Robert Evans wrote the text of this article after seeing for himself, on Alvin dive 3549, the recovered biological communities at Nine North. With a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Kansas, and after 25 years as a research geologist for Mobil Research, he changed course in 1996, completing the Science Communication program at the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1997. Evans free-lances from his home in northern California.