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A Bite out of Biofilms

A Bite out of Biofilms

“Biofouling” by barnacles and other organisms begins with a biofilm, a layer of microbes adhering to a ship hull or other hard surface. Biofilms form (1) when bacteria settle onto…

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Water Everywhere?

Water Everywhere?

In May 2012, WHOI convened a Morss Colloquium to examine the issue of Earth’s water cycle. Afterwards, a panel that included (left to right) Anthony Patt, International Institute for Applied…

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Taking a Dip

Taking a Dip

In October 2012, WHOI research specialist Bob Nelson used a piece of super-clean Teflon netting to sample a sheen of oil on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. The…

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Reef Indicator

Reef Indicator

The blackbacked butterflyfish (Chaetodon melannotus) often feeds on soft corals. During a trip to the Farasan Banks in the Saudi Arabian waters of the Red Sea in 2009, WHOI biologist…

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Sharp-eyed Snails

Sharp-eyed Snails

Planktonic snails called atlantid heteropods live in the open ocean far from the surface, the sea floor, and the shore. Their transparent shells reveal red V-shaped ovaries in one animal…

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Ready for 2013

Ready for 2013

R/V Atlantis chief engineer Chris Morgan captured this rare shot of WHOI’s two large oceanographic research vessels freshly painted and ready to leave drydock at the end of 2012. Both…

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Tiny Pteropods

Tiny Pteropods

WHOI scientist Gareth Lawson recently led a research cruise in the Pacific to study sea butterflies, swimming snails whose scientific name, pteropod, means ‘wing foot’. This species, Limacina inflata, has…

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Acidification on the Horizon

Acidification on the Horizon

WHOI cientists Scott Doney, Anne Cohen, and Sarah Cooley (left to right) participated in a panel discussion about ocean acidification in Redfield Auditorium in August 2012. Ocean acidification is a…

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Mr. Fix-it

Mr. Fix-it

When an o-ring failed during a research cruise on R/V Knorr in October, WHOI engineer Ken Decoteau found himself assembling a new wiring harness to keep the data flowing. The instrument…

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Crystalline Colony

Crystalline Colony

A tiny planetoid adrift in an endless, dark ocean universe, this colonial protist was found off the Philippines, where biologist Larry Madin led a research trip to find deep-living organisms…

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Quick Turnaround

Quick Turnaround

After some careful handling on increasingly lively seas, the autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry is lowered back into its cradle on R/V Melville off the coast of Chile in the Spring…

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Happy Boxing Day

Happy Boxing Day

This past winter WHOI Senior Research Technician Dave Kulis installed these Lexan boxes in Nauset Marsh on Cape Cod  to test an experimental method to reduce the severity of harmful…

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

On Christmas Day in Antarctica in 2010, these scientists found themselves hard at work rather than by a cozy hearth. They did, however, have a white Christmas—even though it was…

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Fascinating Foraminifera

Fascinating Foraminifera

Seafloor sediments contain millions of tiny shells of foraminifera—single-celled ocean organisms that lived, died, and sank to the ocean bottom over the ages. The fossil shells (seen here through a…

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Coral Castle

Coral Castle

Seen through a microscope, this corrugated coral seems like a battlemented castle defending itself against tiny missiles. In fact, the coral will catch and eat any of the little arrowhead-shaped…

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Bacterial Behavior

Bacterial Behavior

Microbial ecologist Tracy Mincer assesses a culture of bacteria in his lab at WHOI. Mincer studies the chemical compounds marine microbes produce to communicate with each other, defend themselves, and…

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Fanciful Phytoplankton

Fanciful Phytoplankton

In 2006, WHOI biologist Sonya Dyhrman and research associate Sheean Haley created “Artistic Oceanographer,” a program to engage fifth-grade students in ocean sciences through art. After learning about phytoplankton and…

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Ocean in a Tank

Ocean in a Tank

Over the summer, construction crews on WHOI’s Quissett campus finished a flow-through seawater mesocosm, which allows scientists to conduct controlled experiments under realistic light and weather conditions. Filtered water from Martha’s Vineyard Sound passes…

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The Changing Face of Greenland

As Greenland’s massive ice sheet experiences accelerated melting in a warming climate, WHOI glaciologist Sarah Das investigates the complex interactions between meltwater and the many glaciers that lead to the…

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Stalwart Survivor

Stalwart Survivor

The golf-ball-size slate pencil urchin, Eucidaris tribuloides, belongs to the only group of sea urchins known to have survived the Permian-Triassic extinction that occurred about 252 million years ago. Only…

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Inside Alvin

Inside Alvin

In late October, WHOI engineer and Alvin pilot Sean Kelley prepared wiring that will eventually be moved inside the submersible’s personnel sphere. His work was in advance of a full…

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Brown Butterfly

Brown Butterfly

The half-inch-long Cavolinia uncinata swims by flapping two wing-like extensions that give the group of planktonic snails formally known as pteropods its unofficial name of “sea butterflies”. Scientists on a…

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