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River Quest

River Quest

Max Holmes and Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink spend a lot of time upriver—one day bundled in a parka on the icy banks of the Fraser River in Canada, another day paddling in…

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Storms, Floods, and Droughts

Storms, Floods, and Droughts

The source of the rain that filled your town reservoir, or flooded your nearby river, or never arrived to water your crops, is most likely the ocean. The ocean contains…

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Bacteria Exhibit Altruistic Behavior

Bacteria Exhibit Altruistic Behavior

When it comes to bacteria protecting themselves, it’s all in the family. A new study shows that marine bacteria can produce antibiotic compounds that kill unrelated bacteria but do not…

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Elemental Journeys

Elemental Journeys

Humans have changed the face of the Earth by significantly altering the natural movements of chemicals on the planet’s surface, according to a new study by geochemists at Woods Hole…

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Calculating Evaporation from the Ocean

Illustration by Amy Caracappa-Qubeck, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Imagine you turn on the tap in the morning and water pummels out and spills over your sink. Later you go out…

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New Weather-Shifting Climate Cycle Revealed

New Weather-Shifting Climate Cycle Revealed

Scientists have uncovered evidence for another natural cycle that, like El Niño and La Niña, shifts Pacific Ocean winds and currents and rearranges rainfall and weather patterns around the globe.…

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Deep-sea Detectives

Deep-sea Detectives

Links to related materials Mid-Ocean Ridges—Articles, illustrations, and video showing how new seafloor crust forms Mapping the Seafloor with Multibeam Sonar Profile of Marshall Swartz Story of the SDSL Data-Link…

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Deep-sea Vents Yield New Species

Deep-sea Vents Yield New Species

Call it “midnight at the OASES.” Neither permanent darkness nor extreme pressure and heat cause problems for a host of new deep-sea species found in January by an international research…

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Do Oil and Corals Mix?

Do Oil and Corals Mix?

Scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) helped find strong evidence that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 had impacts on deep-sea coral communities in the Gulf of Mexico.…

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Follow the Carbon

Follow the Carbon

“Carbon is the currency of life,” said David Griffith, a marine chemist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). “Where carbon is coming from, which organisms are using it, how they’re…

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Internship Pairs Scientists and Students

Internship Pairs Scientists and Students

Falmouth Academy has established an internship program with scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The program requires students in grades 9 to 12 to apply to their chemistry, physics…

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Mentors for Budding Scientists

Mentors for Budding Scientists

For the fourth consecutive year, local high school students interested in science spent part of their summer vacations working on projects undertaken with Delia Oppo’s lab at Woods Hole Oceanographic…

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New Laboratory Opens at WHOI

New Laboratory Opens at WHOI

Scientists and engineers began moving into the newest laboratory at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in August—a 27,000-square-foot, “green”-designed building that will provide space for major effort to create long-term…

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Underneath and Overlooked: Groundwater

Underneath and Overlooked: Groundwater

Matt Charette has been pulling off the sheetrock in Earth’s basement to reveal a hidden plumbing system that pumps water into the ocean. Rivers carry most of the rain that…

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Shifting Tactics in Shifting Shoals

Shifting Tactics in Shifting Shoals

The best-laid plans of scientists often go awry when they actually get into the field. “That’s when designing an experiment becomes adapting an experiment,” said Peter Traykovski, an oceanographer at…

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A Robotic Albatross?

A Robotic Albatross?

Oceanographer Phil Richardson formally retired in 1999, but that hardly diminished his passion and curiosity. Last year, he combined his scientific knowledge with longstanding interests in sailing and flying to…

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Symbiosis in the Deep Sea

Symbiosis in the Deep Sea

Mobs of pale shrimp clamber over each other, jockeying for position in the swirling flow of black-smoker vents on the seafloor where ultra-hot fluids from Earth’s interior meet cold seawater.…

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A Serendipitous Seafloor Sample

A Serendipitous Seafloor Sample

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation. The pillow lava display and coffee table were funded by the Deep Ocean Exploration Institute at WHOI.

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Brown Tides and Redfielders

Brown Tides and Redfielders

Come spring, Louie Wurch’s mind turns toward softball and another, less idyllic seasonal phenomenon: brown tides. Both scientist and shortstop, Wurch spearheaded the creation of the Biology Department’s team in…

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The Boy in the Alvin Sphere

The Boy in the Alvin Sphere

The titanium personnel sphere for the new deeper-diving Alvin submersible began undergoing a series of tests Tuesday in a pressurized tank at a facility in Annapolis, Md., to see how…

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