Feature
Willy Goldsmith
Willy Goldsmith is a fish guy. At home in Boston and Gloucester, Mass., he is an avid lifelong fisherman. He also works in the ichthyology collections at Harvard University, where…
Read MoreA Summer of Science on the Sea
It’s no surprise that the Summer Student Fellowship program at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is one of the most sought-after gigs for undergraduate science majors around the world. It’s…
Read MoreHaving Their Phosphorus and Eating It Too
Try naming the nutrients you need to be strong and healthy. Chances are phosphorus will be pretty far down the list, if it’s there at all. And yet, you and…
Read MoreExploring an Icy, Invisible Realm in Antarctica
Turning Carbon Dioxide Gas into Rock
Voyage to the Remote Phoenix Islands
The Phoenix Islands aren’t obvious on a map—eight scattered coral atolls barely above sea level in the equatorial western Pacific. These specks form the most remote coral island archipelago in…
Read MoreFloats Reveal Unknown Ocean Pathways
Oceanographers have long known that the image they used to portray the oceans’ global circulation—called the Ocean Conveyor—was an oversimplification. It’s useful, but akin to describing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony as…
Read MoreThe Hunt for Microbial ‘Trojan Horses’
In summer, Wood Neck Beach in Woods Hole, Mass., teems with tourists, but only a few seagulls kept Matt First company as he walked through the brown-gold marsh grass last…
Read MoreIn Praise of Postdoctoral Scientists
The large stone fireplace at the Captain Kidd bar in Woods Hole, Mass., provided a warm haven last March for a group of young scientists gathered after a long day…
Read MoreThe WHOI Marine Mammal Center Is Born …
The WHOI Marine Mammal Center Is Born … A new center has been established at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to pursue research on marine mammal behavior, physiology, and health,…
Read MoreTo Free a Tangled Whale
Scientists successfully used a new sedative delivery system for the first time on a large whale in the wild. It calmed the 40-foot, 40,000-pound whale so that rescuers could approach safely by boat and cut away fishing gear wrapped around its head.
Read MoreAre Emperor Penguins Marching to Extinction?
A Diversity of Geoscientists
The statistics are stark: From 1973 to 2003, only 313 Hispanic Americans, 135 African Americans, and 49 Native Americans earned Ph.D. degrees in geosciences. That’s a sprinkle in the ocean…
Read MoreNoah’s Not-so-big Flood
A long time ago, whether your time frame is biblical or geological, the Black Sea was a large freshwater Black “Lake.” It was cut off from the Mediterranean Sea by…
Read MoreFarming Shellfish in Zanzibar
Buoys Help Avert Whale-Ship Collisions
A lot of lines crisscross, run parallel, and ultimately connect in this story. The first line is a watery one hugging the East Coast between Florida and Nova Scotia, which…
Read MoreTurning a Toy into a Scientific Tool
John Bailey spends most sunny weekends on a grassy field behind a movie theater on Cape Cod with a group of model airplane enthusiasts and their handmade creations. The hobbyists,…
Read MoreThe Airplane That Studied the Ocean
Airplanes don’t typically come to mind when people think of ocean science. But for 25 years, beginning in 1945, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) maintained five planes for research. Ed…
Read MoreFloating Without Imploding
To allow a heavy vehicle to float in the deepest depths, Don Peters and other engineers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution used an entirely new system of ceramic spheres that…
Read MoreLet There Be Light in the Dark Depths
Jonathan Howland has worked as an engineer for 20 years in the Deep Submergence Lab at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, primarily developing systems for remotely operated vehicles. He led efforts…
Read MoreArmed and Dexterous
Matt Heintz is a research engineer in the Deep Submergence Lab at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). He started his career at WHOI as a pilot for the human-occupied submersible…
Read More2,000 Batteries Under the Sea
Daniel Gomez-Ibañez has been an engineer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for three years. Much of that time, he has spent developing large batteries for underwater vehicles, including Nereus. [Second…
Read MoreMiles Under the Sea, Hanging on by Hair-Thin Fiber
Andy Bowen has been developing robotic deep-sea technology for many years, starting his career at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the 1980s by working on Jason Jr., the small tethered…
Read MoreNereus Soars to the Ocean’s Deepest Trench
It took a village of engineers to build a completely new type of unmanned deep-sea robot that can reach the deepest part of the ocean. On May 31, 2009, a…
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