Admittedly, I had border lined on indifference about Cameron's dive to Marianas Trench.  Luckily, para_sight had been pushing and had ample enthusiasm for the both of us.

After running errands yesterday (a very pedestrian necessity of a deep-sea biologists life), I checked into Twitter and realized James Cameron had started his descent.  

For the next couple hours, I cannot describe what overcome me.  I imagine I share the same feeling as those who witnessed the moon landing , Beebe's descent in the Bathyscape, or Picard and Walsh's original descent into the Challenger Deep.  I was captivated.  I could not refresh my Twitter app fast enough to keep with @JimCameron, @DeepChallenge, @PaulGAllen, and the 1000's tweeting under the hashtag #deepseachallenge.  To fuel my information hunger I had Twitter on both my iPad and iPhone going. I was captivated as I witnessed this feat and shared the feat with a community of thousands on Twitter.  

I have never been one to understand people's fascination with sports teams.  The hanging on to every second of a NCAA tournament game.  I could not understand how they felt like a participant even when they were not actually playing the game.  And even though yesterday I did not dive into Marianas trench, there is emotional tie to Cameron's dive.  I feel as I was a participant.

As time passed.  I exchanged Tweets with my deep-sea science colleagues answering their questions.

Libby Ross and Tammy Horton (two excellent deep-sea biologists), Al and I speculated on what Cameron might find.

Then we waited and eagerly consumed more news.