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Ocean Tech
Building an Automated Underwater Microscope

Building an Automated Underwater Microscope

A conversation with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution biologist Heidi Sosik about her work studying phytoplankton ecology in the coastal ocean and the new instrument, the Imaging FlowCytobot, that she and biologist Rob Olson developed. Sosik describes the importance of phytoplankton to the food web and ecology of the coastal ocean, and how this new instrument, which will be deployed this summer, represents a breakthrough in year-round monitoring of coastal phytoplankton communities.

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Ocean Tech
The Improbable Voyage of Al Woodcock

The Improbable Voyage of Al Woodcock

Al Woodcock, perhaps the last man to sail on the maiden voyage of WHOI’s first research vessel Atlantis in 1931, died Feb. 26. He was 99. A self-educated farm boy from Georgia, Woodcock was also a keen observer of the natural world. He ascended to the scientific staff at WHOI and published seminal papers on “Observations of Herring Gull Soaring,” “The Swimming of Dolphins,” and “Sea Salt in a Tropical Storm.? Starting in 1949, he published a series of seven pioneering papers on sea-salt particles and their role in the formation of fog and rain. His research gained the profound respect of the nation’s foremost scientists.

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Contact Oceanus

Contact Oceanus Name Your Name Email Untitled To receive print issues, become a member: https://www.whoi.edu/giving/membership/ Back Issues and bulk orders: WHOI Store or please call 508-289-2663. Editorial and photo permissions:…

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How the Ocean Works
An Experiment to Dye For

An Experiment to Dye For

WHOI scientists are exploring an experimental technique to track the complex movements of water in the oceans using harmless fluorescent dyes and airplanes equipped with Light Detection and Ranging instruments. To detect motion, LIDAR uses pulses of laser light, which cause the flowing dye to fluoresce.

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An Officer and a Graduate Student

An Officer and a Graduate Student

Six hundred eighty-two students have earned master?s and doctoral degrees since the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering began in 1968. After shaking hands and accepting their diplomas, 61 of them took off their academic robes and put their Navy uniforms back on. Nine more will do so in the next two years.

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How the Ocean Works
Where Currents Collide

Where Currents Collide

In January 2005, a research cruise set out aboard R/V Oceanus for the tumultuous witnertime waters off Cape Hatteras—aptly nicknamed “the graveyard of the Atlantic.” During three weeks riding the waves, WHOI Research Associate Chris Linder kept a journal with pen and camera that includes “relentless North Atlantic storms battering our ship, instrument retrievals in the dead of night with blue water washing over the rail, and science gear shattered by 20-foot waves.”

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Sustainable Ocean
A Whole New Kettle of Fish

A Whole New Kettle of Fish

With most of the world?s fisheries already fully exploited or overexploited, the wild catch will not meet increasing worldwide demand for seafood?which the U.S. Department of Commerce projects will triple by 2025. The United States also imports nearly 70 percent of the seafood Americans consume, resulting in an $8 billion shellfishing industry trade deficit.

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Ocean & Human Lives
Red Tide—Gone for Now, But Back Next Year?

Red Tide—Gone for Now, But Back Next Year?

The historic bloom of toxic algae that blanketed New England’s waters and halted shellfishing from Maine to Martha’s Vineyard in the spring of 2005 is over. But scientists are now wondering if there will be an encore.

Before departing, the algae likely left behind a colonizing population that may promote blooms in southern New England for at least the next few years.

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How the Ocean Works
The Once and Future Danube River Delta

The Once and Future Danube River Delta

?The Danube River Delta is like the Everglades,? said Liviu Giosan, who grew up near the Romanian wetlands. The triangle-shaped, sediment-rich region at the mouth of the Danube River is also rich with human history. A traditional maritime culture persists on the delta, and the United Nations has declared the region a World Heritage site. The Danube Delta is also a great place for a geologist to study how the coast stretches, contracts, and undulates with time?and human interference.

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