Ocean & Human Lives
Plastic Particles Permeate the Atlantic
Recent reports of a “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” in the subtropical waters of the North Pacific Ocean described a floating island as large as Texas—so thick that one could potentially…
Lessons from the Haiti Earthquake
When I was a boy growing up in China, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake near the city…
How to Survive a Tsunami
In the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean that devastated villages and…
Shipwrecks Offer Clues to Ancient Cultures
Brendan Foley hunts for shipwrecks, but he’s not searching for gold or jewels. The sunken…
The Hunt for Microbial ‘Trojan Horses’
In summer, Wood Neck Beach in Woods Hole, Mass., teems with tourists, but only a…
While Oil Gently Seeps from the Seafloor
I investigate what happens to oil spilled into the ocean—with an eye toward finding better…
Hurricane Hunter
Soon after they married, Jon Woodruff asked his new wife Akiko Okusu if she’d like to…
How Does Nature Deal with Persistent Pollutants?
Why would I choose to spend my years in graduate school up to my elbows…
Testing the Waters and Closing Beaches
On a warm, tranquil evening this summer, Falmouth resident Annette Hynes took a friend down…
Researchers Successfully Forecast 2008 Red Tide
A research team led by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) successfully predicted the…
Cytobot Gives Early Red Tide Warning
An automated underwater microscope developed by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) detected an…
Popular Way to Assess Oil Spills Can Be Misused
Environmental assessment teams increasingly may be using a method to assess oil spill contamination in…
DNA in Shipwrecked Jars Reveals Clues to Ancient World
Scraping inside clay jars recovered from a 2,400-year-old shipwreck, two researchers found DNA fragments that…
Making Nanotubes Without Harming the Environment
They are 10,000 times thinner than a strand of human hair, yet stronger than steel,…
WHOI Ship Hunts for Revolutionary War Wreck
One of the fiercest battles of the Revolutionary War raged off the coast of Flamborough…
Morss Colloquia Focus on Science and Society
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution launched a new program, hosting three “Morss Colloquia” since October 2006.…
Seismometer Deployed Atop Underwater Volcano
A team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution installed a novel underwater earthquake-monitoring system…
Scientists Unearth Long Record of Past Hurricanes
Reaching down into the muck below a lagoon off Puerto Rico, two geologists at Woods…
Still Toxic After All These Years
This is a story about persistence—of oil, and of people. It began in 1969 when…
Lessons from the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will convene two special conferences this fall to learn from the…
Engineers Honored for Pioneering Undersea Robot
The engineering team at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution that built the first fiber-optically cabled deep-sea…
The Chicken and the Tern
WHOI scientists find that the dramatic difference comes down to three amino acids on a…
Building a Computer Model to Forecast Red Tides
The algae Alexandrium fundyense are notorious for producing a toxin that accumulates in shellfish such…
A ‘Book’ of Ancient Sumatran Tsunamis
Exactly one year after the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Jian Lin found himself on…