February 14, 2012The Great South Channel
In just a few weeks, swarms of tiny organisms will begin to aggregate off Cape Cod as they do every spring, attracting hungry whales and fish.Source: Oceanus Magazine
February 6, 2012Tracking Toxic Chemicals in Oil Spills
Figuring out where chemicals spilled into the environment end up is a challenge, because different compounds can travel different pathways. They can evaporate into the air, dissolve into surrounding waters, be eaten by microorganisms, or broken down by sunlight.Source: Oceanus Magazine
February 1, 2012On the Trail of Mercury in the Ocean
Where and how does elemental mercury released from burning coal get transformed into the toxic monomethylmercury that accumulates in fish?Source: Oceanus Magazine
January 25, 2012Powerful Currents in Deep-Sea Gorges
On land, rivers flow down mountain slopes. On the seafloor, scientists are observing that strong currents in deep canyons may flow up the sides of mountains. The discovery has fascinating implications for understanding the ocean's global circulation.Source: Oceanus Magazine
January 12, 2012Clues in Shark Vertebrae Reveal Where They've Been
Scientists are using new strategies to learn where endangered sharks live, mate, and give birth.Source: Oceanus Magazine
January 5, 2012Whale Heads and Tales
Scientists believe baleen whales, including blue whales and right whales, are great listeners, possibly calling to each other over hundreds of miles. Maya Yamato is on the frontier of learning how their ears work.Source: Oceanus Magazine
December 28, 2011Searching for Life on the Seafloor
An expedition led by WHOI scientists is about to return to the deepest known seafloor hydrothermal vents to explore clues to the origin and evolution of life on our planet, and perhaps on other planetary bodies.Source: Oceanus Magazine
December 19, 2011The Scientist Who Stays Out in the Cold
Ali Criscitiello climbs summits and studies climate—particuarly how warming ocean temperatures could be melting sea ice around Antarctica.Source: Oceanus Magazine
December 14, 2011The Latest Fashion in Bowhead Whale Songs
For bowhead whales in the Bering Sea, the song does not remain the same. Scientists are listening in to learn where the whales breed and why they shift their song.Source: Oceanus Magazine
December 2, 2011Tracking an Elusive Chemical: Estrogens
With newfound abilities to detect extremely low levels of estrogens, including chemical forms that previously have escaped notice, scientists have begun to investigate how these toxic compounds enter the ocean and what happens to them there.
Source: Oceanus Magazine
November 23, 2011The Ocean's Tiny Chemists
A single drop of seawater can contain more than 300,000 organisms, performing all sorts of important chemical transformations. Shedding light on the intricacies of what’s happening on the microbial level is a key to revealing how the whole planetary system operates.Source: Oceanus Magazine
November 10, 2011Between the Beach and the Deep Blue Sea
Anything traveling from the shoreline to the ocean and vice versa—water, fish larvae, sand, pollutants—must go through the shallow inner shelf. There’s a whole lot of physics going on there.Source: Oceanus Magazine
October 20, 2011A Drop in the Ocean is Teeming with Life
Organic carbon is the hot commodity in the ocean, with some microorganisms producing it and others consuming it.Source: Oceanus Magazine
September 9, 2011Psychotherapy for Plankton
Graduate student Erin Bertrand defended her Ph.D. dissertation this week before an advisory committee of scientists. In an article for non-scientists, she explains her research on how essential phytoplankton in the ocean struggle to get enough essential nutrients.Source: Oceanus Magazine
June 24, 2011From Pac-Man to the Seafloor
Graduate student Clay Kunz's path has taken him from video game parlors to ice cream parlors with his family, with Mars and the Arctic Ocean seafloor in between.Source: Oceanus Magazine
February 1, 2011Where the Food Is in the Sea, and Why
The shelf break—where the shallow continental shelf begins to slope steeply into the ocean abyss—is rich with plankton, fish, whales, and fishermen. MIT/WHOI Joint Program student Jessica Benthuysen explored the fluid dynamics that underlies it all.Source: Oceanus Magazine
July 16, 2010A Torrent of Crabs Running to the Sea
Like a sci-fi movie, when the rainy season begins, hordes of bright red and purple land crabs emerge en masse from burrows in coastal Panama and swarm toward the shore. MIT/WHOI Joint Program student Joanna Gyory decided to find out who they were and what they were doing.Source: Oceanus Magazine
June 5, 2010Holography and Oceanography
Now plankton have paparazzi, too. MIT/WHOI Joint Program student Nick Loomis has engineered a way to use holograms, or laser-generated three-dimensional images, to reveal private details of tiny plankton in seawater.Source: Oceanus Magazine
March 25, 2010Mysteries at High Latitudes
In the seas east and south of Greenland, the ocean and the atmosphere are a constantly interacting unity, and they operate in ways found nowhere else on Earth.Source: Oceanus Magazine
February 19, 2010The Squid, the Whale, and the Grad Student
WHOI/MIT Joint Program student Wu-Jung Lee combines engineering skills and biological know-how to find out how whales and dolphins recognize a good meal when they hear itSource: Oceanus Magazine
December 11, 2009Dye Sheds Light on Jet-Propelled Salps
Salps are transparent, gelatinous marine animals that move by sucking water in their front ends and shooting it out their back ends. MIT/WHOI graduate student Kelly Rakow Sutherland used nighttime dives, an underwater video camera, and a fluorescent dye to capture their movements.Source: Oceanus Magazine
October 22, 2009Turning Carbon Dioxide Gas into Rock
Certain minerals readily react with carbon dioxide, effectively taking it out of the air and converting it into solid rock. Could this process be speeded up to help offset the buildup of the greenhouse gas in our atmosphere?Source: Oceanus Magazine
February 13, 2009Hurricane Hunter
In a layer cake of mud cored from the bottom of lagoons, Jon Woodruff finds evidence for nameless unrecorded hurricanes and typhoons that throttled coastlines in the past—a record that can help scientists predict hurricane activity in the future.Source: Oceanus Magazine
December 23, 2008What Makes the Great Ocean Currents Flow?
