Oceanus Online Archive
Every Chromatogram Tells a Story
Where is this mountainous landscape? Actually, that’s the wrong question. It’s a landscape, all right, but it’s a chemical landscape: You’re looking at oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill. Each…
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At Deepwater Horizon, Basic Research Was Applied
“Basic research, directed simply toward more complete understanding of nature and its laws, embarks upon the unknown. Clearly, that which has never been known cannot be foretold, and herein lies…
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Cape-Able Workers Build Deep-Sea Devices
In 2009 Rob Evans knew he had a laborious task coming. He needed to build 120complicated and delicate silver chloride electrodes for deep-sea instruments. He also wanted to change the…
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Where Will We Get Our Seafood?
By 2030 or 2040, most seafood bought by Americans will be raised on a farm, not caught by fishermen. And, unless policies governing aquaculture in the United States change, the…
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Psychotherapy for Plankton
The scene: A diatom is out of its oceanic habitat and on a couch, talking to a therapist. The diatom is stressed. It can’t ever seem to get enough nutrients.…
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Up From the Seafloor Came a Bubbling Brew
Eleven days after the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20, 2010, representatives from BP called Andy Bowen at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). “It had become…
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Shifting Sands and Bacteria on the Beach
Most coastal communities in the United States test the water at beaches for the presence of bacteria. But they don’t routinely test the sand. Does sand also harbor bacteria? Until…
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The Ghost Mooring
Just before leaving for a long-awaited vacation, Scott Worrilow came in to work on a Monday morning in April 2011, just for a few minutes, to do a routine daily…
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Four Men. Twelve Hours. One Crucial Sample.
The prize they coveted amounted to nothing more than about four gallons of natural gas and less than a half-cup of oil. Where it came from, however, made it unique.…
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A Plume of Chemicals from Deepwater Horizon
Along with the torrent of hot gas and oil spewing from the bottom of the sea, hot hints and rumors were also streaming out of the Gulf of Mexico in…
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Of Predators, Prey, and Petroleum
Protists are the Rodney Dangerfields of marine microbes. Although marine bacteria emerged as heroes in the Deepwater Horizon affair, gobbling up vast amounts of spilled oil and gas, few people…
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Once More Unto the Rift
In the beginning, there was the Garden of Eden. It was a lush primordial oasis of life, bursting with exotic life forms. Now, scientists have embarked on a research expedition…
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Scientific Diving: The Benefits of Being There
<!– “Shallow Water Diving: the benefits of being there” spotlights researchers using scuba in shallow water. These scientists, working on coral reefs, fish ecology, or seafloor topography, require uninterrupted lengths…
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A Long Voyage to Get a New Ship
On a cold, blustery day in April 1997, hundreds of people swarmed Iselin Dock at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to welcome Atlantis into the nation’s oceanographic research fleet. Politicians…
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All the Pretty Jellyfish
<!– –> Pat Lohmann recently traveled to the tiny Western Pacific island nation of Palau to locate coral reefs with Anne Cohen, a scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).…
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Another Piece in the Arctic Puzzle
It’s spring again, and while most of us are putting away our winter coats and watching our flowers pop up, it’s time for Rick Krishfield and Kris Newhall to don…
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Life and Death in the Deep Sea
It was an experiment they hoped would never happen. But when it did, they were poised to respond. In 2008, a multi-institutional team of researchers launched a long-term study to…
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A Small Sip from a Big Gusher
How much oil gushed out of the Deepwater Horizon well and into the Gulf of Mexico? For all stakeholders in the oil spill, that is a critical starting point for…
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Oil, Microbes, and the Risk of Dead Zones
In the scramble to get to the Gulf of Mexico to study the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Ben Van Mooy found out firsthand why the National Science Foundation called its…
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Does Oil Affect Animals’ Cellular Machinery?
Ann Tarrant has a soft spot for a tiny, tentacled creature. So what if starlet anemones (Nematostella vectensis) are spineless invertebrates that burrow in mud in stagnant brackish tidal marshes?…
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