy fighter planes. The project’s name is a play on the “Internet of Things”, the awkward phrase which describes the trend for stuffing sensors and an internet connection into all manner of ordinary objects, from cars and toothbrushes to factory robots and doorbells. The Ocean of Things aims to likewise wire up the high seas with swarms of floating, connected sensors.