Powerful currents drive the oceans' circulation and Earth's climate. MIT/WHOI Joint Program graduate student Stephanie Waterman has investigated the underlying physics that drive the currents. (Production and audio by Ari Daniel Shapiro.)Source: Oceanus Magazine
December 19, 2008The Turtle and the Robot
In a field known as biomimetic robotics, the goal is to observe nature’s solution to a problem and apply it to engineering—in this case, watching turtle flippers to make a more manueverable underwater vehicle.Source: Oceanus Magazine
December 12, 2008Tracking Nitrogen's Elusive Trail in the Ocean
Fertilizers have leaked into the oceans, loading coastal waters with excess nitrogen and possibly leading to another greenhouse gas to watch: nitrous oxide. Any attempts to restore the nitrogen balance on our planet requires more understanding of how nitrogen moves through the environment.Source: Oceanus Magazine
December 12, 2008Another Greenhouse Gas to Watch: Nitrous Oxide
Source: Oceanus Magazine
December 5, 2008A Tale of Two Oceans, and the Monsoons
If we could forecast the Asian monsoons, we could prepare for droughts and floods. But so far, the monsoons have defied prediction, partly because they arise from complex interactions among land, air, and the Pacific and Indian Oceans.Source: Oceanus Magazine
November 25, 2008A Most Ingenious Paradoxical Plankton
Meet 'Team Tricho'—a trio of MIT/WHOI graduate students investigating the splendid diversity of a critical marine bacteria called Trichodesmium.Source: Oceanus Magazine
November 19, 2008Shellfish's Mysterious Pathways to Adulthood
Christine Mingione is filling in the blanks between the larval and adult stages of shellfish such as scallops. Such fundamental missing information is essential for efforts to sustain and restore natural populations.Source: Oceanus Magazine
November 13, 2008A Tag Fit for a Porpoise
When it comes to research technology for marine mammals, one size doesn't fit all.Source: Oceanus Magazine
November 3, 2008Listening In As Bacteria 'Talk' to Each Other
The multitudes of single-celled bacteria that inhabit the oceans have evolved a way to communicate with each other, come together, and coordinate their behavior.Source: Oceanus Magazine
October 22, 2008How Does Nature Deal with Persistent Pollutants?
How do notorious man-made pollutants such as mercury, DDT, and PCBs reach dangerous concentrations in animals at the top of the food chain—even when concentrations of these pollutants in the ocean are low and considered "safe"?Source: Oceanus Magazine
October 15, 2008One Man's Swamp Is a Fish's Nursery
As a kid, Kelton McMahon was dazzled by the fish on coral reefs. As graduate student in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program, he is exploring ways to save them.Source: Oceanus Magazine
September 3, 2008Testing the Waters and Closing Beaches
Current methods to determine if water quality meets public health standards create a lag time in which beachgoers might be swimming in bacteria before the results are in.Source: Oceanus Magazine
August 26, 2008Biochemical Warfare on the Reef
Graduate student Kristen Whalen discovers that a tropical marine snail detoxifies compounds soft corals produce to discourage predation, letting it feed on the corals undeterred.Source: Oceanus Magazine
July 24, 2008For Graduate Student, Research Is a Gas
Naomi Levine is tracking how the oceans absorbs carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is warming the Earth, and how the ocean is venting dimethylsulfide, a gas that helps make clouds that help cool the planet.Source: Oceanus Magazine
July 1, 2008Antarctic Andrea
In her second year in graduate school, Andrea Burke fulfilled a dream to explore Antarctica, packing her pickax for a month-long expedition in a remote camp on the lava flows near Mount Morning.Source: Oceanus Magazine
April 3, 2008Protecting Public Health by Preventing Pollution
"The old adage, ‘It’s easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission,’ doesn't apply with Mother Nature," says MIT/WHOI graduate student Desirée Plata.“We need to be proactive about preventing future environmental catastrophes."Source: Oceanus Magazine
November 20, 2007Plumbing the Plume That Created Samoa
Instead of shovels, Matt Jackson uses seismometers to see what’s happening deep inside our planet, teasing out clues about the long plumes of magma rising from Earth's mantle beneath ocean island chains.Source: Oceanus Magazine
August 9, 2007Eavesdropping on Whales' Mealtime Conversation
Orcas swim circles around schools of herring to herd them together, before slapping them with their tails to stun them and then eat them—a behavior known as "carousel feeding."Source: Oceanus Magazine
June 20, 2007What Does It Take To Break a Whale?
