Stefan Sievert
Journey to the Bottom of the Sea
My eyelids were tightly pressed down as I mustered all the tricks I could think of to get myself to sleep. I rolled around with no sign of getting close to slumber. I had no […]
The Discovery of Hydrothermal Vents
In 1977, WHOI scientists made a discovery that revolutionized our understanding of how and where life could exist on Earth and other planetary bodies.
Bringing a Lab to the Seafloor
Scientists can’t really know if new oceanographic instruments will really work until they try them in actual conditions in the real ocean. In this case, the rubber hit the road at the bottom of the sea.
Big Questions About Tiny Bacteria
It’s 3 a.m., and Jesse McNichol is struggling to stay awake. Since midafternoon, he’s been in his lab, tending to a jumble of glassware, plastic tubing, and metal cylinders filled with microbes. He sighs, rubs […]
Symbiosis in the Deep Sea
Mobs of pale shrimp clamber over each other, jockeying for position in the swirling flow of black-smoker vents on the seafloor where ultra-hot fluids from Earth’s interior meet cold seawater.
The shrimp, Rimicaris exoculata, are not […]
Some Things New Under the Sea
New microbe species discovered
In the quest to explore the remarkable diversity of microbial life on Earth, a German-American team of scientists has discovered seafloor bacteria that can “eat” natural gases such as ethane, propane, and […]
Microbes That ‘Eat’ Natural Gas
In the quest to explore the remarkable diversity of microbial life on Earth, an international team of scientists has identified marine bacteria that can “eat” butane and propane in natural gas, metabolizing them in a […]
Deep-sea Tubeworms Get Versatile ‘Inside’ Help
Cross sections of the tubeworm Riftia pachyptila. (Courtesy of Enduring Resources for Earth Science Education)
When scientists found lush thickets of 6-foot-tall, red-tipped tubeworms on the seafloor in 1977, they realized that life could […]