The lights were dimmed and within moments the Bermuda Biological Station's conventional auditorium was transformed to a futuristic learning world where darkness reigned and thousands of illuminated dials came into view. Several people in white laboratory jackets expertly punched away at a deck of buttons that resembled an air-traffic control tower, commanding a connection to a place that few people have seen.

Bermuda Biological Station (BBSR) scientist Dr. Fred Lipschultz stood at the front of the audience of 200 schoolchildren, encouraging them to join him in a countdown that would open them to experience the underwater world a mile and a half below the ocean surface.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one!'' they yelled excitedly. And when they had finished, a series of images began popping up on three enormous screens. The centre one displayed the live image feed, while the others showed back-up images pulled from a databank of recently-filmed scenes, designed to enhance the experience.

Disneyland had come to town, it seemed. But this was the world of the Jason Project - a live hour-long science seminar, beamed via satellite to the Bermuda Biological Station for Research from the Sea of Cortez off California and Mexico's Baja Peninsula.

Bermuda's downlink site at BBSR became a spectator centre in this annual voyage to the bottom of the sea for the first time this year from March 1-13.

The Island, along with Jason Project newcomers in England, Mexico and five US locations joined the network to bring the overall number of sites to 28, with most being in North America. Their common purpose: "To explore a world where no-one has ever gone before,'' according to Dr. Bob Ballard, the oceanographer nderwater explorer from the prestigious Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

The Jason Project is his brainchild. An explorer who went down to film the sunken hulk of the Titanic, Ballard recognised the extent of excitement that sharing these surroundings would do to stimulate children. As the star of the award-winning show, the enthusiastic Ballard launched directly into a power-packed programme. His purpose: To stimulate kids to consider careers in science.

At first, it felt as if we were meeting the entire cast of a Cecil B. DeMille movie production as Dr. Ballard introduced the Jason crew's scientists, technicians, back-up staff, the equipment and submersible stars Jason and Turtle before the pace picked up and the excitement began. And begin it did.

The centre 24-foot-square screen and two 14-foot-square projection areas on each side presented powerful images of an underwater world captured on the cameras of Jason, a seven-foot remotely-operated vehicle (ROV), and Turtle, a 26-foot submersible, which journeyed down 7,000-feet - about a mile and a half - to the ocean floor with three scientists aboard to explore the world of hydrothermal vents in the Sea of Cortez. In an instant, we were taken from images on deck to the US Navy research vessel Laney Chouest to a world away.

The science fiction-like scene projected from Jason's cameras was of hydrothermal vents. They appeared as a series of natural vertical chimneys, emitting bubbling blackened and cloudy water columns that spiralled upward. It was other-worldly.

Temperatures between 279 and 325 degrees centigrade (boiling point is 100 degrees centigrade) were being generated in these vents that support a life system unlike any other ... six-foot tube worms without mouths or guts (which were first discovered in 1977), gigantic clams, black coral covered with white bacteria mats, fish and two to three-feet wide crabs -were all living harmoniously in enormously high temperatures. Life there is based on chemosynthesis - organisms living on chemical energy, unlike the topside life that needs photosynthesis, energy generated from sunlight.

Excitement peaked in this Jules Verne-like scene as a student sitting high and dry on the Jason Project's Primary Interactive Network Site (PINS) in Long Island, New York was given a joy stick to drive Jason. The spellbound audience in Bermuda watched intently as the cameras beamed in on the 12-year-old child at the helm of a submersible on the ocean floor.

She took us past a mass of tube worms and for close looks at this unknown terrain of the sea. No-one in the audience spoke at first. But it wasn't long before one child said what many people were thinking.

"I want to do that ...'' he said loudly. His wish may come true next year, say local Jason Project organisers.

A visual switch of the Jason Project cameras transformed our world from that of the hydrothermal vent world of chemosynthesis to the surface where children and scientists were stroking whales. This was a welcome sight to most of the children in the audience as whispering ceased and frequent walks to and from the bathroom ended.

Their focal point shifted to the grey whales in the San Ignacio Lagoon, off the Baja Peninsula. Pre-recorded footage of them jumping and breeching was spectacular, and it was difficult not to become enthusiastic.

The Jason team were in the heart of the Pacific Ocean's primary mating and calving ground of the grey whale. And the kids in Bermuda were psyched. Young scientists of Junior Argonauts - as the Jason Project calls them -from across the United States were working with the whales, the world's largest mammals.

They were putting transmitters in the grey whale calves' blow holes to measure their breathing rate.

"What does it feel like?'' asked the ever-present voice of Dr. Ballard.

"It's soft, but I have never touched anything like it before,'' the child replied. "It's different.'' Questions from the audiences were welcomed. And Michelle Hoffman, a whale specialist of the American Cetacean Society in California endeavoured to answer them simply.

"How many calories do baby grey whales need every day?'' was one inquiry.

"What kind of diseases do grey whales get?'' was another.

The point is that Jason Project is not just a show-and-tell projection. It is interaction with scientists. The kids witness science in action. The experience documents work that is being conducted by scientists whose working lives are dedicated to unearthing and exploring what makes the environment tick. Throughout the hour, Dr. Ballard and his colleagues explained the nature of the work and its importance. Sometimes their explanations weren't clear, and in many instances "big words'' were used, thus confusing some of the children. Others of the TV omputer generation were clearly not impressed by what they were seeing. Some of them even fell asleep.

But the Jason Project's success lies with the 750,000 or so viewers who witnessed this year's expeditions, who are excited and stimulated by its concept. It is these budding enthusiasts that the scientific world hopes to attract to pursue careers in a field that has been waning in numbers over the past decade or so. Graduates have not been interested in science. But the Jason Project has had excellent feedback and results. Evaluations at Lehigh University, Pennsylvania have found that more positive attitudes toward science resulted from the Jason experience. It is the hope that this will happen in increasing numbers as more classroom links are made.

A costly project to conduct, this year's numbers were an approximate $5.25 million - or about $7 per pupil, underwritten by such corporate giants as Electronic Data Systems (EDS), Cray Research, Inc., Toyota USA Foundation, as well as the National Geographic Society, the USNavy and the US National Science Teachers Association. These sponsors helped make possible the initial expedition of Jason, in 1989, when students went to the Mediterranean Sea to watch Ballard's team discover the first active hydrothermal vents and explore that sea's deepest known ancient shipwreck. The following year, the Ballard team mapped by computer two sunken War of 1812 battleships in Canada's Lake Ontario. The third exploration, in December 1991, followed Charles Darwin's footsteps in the remote Galapagos Islands, broadcasting from land and underwater sites.

This year's Bermuda connections were generously paid for by Cable & Wireless.

The locally based telecommunications company has committed $420,000 for three years (including 1993) for programme costs and equipment to bring the Jason Project to the Island.

Next year, two Bermudian schoolchildren will be selected from thousands of students to be Junior Argonauts on the expedition to the Central American rain forests of Belize. A local teacher will participate, too. With their faces being beamed in live to the Biological Station, perhaps fewer children will be bored and will generate the excitement that seems to prevail elsewhere in the world.

One point is definite, though. Many of the Disneyland of Bermuda viewers were inspired and excited by what they saw and experienced. And that is success in Dr. Ballard's book.

Judith Wadson is a sub-editor with The Royal Gazette. She is a former public relations officer with the Bermuda Biological Station for Research.

Close encounters: Junior Argonauts and scientists come face to face with grey whales in San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja California Sur during the Jason Project.

RG MAGAZINE MAY 1993