Graduate student Regina Campbell-Malone's research on the strength, flexibility, and breaking points of whale bones will help set vessel speed limits to prevent collisions that kill North Atlantic right whales.Source: Oceanus Magazine
March 15, 2007Current Events off Antarctica
The newly found Antarctic Peninsula Coastal Current may play an important role in recharging the fertile marine ecosystem off the icy continentSource: Oceanus Magazine
February 21, 2007Young Pup Teaches an Old Robot New Tricks
Mike Jakuba's Ph.D. mission was to create sophisticated computer programs that allow a free-swimming deep-sea robot to assess data, make "decisions," and reprogram itself to chart a new course—to begin to "think" the way a scientist would.Source: Oceanus Magazine
November 6, 2006A Rare Glimpse Into the Ocean's Crust
A seismic shift on the Atlantic Ocean floor sloughed off the top layer of rock, exposing a view of the usually hidden lower crust and upper mantle.Source: Oceanus Magazine
June 19, 2006A Laser Light in the Ocean Depths
For decades, researchers have used a technology called laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy to determine the chemical composition of rocks or other samples. But light doesn't work in quite the same way at the bottom of the ocean as it does in air.Source: Oceanus Magazine
February 10, 2006Graduate Student Discovers an Unusual New Species
Several marine bacteria incorporate magnetic compounds that orient them northward (and downward in the Northern Hemisphere) along Earth's magnetic field lines, where they find low-oxygen waters. The "barbell" bacterium inexplicably orients itself southward.Source: Oceanus Magazine
October 24, 2005Scientific (and Surfing) Safari
Eric Montie is—undeniably—a surfer dude. But watch him spend hours in the lab developing methods to learn if chemical contaminants are affecting dolphin brains. It's evident that his interest in the ocean runs much deeper than finding the gnarliest wave.Source: Oceanus Magazine
August 26, 2005Double Duty for Ensign/Student Allison Berg
Ensign Allison Berg won the first Pittenger Fellowship for naval officers in MIT/WHOI Joint Program. In collaboration with WHOI Research Specialist Eugene Terray, Berg will conduct a field experiment using Sonic Detection and Ranging (SODAR) systems to study winds near the ocean?s surface.Source: Oceanus Magazine
August 26, 2005Meet the Class of 2005-2007
Nine U.S. Navy officers are pursuing graduate degrees in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering through a special arrangement between the institutions.Source: Oceanus Magazine
May 18, 2005Rambling Atop an Active Volcano
With machete in hand and 60 pounds of satellite receiver and tripod on his back, Jeff Standish looked up into the lush tropical brush that covered the volcano, up a steep escarpment, and up again to the summit 3,000 feet above sea level. Then he turned to Rhea Workman, a graduate student in the WHOI/MIT Joint Program, and said, "We're going up where?"Source: Oceanus Magazine
March 30, 2005MIT/WHOI Graduate Leads the World's Tsunami Awareness Program
Laura Kong, a 1990 joint program graduate, was one of the first people in the world to learn the magnitude of the Sumatran earthquake of 2004Source: Oceanus Magazine
August 1, 2004Mea Cook
By studying sediment cores taken from the Bering Sea, Mea Cook, a MIT/WHOI Joint Program student in the Geology and Geophysics Department, hopes to find secrets of 70,000 years of climate change.
April 1, 2004MIT/WHOI Joint Program, Biology
Vanja Klepac-Ceraj and Petra Klepac are sisters studying in Massachusetts. But their home is Croatia, where childhood sailing trips sparked their interest in marine science careers. Today they are both students in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program.
February 24, 2004Diane Poehls
On her 22nd birthday, Biology student Diane Poehls received a most unusual present: a chance to spend the next day under 2500 meters (1.5 miles) of seawater.
December 1, 2003Geoffrey "Jake" Gebbie
Physical Oceanography student Jake Gebbie uses data collected from ships and satellites to develop numerical models that help scientists understand long term weather and climate change.
November 1, 2003Linda Kalnejais
Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry student Linda Kalnejais works in the coastal zone, studying the toxic metals that can accumulate there through pollution released into rivers, drainage systems and groundwater.
October 1, 2003Timothy Prestero
Timothy Prestero wants to change the world. He's doing it, through a company he co-founded while working on his MIT/WHOI Joint Program degrees.
August 1, 2003Emily Van Ark
Peering into the hot, dense bowels of the Earth, Geology and Geophysics student Emily Van Ark is helping to develop a picture of the planet's interior.
April 1, 2003