Oceanus articles

Recent articles from Oceanus

An unorthodox but highly successful marriage: the MIT/WHOI Joint Program celebrates its 40th anniversary.(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
December 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] It was 1968. On university campuses, the Beatles blared from dorm-room stereos, and VW Beetles infested parking lots. The times were a-changing, and they were ripe for bold initiatives. Few initiatives are as bold as an unorthodox marriage--especially in the...

A tale of two oceans, and the monsoons: tiny seafloor shells could offer big clues to the forces that generate rainfall.(Pacific and the Indian Oceans)(Report)
December 1, 2008... Every summer, the continent of Asia takes a big breath. This inhalation pulls moisture-laden air from the Indian Ocean over India and Southeast Asia, causing torrential rains known as the monsoons. For as long as there have been people in India and Southeast Asia, lives have been set by the...

One man's swamp is a fish's nursery: the ear bones of fish provide clues to help protect critical habitats for juvenile coral reef fish.(Cover story)
December 1, 2008... A parade of schoolmaster snappers swim by me, their neon yellow fins directing traffic. Echoing in the background is the rhythmic crunch of striped parrotfish nibbling on coral polyps. I'm chasing brightly colored coral reef fish through turquoise waters during a childhood vacation to the...

Biochemical warfare on coral reefs: in a coevolutionary struggle, invertebrate adversaries develop weapons and counterweapons.(Report)
December 1, 2008... Just beneath the tranquil, clear waters of the tropical Caribbean, unseen by all but a few keen-eyed divers, two foes have engaged in a life-and-death struggle every day for thousands of millennia. Their limestone battlefield is peppered with limitless varieties of soft coral that look like...

Listening in as bacteria 'talk' to each other: a graduate student investigates the microbial mysteries of quorum sensing.(Report)
December 1, 2008... The 27th of January, at the entrance of the vast Bay of Bengal... about seven o'clock in the evening, the Nautilus... was sailing in a sea of milk.... Was it the effect of the lunar rays? No: for the moon... was still lying hidden under the horizon.... The whole sky, though lit by the...