How the ocean works
The Call of the Sea
Marshall Swartz’s lab is a Santa’s workshop of engineering gadgetry. Computer keyboards and circuit boards spill from cardboard boxes. Cables, wires, and an assortment of tools hang from wall hooks.…
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…
The Promise and Perils of Seafloor Mining
A year ago, the Canadian mining company Nautilus Minerals was poised to launch a new…
Cara Manning
One of Cara Manning’s hobbies is cooking, which seems compatible for a chemist, right? “Some…
Garrett Mitchell
For Garrett Mitchell, an interest in oceanography arose not in a university classroom but on…
Sam Zipper
It might seem strange that Sam Zipper spent his summer on balmy Cape Cod studying…
Gar Secrist
Gar Secrist says that he spent his summer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) working…
Floats Reveal Unknown Ocean Pathways
Oceanographers have long known that the image they used to portray the oceans’ global circulation—called…
Noah’s Not-so-big Flood
A long time ago, whether your time frame is biblical or geological, the Black Sea…
Turning a Toy into a Scientific Tool
John Bailey spends most sunny weekends on a grassy field behind a movie theater on…