How the Ocean Works
A Faster Way to Better Reactions
Finding new chemical reactions to synthesize commercial products more efficiently is big business and a major source of innovation. A new study offers a way to make the search faster, cheaper, and greener.
Two Chemical Roads Diverge in an Open Ocean
An infographicon biomineralization
Minerals Made by Microbes
Some minerals actually don't form without a little help from microscopic organisms, using chemical processes…
Through the Looking-Glass of the Sea Surface
Scientists are using new technology to make previously impossible measurements at the turbulent ocean surface—a…
A Mighty Mysterious Molecule
What gives sea air its distinctive scent? A chemical compound called dimethylsulfide. In a new…
How Did Earth Get Its Ocean?
Adam Sarafian overcame a learning disability and surmounted heights as a an All-American pole-vaulter—all before…
Specks in the Spectrometer
Mass spectrometer facilities can be a rite of passage for scientists—as well as for the…
Carbon Cycle
Carbon is a building block for all life and plays a key role in regulating…
Earth’s Riverine Bloodstream
Like blood in our arteries in our body, water in rivers carry chemical signals that…
Ice, Wind & Fury
Greenlanders are well away of piteraqs, the hazardous torrents of cold air that sweep down…
Leaf Wax: A Chemical Journey
Lake Titicaca in the Andes Mountains of South America is an extraordinary place to explore…
Tracking a Trail of Carbon
Lake Titicaca in the Andes Mountains of South America is an extraordinary place to explore…
An Appetite Stimulant for Bacteria in the Ocean
PUAs kick bacteria’s metabolism and CO2 respiration rates into hyperdrive—ike skinny weightlifters after a steroid…
Short-circuiting the Biological Pump
The ocean has been sucking up the heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) building up in our…
Coral Crusader
Graduate student Hannah Barkley is on a mission to investigate how warming ocean temperatures, ocean…
Scientists Find Trigger That Cracks Lakes
Graduate student Laura Stevens became a focal point of a research team that cracked a…
Hidden Battles on the Reefs
A new study led by WHOI scientists shows how changing ocean conditions can combine to…
Bringing a Lab to the Seafloor
Scientists can't really know if new oceanographic instruments will really work until they try them…
The Waves Within the Waves
If the 30-foot wave we were looking for had tumbled across the ocean’s surface that…
The Jetyak
Oceanographers are always looking for cost-effective vehicles to help them explore risky regions. Scientists at…
From Lab to Sea
Scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution share their field-tested experience, training graduate students on methods…
Big Questions About Tiny Bacteria
It’s 3 a.m., and Jesse McNichol is struggling to stay awake. Since midafternoon, he’s been…
Is Ocean Acidification Affecting Squid?
The rise in carbon dioxide in the ocean from fossil-fuel burning may have insidious impacts…
Sea Science in the Space Age
South Asian monsoons bring huge amounts of fresh water into the Bay of Bengal. Summer…