Ocean Life
Would a Hagfish By Any Other Name Smell as Sweet?
It’s not hard to figure out how hagfish got their name, since they aren’t exactly warm and fuzzy. Slithery, skinny,…
Read MoreColors of Coral
Viewed in polarized light, this thin section of the skeleton of a Pacific reef-building coral, Acropora gemmifera, looks more like…
Read MoreDeep-sea Tubeworms Get Versatile ‘Inside’ Help
When scientists found lush thickets of 6-foot-tall, red-tipped tubeworms on the seafloor in 1977, they realized that life could thrive…
Read MoreOcean Circulation and a Clam Far From Home
In my first year of graduate school, I was stumped by a big question on my final exam in biological…
Read MoreSearching for Clues in Coral
Research Specialist Anne Cohen and Summer Student Fellow Nicholas Jachowski study CT scans of coral in the new scanning laboratory…
Read MoreA Hand of a Different Sort
A pillar coral, Dendrogyra cylindrus, resembling a human hand photographed in Honduras. The coral provides clues to past climate changes.…
Read MoreThe Importance of Deep-Sea Corals
Many people think corals thrive only in tropical waters, such as the Great Barrier Reef or the Florida Keys. Biologist…
Read MoreWhat Other Tales Can Coral Skeletons Tell?
In 2003, we traveled by ship to the New England Seamounts—a chain of extinct, undersea volcanoes about 500 miles off…
Read MoreView from Below
The autonomous underwater vehicle REMUS is released in Belize during a pilot study of the effect of ocean currents on…
Read MoreThe Coral-Climate Connection
Are the climate changes we perceive today just part of the Earth system’s natural variability, or are they new phenomena…
Read MoreColossal Coral
A large deep sea coral sample, used in climate change studies, is cut at Fletcher Granite’s Chelmsford Quarry in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts.(Photo…
Read MoreCoring for Clues
A diver collects a sample from a coral in Honduras for climate studies.The coring does not harm the colony, which continues to…
Read MoreWHOI Scientists Provide Congressional Testimony
Susan Humphris, chair of the Geology and Geophysics Department, testified May 4, 2006, before the House Committee on Resources, one…
Read MoreCulturing Coral
MIT/WHOI Joint Program student Michael Holcomb checks on corals he is growing in the lab to test the low temperature…
Read MoreOn the Trail of Microbes that Cause Seafood Poisoning…
The Oceans Are Filled with Microbes. Some Are Nasty
Every time you swim at the beach, you are surrounded by zillions of bacteria. There is no escaping them: One…
Read MoreLegions of Legionella Bacteria
Salty ocean water can be a nuisance. It’s undrinkable and it corrodes nearly everything it touches. But salt water’s inhospitality…
Read MoreNew ‘Eyes’ Size Up Scallop Populations
Part of the fun of fishing is never knowing exactly what might be swimming around beneath you. But that mystery…
Read MoreSeafloor Garden
DSV Alvin’s manipulator collects a sample of coral during dive 3904 to the Kelvin Seamount off New England in July…
Read MoreLullaby for Larvae
Like many babies, these tiny offspring arrived this spring amid much fanfare and a little trepidation. Never before had scientists…
Read MoreCorals Under Ice
A Journey to the Ocean’s Twilight Zone
You are about to enter another dimension. You’re moving into a place of both shadow and substance, of things and…
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