This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato. You know, I've had a chance to talk to lots of explorers over the years, astronauts, climatologists in Antarctica, fossil hunters in the Gobi Desert. But one name really sticks out for me, Robert Ballard, who led the team that found the wreck of the Titanic

in 1985. And it's not just because he discovered that ill-fated ship, but also because of his

amazing discoveries of life under the sea. I had a chance to speak with him back in 2000 about

the Titanic and some of his other underwater

wonders.

Looking at Underwater Explorer, Dr. Robert Ballard's resume, it seems hard to believe that

it's all the work of just one person.

He trained dolphins, discovered sunken Nazi warships, discovered giant worms and volcanoes called

black smokers at the bottom of the ocean. He's explored places as diverse as the Mediterranean

Sea, Lake Ontario, the Atlantic Ocean, the Black Sea, and the Galapagos. And through his Jason

project, he has virtually taken hundreds of thousands of kids with him on his fantastic

adventures via computer.

But most people will think of Bob Ballard, by one thing.

They'll know him as the discoverer of the wreck of the Titanic.

And this hour we're going to be talking with Bob Ballard.

Robert Ballard is the director of the Institute for Exploration at the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut,

and a National Geographic Explorer in Residence.

He's also the author with Will Hively of The Eternal Darkness,

a personal history of deep sea exploration published by Princeton University Press,

and he joins us today from Providence, Rhode Island.

Thank you for being with us, Dr. Ballard.

Oh, it's a pleasure to be here. I've listened to you so often. It's nice to be at this end of the game. Very kind of you to say so. So many questions. So little time.

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