Winter 2016 ( Vol. 51 No. 2 )
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Our Ocean. Our Planet. Our Future.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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 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.
Specks in the Spectrometer
Mass spectrometer facilities can be a rite of passage for scientists—as well as for the samples analyzed inside the mass specs.
Epiphany Among the Manta Rays
There's a great need to collect ocean temperature data. And there are millions of scuba divers out there.
Earth's Riverine Bloodstream
Like blood in our arteries in our body, water in rivers carry chemical signals that can tell us a lot about how the entire Earth system operates.
Ice, Wind & Fury
Greenlanders are well away of piteraqs, the hazardous torrents of cold air that sweep down off the ice cap. But scientists are just beginning to unravel how and when piteraqs form.
Forecasting the Future of Fish
How can we weigh all the interrelated factors involved in managing a critical ocean resource? Oceanus magazine experiments with a graphic article to help explain a complex issue.
Tracking a Trail of Carbon
Lake Titicaca in the Andes Mountains of South America is an extraordinary place to explore ancient human civilization, Earth's climate history, and the flow of carbon through our planet.
The Riddle of Rip Currents
Rip currents claim more than 100 lives in the United States each year and are the leading cause of lifeguard rescues. Scientists created a large gash in the seafloor to learn more about their complex dynamics.
An Appetite Stimulant for Bacteria in the Ocean
PUAs kick bacteria’s metabolism and CO2 respiration rates into hyperdrive—ike skinny weightlifters after a steroid shot.
Short-circuiting the Biological Pump
The ocean has been sucking up the heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) building up in our atmosphere—with a little help from tiny plankton. Like plants on land, these plankton convert CO2…
Coral Crusader
Graduate student Hannah Barkley is on a mission to investigate how warming ocean temperatures, ocean acidification, and other impacts of climate change are affecting corals in an effort to find ways to preserve these vital ocean resources.
Scientists Find Trigger That Cracks Lakes
Graduate student Laura Stevens became a focal point of a research team that cracked a big mystery atop the Greenland Ice Sheet.
A Green Thumb for Ocean Microbes
Anyone who has tried to grow orchids or keep a bonsai tree alive will tell you that cultivating plants is not always simple. My thesis research absolutely depended on cultivating…
A Smarter Undersea Robot
Some say it is lethal to cats. WHOI scientists say it would be a boon for autonomous undersea robots.
Hidden Battles on the Reefs
A new study led by WHOI scientists shows how changing ocean conditions can combine to intensify erosion of coral reefs.
Trouble in the Tropics
An MIT-WHOI graduate student is on the trail of marine toxins that accumulate in fish and are eaten by people.
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…
Coral-Current Connections
Will climate change shift a key ocean current in the Pacific? A graduate student is looking for clues recorded in coral skeletons.
A Mooring in Iceberg Alley
WHOI scientists knowingly put a mooring in a fjord filled with icebergs near the terminus of a Greeland glacier. But it was their only way to learn if changing ocean conditions might be affecting how fast the glacier flowed into the ocean.
Uncovering the Ocean's Biological Pump
Dan Ohnemus clearly remembers the highlight of his fourth-grade class in Bourne, Mass. He and his classmates made a satellite call to scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) who…
Of The River and Time
The Fraser River in western Canada is flowing with tiny time capsules. Inside them is a fascinating history of Earth’s landscape and climate. For the past four years, I have…
Detours on the Oceanic Highway
WHOI graduate student Isabela Le Bras is exploring newly discovered complexities of the Deep Western Boundary Current, a major artery in the global ocean circulation system that transports cold water south from the North Atlantic.