Skip to content

Student Research

Oceanus Magazine

A ship floats in the the Gulf of Mexico after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (Photo by Kris Krug, Wikimedia Commons)

Sunlight and the fate of oil at sea

September 29, 2022

Danielle Haas Freeman draws on the language of chemistry to solve an oil spill puzzle

Starlet sea anemone

A toxic double whammy for sea anemones

July 11, 2022

Exposure to both oil and sunlight can be harmful to sea anemones

A new ocean soundscape

May 13, 2021

Combining his passions for marine chemistry and music, an MIT-WHOI Joint Program student converts data into songs that reveal the chemical nuances of the ocean.

Journey to the Bottom of the Sea

October 4, 2018

My eyelids were tightly pressed down as I mustered all the tricks I could think of to get myself to sleep. I rolled around with no sign of getting close…

The Unseen World on Coral Reefs

The Unseen World on Coral Reefs

September 18, 2018

We have learned that microbial communities on and within us—a microbiome—keep people healthy. Corals reefs also have their own microbiomes that they couldn’t function without.

A Change Has Come in the Arctic

A Change Has Come in the Arctic

June 18, 2018

On a long voyage across the Arctic Ocean, an MIT-WHOI graduate students finds chemical clues that climate change has already had impacts on the region.

Pop Goes the Seafloor Rock

Pop Goes the Seafloor Rock

June 20, 2017

WHOI scientists used the human-occupied submersible Alvin and the autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry to explore a surprising discovery: gas-filled volcanic rocks on the seafloor that “pop” when brought up to the surface.

Minerals Made by Microbes

Minerals Made by Microbes

March 4, 2016

Some minerals actually don’t form without a little help from microscopic organisms, using chemical processes that scientists are only beginning to reveal.

A Mighty Mysterious Molecule

A Mighty Mysterious Molecule

February 18, 2016

What gives sea air its distinctive scent? A chemical compound called dimethylsulfide. In a new study, WHOI scientists show that the compound may also be used by marine microbes to communicate with one another.

Specks in the Spectrometer

Specks in the Spectrometer

December 15, 2015

Mass spectrometer facilities can be a rite of passage for scientists—as well as for the samples analyzed inside the mass specs.