Multimedia Items

A Tag Fit for a Porpoise

November 14, 2008

When Stacy DeRuiter came to the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in 2003, the newly developed “D-tag” — a non-invasive, temporary digital recording device designed for use on whales — was sparking…

Learning How a Porpoise Locates Prey

November 13, 2008

In these experimental trials on a captive porpoise at the Fjord & Baelt Center in Denmark, a trainer on one end of a pool directs the porpoise to find a…

In the pink

Beautiful, ugly, or just plain peculiar according to individual reactions, this pink see-through fantasia is a swimming sea cucumber seen about 2,500 meters deep in the Celebes Sea. In 2007…

Thick and Thin

November 12, 2008

A floating piece of ice in the Arctic Ocean matches the colors of white-sand beaches in tropical water, but the temperature is oh, so different! Thin edges of snow-covered ice…

Undergraduate Andrew Delman (Yale University), scientist Andrew Ashton (blue cap, WHOI Geology and Geophysics Department) and Guest Student Nick Magliocca (red cap, Duke University) trek through the sand in the…

Curry’s Soggy Rite of Passage

November 10, 2008

WHOI geochemist Jeff Seewald (green shirt) and biologist Stefan Sievert douse NBC “Today Show” host Ann Curry in icy seawater after her first Alvin dive. In addition to the traditional…

Big happenings in a little village

November 9, 2008

Shortly after Labor Day 2008, workers began the monumental task of dismantling the 73-year-old Eel Pond drawbridge in the village of Woods Hole. Years of exposure to the elements deteriorated…

Learning from Mother Nature

November 8, 2008

To understand how nature deals with persistent pollutants, MIT/WHOI Joint Program graduate student Kristin Pangallo analyzes marine animal extracts, such as the squid extract in the flask above, for biomagnified…

From a safe perch

November 7, 2008

MIT/WHOI Joint Program student Evelyn Mervine paused to take in the beauty of Arenal Volcano during a June 2008 field study tour in Costa Rica. The pyroclastic flow from Arenal …

Gearing up for ocean observatories

November 6, 2008

Nearly a decade of community planning has gone into the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), to be reviewed this month by the National Science Foundation. Among the innovative elements of the…

A summer of chemical investigation

November 5, 2008

Jorge Barbosa, an undergraduate at the State University of New York School of Environmental Science and Forestry, spent summer 2008 as a WHOI Summer Student Fellow. Working in the laboratory…

“Green” guts

November 4, 2008

Take a look at the guts inside a “green”-powered thermal glider, and you’ll find bundles of wires, but no motor to propel it. As Research Associate John Lund (in photo)…

E pluribus unum, politically and biochemically

November 3, 2008

World of ice and water

A large melt pond and Arctic sea ice extending to the horizon dwarf a human figure, but human impacts on the Arctic may be growing larger than the ice itself.…

Sampling the sea

November 2, 2008

In August 2008 R/V Oceanus made a transect across part of the eastern Atlantic, from Barbados to Cape Verde. Chief scientist Edward Boyle (MIT) led a research group including Pheobe…

Baja blues

November 1, 2008

As dusk descends upon the Gulf of California, shadows darken the painted badlands of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. Atlantis’ 2008 Baja expedition yielded geological samples valuable in tracing the rate of…

Hobgoblin from the depths

October 31, 2008

Seen from below, a creature between terrifying and unbelievable appears to fly by, with huge eyes and outstretched claws holding a clear parachute. Actually an inch long, this oceanic animal…

The Volcano Explorer

October 30, 2008

Ken Sims explains why he works at Masaya, his interest in volcanoes worldwide, and what an oceanographer can learn from volcanoes on land. By Amy Nevala :: Originally published online…