My major professor, Harold Humm. I have great admiration for him because he was not the kind of scientist who restricted himself to one little piece of the universe that he got to know very well. He knew a lot of things very well. He insisted on putting everything in context, and he encouraged me to think in that way. Whatever you do is tied to everything else. Everything you do ultimately makes a difference to everything else. Everything is tied together.

There's a chunk of sponge around here somewhere. It's a birthday present from a man I went diving with in 1975. We were in separate submarines. Since it was my birthday, he collected it like a bouquet of flowers and put it in the basket of a submarine. It was a nice little present.

So it wouldn't surprise me in the least to find that in historic or prehistoric times there were places that have lived on in legend. Consider the Persian Gulf. The deepest part of the Persian Gulf is only about 300 feet, 100 meters or so, off the coast of Iran. At really low tide, it looks as though you can walk from Saudi Arabia to Iran. There are huge mud flats and exposed areas. That was a fertile river valley. And you know that people were there ages ago.

So whether it's one, two, or six, or 20 or 50 Atlantises, they're there. The interesting thing is that we now have the ability to find them and explore them. I can't wait! (laughs).

Like the encounter I recently had with an octopus. He could have darted off and gone back in a crevice any moment that it cared to. But it stayed out in the open and really engaged me for more than half an hour. And it would have stayed longer, but I was getting low on air. I had to go back.

I've seen octopus communicating with others. They send signals back and forth. The octopus flashes all dark. And then they go all pale. Or, it's like somebody takes a ruler and draws a line right down the center of their body. One half goes pale; the other half goes dark. Or instead of being nice and smooth, the octopus can actually make little projections pop up all over his body. Like little mountains, just gorgeous. Or instead of having all solid colors, they can engage in a series of spots, patterns of various sorts. The colors are just flashing like rainbows, all at once.

This particular creature was doing that to me. At one point, it just drew itself up to its highest level, on the tips of its tentacles. The highest point was maybe 16 inches high. And it was just regarding me. And what can I say? I was regarding him or her. And we were just looking at each other. Remember, their eyes are as capable of focusing as our eyes are. Their structure is much like that of a vertebrate eye. They have a lens. They have an optic nerve that goes back to a very well-developed central nervous system. They can see.

And this thing was really giving me the once-over with its beautifully developed eyes, as was I with the utmost respect, looking at this creature.

This octopus seemed to be going through its repertoire of signals. It was all dark and then it was all light. And then it was half one color, half dark. Then all these little projections popped up all over it. And then it went all smooth. And then it would cruise around and sort of slide off the rock, and I would go around and follow it and it would stop. It was at that last point where it finally just humped itself up. It looked as though it had robes on. It looked stately. (laughs).

That's a loaded word. Some of my scientific friends would really curl up and cringe that I'm using words as a human being, not just as a scientist. But if I'm not constrained by the box that scientific language forces you to see things through, that's the word I would use.

But there I was. And I could not communicate to him. I couldn't communicate; "Hi. How are you?" or "Gosh, you're just gorgeous." or " I don't mean you any harm" or "Take me to your leader." Or whatever else you'd say to an alien creature.

And that's when I thought to myself: This octopus must think that I'm a real dummy.