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Ocean Health

September 28, 2014

WHOI chemist Mak Saito, left, and researcher Matt McIlvin show off mass spectrometers that are key instruments in their efforts to apply an emerging biomedical technique—proteomics—to learn about the ocean. Analyzing seawater samples, they use the instruments to identify and measure proteins, the molecules that catalyze biochemical reactions in marine microrganisms. That gives scientists the ability to “effectively look inside” microbial life at the heart of the ocean food web, Saito said, and see what biochemical reactions they are performing in the face of various ocean conditions,” including pollution, climate change, and other shifts. (Photo by Jayne Doucette, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)