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News Releases


Abrupt Climate Change Brought to Public Attention in Hollywood Movie

The movie The Day After Tomorrow, released today by 20th Century Fox, paints a dramatic picture of the effects of climate change – and raises questions about the boundary between science and science fiction. How fast can Earth’s climate change? Will global warming raise sea level and flood coastal cities? If our climate cools, will it spawn an “ice age” in our lifetimes?

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New Chair of the Corporation Elected at WHOI

Thomas B. Wheeler, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, has been elected Chairman of the Corporation of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

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Our Moving Shoreline

Scientists in the Coastal Ocean Institute (COI) are studying coastal erosion, storm impacts, development, nutrient inputs from septic systems and agriculture, and other phenomenon that impact our shoreline. A recent […]

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New Center for Oceans and Human Health Established in Woods Hole

Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have joined together to form the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health (COHH). The new Center, with administrative offices at WHOI, will serve as a focal point for research on issues at the intersection of oceanographic, biological and environmental health sciences, such as harmful algal blooms and organisms in coastal waters and estuaries that cause human illness and death.

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WHOI Launches Coastal Vessel Tioga

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s new 60-foot coastal research vessel (CRV) Tioga was christened and launched March 29, 2004 in ceremonies at Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, Duclos Corporation in Somerset, MA.

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WHOI Receives $500,000 Gift from the Green Foundation

Philanthropist and Texas Instruments co-founder Cecil H. Green took special pleasure in giving away more than $200 million during his 102 years, a portion of it to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). His generosity to WHOI continues after his death with the announcement of a $500,000 gift from The Cecil and Ida Green Foundation.

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For ALVIN its 40 and 4,000 in 2004!

ALVIN, the nation’s only deep-diving human occupied submersible, will mark a number of milestones in 2004. In April, the sub, currently at work in the eastern Pacific, is expected to […]

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WHOI Chosen One of Top 10 Places for Postdocs to Work

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is one of the ten best places to work for postdoctoral researchers, according to a recent survey of readers of the magazine The Scientist. WHOI ranked eighth in the top ten US institutions.

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New Study Reports Large-scale Salinity Changes in the Oceans

Tropical ocean waters have become dramatically saltier over the past 40 years, while oceans closer to Earth’s poles have become fresher, scientists reported today in the journal Nature. Earth’s warming surface may be intensifying evaporation over oceans in the low latitudes–raising salinity concentrations there–and transporting more fresh water vapor via the atmosphere toward Earth’s poles.

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New Hybrid Vehicle Will Enable U.S. Scientists to Reach Deepest Parts of the World Ocean Floor

For the first time since 1960, US scientists will be able to explore the deepest parts of the world’s oceans, up to seven miles below the surface, with a novel underwater vehicle capable of performing multiple tasks in extreme conditions. Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) are developing a battery-powered underwater robot to enable scientists to explore the ocean’s most remote regions up to 11,000 meters (36,000-feet) deep.

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Scientists Report New Type of Mid-Ocean Ridge in Remote Parts of the Earth

Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have identified a new type of ocean ridge that is spreading so slowly that Earth’s mantle is exposed over large regions of the sea floor. Their findings of a new ultraslow class of ridge, reported in the November 27 issue of the journal Nature, offer a major change in thinking about the formation of the great crustal plates that make up the surface of the earth.

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