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Lab Work

September 22, 2017

Members of this year’s class of Ocean Science Journalism Fellows spent some time on a beach near WHOI collecting samples to look at the microbiome of the coastal ocean. The number and diversity of marine microbes greatly exceed that of macroscopic life in the ocean, and many employ unique life strategies not seen anywhere else on Earth. Without them, life on Earth almost certainly would not be possible, and some are also being investigated as the source of new materials, fuels, and even medicines.

(Photo by Ken Kostel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)