How the Ocean Works
Of Wings, Waves, and Winds
“Great albatross! The meanest birds Spring up and flit away, While thou must toil to gain a flight, And spread those pinions grey; But when they once are fairly poised,…
Exploring the Arctic in the Midst of Change
Chief Scientist Bob Pickart and his 26-member science team were in the hangar at the…
Stanley Watson
Biologist, businessman, benefactor (Courtesy of WHOI Archives) Institutional buildings are usually named after a person…
Recycling Rare, Essential Nutrients in the Sea
In the vast ocean where an essential nutrient—iron—is scarce, a marine bacterium that launches the…
A Hunt for Unusual Seafloor Animals and Vents
The first expedition to search for deep-sea hydrothermal vents along the Mid-Cayman Rise deep in…
Will More Acidic Oceans Be Noisier?
In 2008, a group of marine chemists raised a red flag: As the ocean becomes…
How Does Toxic Mercury Get into Fish?
Most everyone has heard by now that we should limit our consumption of certain fish…
The Call of the Sea
Marshall Swartz’s lab is a Santa’s workshop of engineering gadgetry. Computer keyboards and circuit boards…
No Day at the Beach
Field research in oceanography is no day at the beach—even when it’s at the beach. Just…
A Glacier’s Pace
Time was, saying something moved “at a glacier’s pace” meant it was grindingly slow. No…
Undersea Asphalt Volcanoes Discovered
The dome-like mounds poking up in sonar maps of the seafloor caught scientists’ eyes. They…
Mysteries at High Latitudes
We were watching waves, Kjetil Våge and I, from the open transom on the research…
Bacterial ‘Conversations’ Have Impact on Climate
It’s wondrous how the vast and the infinitesimal combine to make our planet work. Scientists…
Into the Wild Irminger Sea
In the Denmark Strait, Oct. 7, 2008 Maybe it’s lubberly to talk about those waves…
Small Drop in pH Means Big Change in Acidity
FEATURED IN: "The Socioeconomic Costs of Ocean Acidification" One of the most common negative responses…
The Socioeconomic Costs of Ocean Acidification
The increasing acidification of the oceans is measured in pH units, but its impacts on…
The Mysterious Movements of Deep-Sea Larvae
The marvelous migrations of fish and whales through the deep sea have been hard enough…
Should We Inject Carbon Dioxide into the Deep Ocean?
One proposed strategy to offset rising levels of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere is to…
Ocean Acidification: A Risky Shell Game
A new study has yielded surprising findings about how the shells of marine organisms might…
