Lessons From the Deepest River in the World

From: Audrey Quinn
Length: 05:30

This is the story of how the death of one little fish helped researchers better understand an entire ecosystem. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: Lessons From the Deepest River in the World
From: Audrey Quinn

Dr_stiassny_small Dr. Melanie Stiassny's a fish researcher at the American Museum of Natural History. She's kind of hung up on the Lower Congo River. And you can't blame her, she's made some pretty wild revelations there. She found out that it's the deepest river in the entire world. Also, she uncovered a completely novel kind of evolution at work. But the best part about all of this? She fully credits these discoveries to a chance encounter with one dying little fish. This piece focuses on the sequence of events that created that career-changing experience.

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Piece Description

Dr. Melanie Stiassny's a fish researcher at the American Museum of Natural History. She's kind of hung up on the Lower Congo River. And you can't blame her, she's made some pretty wild revelations there. She found out that it's the deepest river in the entire world. Also, she uncovered a completely novel kind of evolution at work. But the best part about all of this? She fully credits these discoveries to a chance encounter with one dying little fish. This piece focuses on the sequence of events that created that career-changing experience.

Broadcast History

Aired on NHPR's Word of Mouth on February 15th, 2011 and on KUOW Presents on March 8th, 2011.

Transcript

Vox1 (:24)
This is the story of one sick little fish.
It's completely colorless.
And blind.
You won't see it swimming along with the other fishies.
Nope.
This fish is only seen dead, on the banks of the Lower Congo River.
Pathetic.
Our story starts with someone way classier.
A New York scientist.

S intro
My name's Melanie Stiassny, I'm curator of fishes at the American Museum of Natural History.

Vox2
Dr. Stiassny's got this thing for the Congo River.

S congo is amazing
Oh it's just the most incredible system. Particularly for an ichthyologist-

Can you say that word again?

An icthyologist, someone who studies fish, the congo is just like a, oh my goodness, it's just like a magical place.

Vox4 redo2
Most of what Dr. Stiassny originally knew about the Lower Congo River came from just one expedition done decades ago.
Two American researchers in the early 70's had found a crazy number o...
Read the full transcript