Before I go into seabed minerals, a bit about the  Winter Olympics.  There will be a lot to see today, for the USA had only two total medals as of yesterday.    Here is the current medals standing .  We're up to 11. Olympics Medal Leaders Gold Silver Bronze Total Norway Italy United States 7 4 4 2 2 5 4 7 2 13 13 11 For details, go to the official   Milano Cortina Winter Games page . First, some background about my experience with seabed mining.  My professional career was great, but frustrating in one particular area. To begin, my PhD is in biochemical engineering. I began teaching/researching at the University of Hawaii in 1972. I worked in the U.S. Senate from 1979 to 1982. I returned to the University of Hawaii, and in 1984 became director of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute.  HNEI was co-center with the University of Mississippi as the Department of Interior's Marine Mineral Technology Center, which focused on seabed mining and relate...