Oceanus Magazine - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Mummified Microbes

Scientists have found evidence that microbes can thrive deep below the seafloor—sustained by chemicals produced by reactions between seawater and rocks in Earth’s mantle. It’s difficult to gain direct access…

Ocean Tech

A New Eye on Deep-Sea Fisheries

Imagine that officials charged with setting deer-hunting limits had to assess the herd’s abundance by flying over forests at night. That’s a little like what the National Marine Fisheries Services…

Ocean & Human Lives

A Luxury-Laden Shipwreck from 65 B.C.

Scientists returned in 2015 and 2016 to the wreck of a 180-foot ship that sank off the Greek island of Antikythera around 65 B.C., and recovered luxury items that included…

Ocean Life

A New Whale Species Is Discovered in the Wild

Scientists have discovered a thriving population of Omura’s whales—a species that hadn’t even been identified until 2003 and had never before been documented in the wild. Omura’s whales were misidentified…

Ocean & Human Lives

Not Just Another Lovely Summer Day on the Water

It looks like nice summer day on the water, but Alexis Fischer (right) and Alice Alpert, graduate students in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program, are hard at work preparing instruments called…

Ocean Life

Coral Coring

Off a small island in the Chagos archipelago in the Indian Ocean, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) biogeochemists Konrad Hughen and Colleen Hansel use a special underwater drill to take…

Climate & Weather

See Those Black Dots? They’re Penguins. Now Count Them.

That’s exactly what a team of researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) did on a recent expedition to the Danger Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula. The islands are home…

How the Ocean Works

A Faster Way to Better Reactions

Finding new chemical reactions to synthesize commercial products more efficiently is big business and a major source of innovation. A new study offers a way to make the search faster, cheaper, and greener.

Ocean Life

Endangered Whales Get a High-Tech Check-Up

Drones seem to be everywhere these days, from backyards to battlegrounds. Scientists are using them too: in this case, to assess the health of endangered North Atlantic right whales. Since drones are small and quiet, they can fly close to whales without disturbing them, bringing back incredibly detailed photographs and samples of microbe-rich blow.

Ocean Tech

Remembering Knorr

After an iconic, 44-year career, the research vessel Knorr left the dock at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in March for the last time. It also left a place in the hearts of many who sailed on the ship or who had simply seen it in Woods Hole. A few of the people who watched it depart shared their memories of Knorr in this audio postcard.

Ocean Tech

Our Ship Comes In

The long-awaited newest research vessel in the U.S. academic fleetâand the latest in a long line of WHOI-operated shipsâarrives in Woods Hole on Wednesday.

Ocean Life

Journey Into the Ocean’s Microbiomes

Bacteria in the ocean, including pathogenic ones, often hitchhike on tiny crustaceans called copepods. A graduate student explored their complex relationships.

How the Ocean Works

Two Chemical Roads Diverge in an Open Ocean

An infographicon biomineralization

How the Ocean Works

Minerals Made by Microbes

Some minerals actually don’t form without a little help from microscopic organisms, using chemical processes that scientists are only beginning to reveal.

How the Ocean Works

Through the Looking-Glass of the Sea Surface

Scientists are using new technology to make previously impossible measurements at the turbulent ocean surface—a crucial junction for energy exchange between the air above and the sea below.

How the Ocean Works

A Mighty Mysterious Molecule

What gives sea air its distinctive scent? A chemical compound called dimethylsulfide. In a new study, WHOI scientists show that the compound may also be used by marine microbes to communicate with one another.

Ocean Life

Recipes for Antibiotic Resistance

MIT-WHOI graduate student Megan May is investigating how microbes naturally develop resistance to antibiotic compounds in the marine environment and how human activities, including overuse of drugs and pollution, may be affecting the dynamic.

Ocean Life

Seal Whiskers Inspire Marine Technology

The night approaches quickly. A harbor seal plunges into the water, diving deep as the sunlight recedes. Through the dark, turbid waters, she searches for fish. Suddenly, the whiskers on…

Ocean Tech

HABCAM

A towed underwater vehicle equipped with cameras, sonar, and sensors paints vivid portraits of life on the seafloor.

Ocean Life

Sex, Games, and the Evolution of Gender Gaps

Population models can help us plan breeding programs for endangered species and understand the evolution of sex ratios.

How the Ocean Works

How Did Earth Get Its Ocean?

Adam Sarafian overcame a learning disability and surmounted heights as a an All-American pole-vaulter—all before launching a scientific career that has now allowed him to hurtle across the universe and back through time to the period when Earth was still forming.

How the Ocean Works