A summer of chemical investigation

Jorge Barbosa, an undergraduate at the State University of New York School of Environmental Science and Forestry, spent summer 2008 as a WHOI Summer Student Fellow. Working in the laboratory of Carl Lamborg, he analyzed the mercury levels of animals that live near hydrothermal vents—the first time such measurements have been made. Mercury in the ocean is passed up the food chain as the toxic compound methylmercury, becoming concentrated in top predators such as tuna and swordfish.
(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)