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Research Highlights

Oceanus Magazine

shark teeth

Hope in fossilized fish bits

September 19, 2024

Abundant life in hotter ancient seas gives one paleontologist optimism for the future

underwater paddle board

Counting on Corals

June 20, 2024

As struggling reefs put a squeeze on Belize’s Blue Economy, could heat-tolerant corals be the answer?

Joides Resolution

Unlocking the Earth’s time capsule

November 2, 2023

Mantle rocks and fluids from one of the final expeditions on the R/V JOIDES Resolution will provide insights into how Earth was formed—and maybe how life began—for generations of scientists

Paddling Illustration

Paddling an angry, ancient ocean

May 24, 2023

If ancient Beringians got to the Americas by boat, it couldn’t have been easy

Reconstructing the Bering Sea’s stormy past

February 12, 2023

Researchers help Bering Sea indigenous communities understand the past and plan for future

News Releases

Study Examines the Role of Deep-Sea Microbial Predators at Hydrothermal Vents

July 15, 2021

Researchers Emphasize the Need for Baseline Information of Microbial Food Webs The hydrothermal vent fluids from the Gorda Ridge spreading center in the northeast Pacific Ocean create a biological hub of activity in the deep sea. There, in the dark…

Icebergs drifting from Canada to Southern Florida

June 16, 2021

A newly developed iceberg computer model helped the researchers understand the timing and circulation of meltwater and icebergs through the global oceans during glacial periods, which is crucial for deciphering how past changes in high-latitude freshwater forcing influenced shifts in climate. 

Some Forams Could Thrive with Climate Change, Metabolism Study Finds

May 27, 2021

Oceanic deoxygenation is increasingly affecting marine ecosystems. A new paper that examines two foram species found that they demonstrated great metabolic versatility to flourish in hypoxic and anoxic sediments where there is little or no dissolved oxygen, inferring that the forams’ contribution to the marine ecosystem will increase with the expansion of oxygen-depleted habitats.

WHOI President & Director Dr. Peter de Menocal Recognized as AAAS Fellow

November 24, 2020

Dr. Peter de Menocal, President and Director of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution of has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Study reconstructs ancient storms to predict changes in a cyclone hotspot

November 16, 2020

Intense tropical cyclones are expected to become more frequent as climate change increases temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. But not every area will experience storms of the same magnitude

News & Insights

The Search for Life

February 17, 2021

This week, NASA’s Perseverance Rover lands on Mars to continue the search for life on the Red Planet. At the same time, WHOI scientists and engineers are applying their experience exploring the deepest parts of planet Earth to the quest…

greenland ice

Will melting glaciers cool the climate?

July 29, 2020

As glaciers melt at unprecedented rates, WHOI’s Simon Pendleton is looking back to historical records to predict whether this new cool runoff will slow ocean circulation and cool the northern hemisphere––findings which could mean adjustments to some climate predictions.

Art Maxwell

Celebrating an oceanographic life

July 1, 2020

WHOI looks back at the legacy of co-founder of MIT-WHOI Joint Program, former Director of Research and Provost at WHOI, Art Maxwell

Working from home: Chris German

April 30, 2020

As I reached the end of April, I realized that too much of my time was getting consumed by zoom calls and email in a bid to over-compensate for not being able to interact with people on-site at WHOI. So…

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Finding medical answers in the ocean

March 19, 2020

The test being used to diagnose the novel coronavirus—and other pandemics like AIDS and SARS—was developed with the help of an enzyme isolated from a microbe found in marine hydrothermal vents as well as freshwater hot springs.