{"623178":{"#nid":"623178","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"Scientists discover the world\u0027s biggest seaweed patch. They say it could be the \u0027new normal.\u0027","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWith help from a pair of NASA satellites, scientists - including \u003Cstrong\u003EJoseph Montoya\u003C\/strong\u003E of the Georgia Tech School of Biological Sciences -\u0026nbsp;have identified what\u0026rsquo;s being called the biggest patch of seaweed ever seen. The vast mat of brown Sargassum algae extends all the way across the Atlantic Ocean \u0026mdash; a distance of about 5,500 miles \u0026mdash; and the researchers say the so-called bloom may represent the \u0026ldquo;new normal\u0026rdquo; for parts of the Atlantic. \u0026ldquo;It goes all the way from West Africa, through the central Atlantic, towards the Caribbean Sea and reaching the Gulf of Mexico,\u0026rdquo; said Mengqiu Wang, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern Florida in Tampa and co-author of a paper describing the seaweed patch published July 5 in the journal Science.\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"30678","created_gmt":"2019-07-10 17:47:29","changed_gmt":"2019-07-15 14:27:31","author":"A. Maureen Rouhi","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"Lost In Your Vibe","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/mach\/science\/scientists-discover-world-s-biggest-seaweed-patch-they-say-it-ncna1027501?cid=public-rss_20190710","dateline":{"date":"2019-07-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2019-07-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"623030":{"id":"623030","type":"image","title":"Joe Montoya","body":null,"created":"1562595450","gmt_created":"2019-07-08 14:17:30","changed":"1562595450","gmt_changed":"2019-07-08 14:17:30","alt":"","file":{"fid":"237262","name":"2019 Joe Montoya with sargassuminhand.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/2019%20Joe%20Montoya%20with%20sargassuminhand.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/2019%20Joe%20Montoya%20with%20sargassuminhand.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":56866,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/2019%20Joe%20Montoya%20with%20sargassuminhand.jpg?itok=C5As6jh-"}}},"media_ids":["623030"],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"181702","name":"macroalgae"},{"id":"181637","name":"sargassum"},{"id":"28871","name":"Joseph Montoya"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}