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Research Highlights

Oceanus Magazine

WHOI reef solutions field team

Inside the Solomon Islands’ hidden mega coral — a 300-year-old ocean giant

November 19, 2025

WHOI’s Reef Solutions team journeys to the world’s largest coral colony

blue straws

Breaking down plastics together

November 6, 2025

Through a surprising and successful partnership, WHOI and Eastman scientists are reinventing what we throw away

underwater coral

Reef RX

November 3, 2025

Using human health protocols to find and aid ailing reefs

ocean and swimmer

The Ocean (Re)Imagined

October 16, 2025

How expanding our view of the ocean can unlock new possibilities for life

blue mud lab

Secrets from the blue mud

September 22, 2025

Microbes survive—and thrive—in caustic fluids venting from the seafloor

News Releases

Radioactivity Lingers from 1946-1958 Nuclear Bomb Tests

Radioactivity Lingers from 1946-1958 Nuclear Bomb Tests

October 30, 2017

Scientists have found lingering radioactivity in the lagoons of remote Marshall Island atolls in the Pacific Ocean where the United States conducted 66 nuclear weapons tests in the 1940s and 1950s. Radioactivity levels  at Bikini and Enewetak Atolls were extensively…

Dispersants Improved Air Quality for Responders at Deepwater Horizon

Dispersants Improved Air Quality for Responders at Deepwater Horizon

August 28, 2017

A study published Aug. 28, 2017, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences adds a new dimension to the controversial decision to inject large amounts of chemical dispersants immediately above the crippled oil well at the seafloor during the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010. The dispersants may have significantly reduced the amount of harmful gases in the air at the sea surface’”diminishing health risks for emergency responders and allowing them to keep working to stop the uncontrolled spill and clean up the spilled oil sooner.

New Studies Take a Second Look at Coral Bleaching Culprit

New Studies Take a Second Look at Coral Bleaching Culprit

December 7, 2016

A new study from WHOI indicates that superoxide’”a natural toxin believed to be the main culprit behind coral bleaching’”may actually play a beneficial role in coral health and resilience.

New Study Explains Mysterious Source of Greenhouse Gas Methane in the Ocean

New Study Explains Mysterious Source of Greenhouse Gas Methane in the Ocean

November 17, 2016

A new study may have cracked the longstanding ‘œmarine methane paradox,’ finding that the answer may lie in the complex ways that bacteria break down substances excreted into seawater by living organisms.

Mak Satio

WHOI Scientist Receives Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Award

November 10, 2016

The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation selected Mak Saito, a biogeochemist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), as one of eight awardees of a 2016 Postdoctoral Program in Environmental Chemistry grant.

News & Insights

What happens to natural gas in the ocean?

October 6, 2022

WHOI marine chemist Chris Reddy weighs in on a methane leak in the Baltic Sea

Wave Glider provides gateway to remote exploration

November 10, 2020

WHOI geochemist Chris German pairs an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) called a Wave Glider with other vehicles to expand research here and on other Ocean Worlds

Sea Dust

Mining ancient dust from the ocean’s loneliest spot

September 24, 2020

Researchers investigate dust from the ocean’s farthest point from land to reconstruct the climactic history of the Southern Hemisphere, and understand how micronutrients have influenced biological productivity in this oceanic desert.

Working from Home: Mallory Ringham

July 2, 2020

WHOI-MIT joint program student outfits her basement to do vital work on a marine carbon sensor

plastics by the numbers

The many lifetimes of plastics

June 15, 2020

Infographics strive to give us a sense of how long plastic goods will last in the environment. But is this information reliable? The findings of a new study from WHOI may surprise you.

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