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Coral Sanctuaries in a Warming World?

Coral Sanctuaries in a Warming World?

Climate scientists have predicted that ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific will rise significantly by the end of the century, wreaking havoc on coral reef ecosystems. But a new study…

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Exhibit Spotlights Sea Butterflies

Exhibit Spotlights Sea Butterflies

Artist Cornelia Kubler Kavanagh is passionate about exploring the ocean’s great unknowns. Via her latest work, she has found a kindred spirit in Gareth Lawson, a biological oceanographer at Woods…

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Fats In Whales’ Heads May Help Them Hear

Fats In Whales' Heads May Help Them Hear

For decades, scientists have known that dolphins and other toothed whales have specialized fats associated with their jaws, which efficiently convey sound waves from the ocean to their ears. But…

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The Quest to Map Titanic

The Quest to Map Titanic

Bill Lange was aboard Knorr in 1985 when the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution research vessel brought back the first grainy black-and-white images of Titanic resting on the seafloor. Ever since,…

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Are Jellyfish Populations Increasing?

Are Jellyfish Populations Increasing?

Delicate but armed, mindless yet unstoppable, jellyfish sometimes appear abruptly near coasts in staggering numbers that cause problems and generate headlines: Jellyfish fill fishing nets in Japan, sinking a boat.…

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A Taste of Oceanography

A Taste of Oceanography

After Genevieve Brett, an undergraduate physics major at Skidmore College, presented her mathematical analysis of coastal water temperature to WHOI scientists and graduate students, someone asked, did three weeks at…

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A Newfound Cog in the Ocean Conveyor

A Newfound Cog in the Ocean Conveyor

A decade into the 21st century, scientists have confirmed the existence of a new and apparently crucial ocean current on the face of the Earth. International teams led by Woods…

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To Catch a Hurricane

To Catch a Hurricane

On Aug. 25, 2011, the line projecting Hurricane Irene’s path up the East Coast barreled smack into Woods Hole, Mass., spurring a whirlwind in Jeff Donnelly’s lab at Woods Hole…

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Lessons from the 2011 Japan Quake

When the ground in Japan started shaking on March 11, 2011, the Japanese, who are well accustomed to earthquakes, knew this time was different. They weren’t surprised—the fault that ruptured…

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Marine Microbes vs. Cystic Fibrosis

Marine Microbes vs. Cystic Fibrosis

Microbes that grow in the ocean could one day help doctors combat the deadly disease cystic fibrosis (CF), said Tracy Mincer, a microbiologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Mincer studies…

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The Great South Channel

The Great South Channel

When people are hungry, they go to a place where they know they can find their favorite food. Right whales do much the same thing. In the Great South Channel,…

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Tracking Toxic Chemicals in Oil Spills

Tracking Toxic Chemicals in Oil Spills

I don’t do San Francisco like most people. I skip the cable cars, Lombard Street, Alcatraz, and the fine restaurants and museums. Soon after my flight arrives, I drive my…

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On the Trail of Mercury in the Ocean

On the Trail of Mercury in the Ocean

I returned from Hawai’i in mid-December with 700 bottles of seawater. The bottles hold what I hope are solutions to an abiding mystery. In the middle of the ocean, waters…

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Powerful Currents in Deep-Sea Gorges

Powerful Currents in Deep-Sea Gorges

On my first major research cruise, the ship was hit by a hurricane. On the second, the weather was even worse. In one particularly nasty storm, I remember standing braced…

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Whale Heads and Tales

Whale Heads and Tales

It’s a Saturday morning at Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown, Mass., the farthest point on the Cape. I am sleepy, hungry, and slightly dehydrated, but we are on a schedule…

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Searching for Life on the Seafloor

Searching for Life on the Seafloor

Smaller than a fingernail, like bits of downy red feathers, baby tubeworms cling to a vertical wall towering alongside the submersible Alvin 2,500 meters beneath the sea in 2006. Repaved…

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The Ocean’s Tiny Chemists

The Ocean's Tiny Chemists

Once as I was flying cross-country over the middle of the United States, the woman in the seat next to me remarked: “You know, in Nebraska when there’s a game…

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