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Under Construction

Under Construction

The original research vessel Atlantis, seen here under construction in Copenhagen, was something of a novelty for its designers, naval architects Owen & Minot, who specialized in racing yachts, and…

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Motion Beneath the Ocean

Motion Beneath the Ocean

Scientists aboard the R/V Atlantis recover an ocean-bottom seismograph (OBS) off the Galapagos Islands. Seismographs measure movement in the Earth’s crust, and scientists use data from these instruments to calculate the…

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Extra-firm Pillow

Extra-firm Pillow

This cross-section of a pillow lava shows pockets of whitish carbonate trapped within, suggesting that seafloor sediments might have been folded into the lava as it erupted. The sample is…

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Back on Deck

Back on Deck

Elizabeth Adams (center), a U.S. Coast Guard Marine Science Technician, assists WHOI engineer John Kemp (blue hard hat) and others in making a mooring recovery during an October 2011 Chukchi-Beaufort Sea cruise aboard…

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Pioneer Investigator of Deep-Sea Bacteria

Pioneer Investigator of Deep-Sea Bacteria

Microbiologist Holger Jannasch (1927-1998), shown in his lab about 1966, is remembered for making seminal discoveries in microbial ecology and launching the new field of deep-sea microbiology. He began studying…

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Changing of the Guard

Changing of the Guard

After retiring from service at WHOI, the research vessel Oceanus began a new chapter of ocean exploration in the Pacific this week, with work along coastal Oregon and Washington. The 177-foot…

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The Wild White Yonder

The Wild White Yonder

It was about 25°C (-13°F) this week in Qaanaaq, Greenland (Latitude 77°N), when WHOI post-doc Peter Kimball tested a prototype unmanned aerial system (UAS) developed by him and WHOI colleagues…

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Tour Tioga

Tour Tioga

On Thursday, March 29 from 9:00 to 4:00, scientists and community members are invited to the WHOI dock to tour the coastal oceanographic research vessel R/V Tioga. Over the past…

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Global River Sediments

Global River Sediments

WHOI researcher Valier Galy loads a sample into a gas chromatograph to identify and measure the abundance of lipids extracted from river and marine sediments collected from the Ganges-Brahmaputra basin.…

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Rising and Converging

Rising and Converging

Spring means it’s suppertime in the Great South Channel, an undersea canyon between Nantucket Shoals and Georges Bank. During this time, a relatively fresh coastal current (right) flows south along…

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Atlantis II in Monaco

Atlantis II in Monaco

In 1963, WHOI’s research ship Atlantis II stopped over in Monaco on its way to the Suez Canal and a research cruise in the Indian Ocean. The second of three…

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Don’t Make Me Get Up

Don't Make Me Get Up

A lounging elephant seal casts a wary, but sleepy, eye on a group of researchers on Torgersen Island, Antarctica. The scientific team, which included WHOI scientist emeritus Peter Wiebe and…

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Grendel’s Lair

Grendel's Lair

In the fall of 2011, the WHOI-operated research vessel Knorr sailed past the Faroe Islands east of Iceland, an ideal home for Beowolf’s nemesis. The team on board, led by…

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Water Day, Every Day

Water Day, Every Day

March 22 is World Water Day. In reality, it is hard to imagine a day on Earth without water. Water is the substance most associated with life on our planet.…

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Sunrise, Sunset, or Noon?

Sunrise, Sunset, or Noon?

“High” noon in the Arctic in winter looks a lot like sunset or sunrise. In November 2011, WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian led colleagues on the first-ever winter research cruise to…

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A Shard of Evidence

A Shard of Evidence

Karin Lemkau searches for oil—but not in the usual places. In 2007, a container ship, the M/V Cosco Busan, struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and spilled tens of thousands…

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Flounder, Drawn by a Giant

Flounder, Drawn by a Giant

Henry Bryant Bigelow (1879-1967) helped establish the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and was WHOI’s first director, from 1930 to 1940. One of the giants of U.S. oceanography, Bigelow’s interests spanned…

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Up Close With Plankton

Up Close With Plankton

Why study lifeless krill, copepods, and other tiny Arctic organisms under a microscope when you can see them live and in action in their native environment? During an early winter…

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The Telltale Clue

The Telltale Clue

Soon after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, pieces of a mysterious white substance was found bobbing in the Gulf of Mexico. The material was hard, porous, and uniformly embedded…

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Marine Microbes vs. Cystic Fibrosis

Marine Microbes vs. Cystic Fibrosis

Technician Kristen Rathjen displays flasks of microbial cultures that are part of a project in Tracy Mincer’s lab to generate potential treatments for cystic fibrosis (CF). As they grow, marine…

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Student Driver

Student Driver

Chris Morgan, chief engineer on the research vessel Atlantis, manipulated the remotely operated vehicle Jason at the bottom of the western Caribbean Sea recently while being  guided by members of the…

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Alvin Takes Flight

Alvin Takes Flight

In February 1966, Alvin was loaded onto a transport plane at Otis Air Force Base in Falmouth, Mass., for a flight to Spain. On January 17 of that year, a…

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