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Climate Controlled

In their newly built laboratory, Joan Bernhard and Dan McCorkle seek to culture and grow single-celled organisms that live near the seafloor. Researchers have found that the chemical composition of the shells of these organisms is affected by water temperatures and other environmental conditions and may provide clues to past climate. Culturing these foraminifera under tightly controlled conditions, McCorkle and Bernhard are trying to decipher the conditions that lead to different shells and to compare that with what they find in fossil shells. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)