Woods Hole, Mass. April 6, 2023 — A wax that is derived from a commonly grown marine microalga could be the next big thing in cosmetics and personal care products, thanks to a recent license agreement between the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Western Washington University (WWU)—which jointly own the patents—and Upwell Cosmetics, a start-up […]
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
New Book by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Marine Scientist Offers a Grim Look at an Endangered Whale Species
A new book by Michael Moore, veterinarian, and marine scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), examines the plight and future of the North Atlantic right whale, one of the most critically endangered species on the planet, and draws on Moore’s 40 years of fieldwork to offer possible solutions. We Are All Whalers: The Plight of […]
New paper addresses mix of contaminants in Fukushima wastewater, highlights risks of dumping in ocean
August 7, 2020 – Nearly 10 years after the Tohoku-oki earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant and triggered an unprecedented release of radioactivity into the ocean, radiation levels have fallen to safe levels in all but the waters closest to the shuttered power plant. Today, fish and other seafood caught in […]
Florida Current is Weaker Now Than at Any Point in the Past Century
August 7, 2020 – A key component of the Gulf Stream has markedly slowed over the past century–that’s the conclusion of a new research paper in Nature Communications published on August 7. The study develops a method of tracking the strength of near-shore ocean currents using measurements made at the coast, offering the potential to reduce one […]
Unless warming is slowed, emperor penguins will be marching towards extinction
November 7, 2019 – Emperor penguins are some of the most striking and charismatic animals on Earth, but a new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has found that a warming climate may render them extinct by the end of this century. The study, which was part of an international collaboration between scientists, published […]
Scientists Find Surprising Evidence Of Rapid Changes in the Arctic
January 3, 2018 – Scientists have found surprising evidence of rapid climate change in the Arctic: In the middle of the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole, they discovered that the levels of radium-228 have almost doubled over the last decade. The finding indicates that large-scale changes are happening along the coast—because the source of […]
Radioactivity Lingers from 1946-1958 U.S. Nuclear Bomb Tests
Oct. 31, 2017 – Scientists have found lingering radioactivity in the lagoons of remote Marshall Island atolls in the Pacific Ocean where the United States conducted 66 nuclear weapons tests in the 1940s and 1950s. Radioactivity levels at Bikini and Enewetak Atolls were extensively studied in the decades after the testing ended, but there has […]
Ancient Skeleton Discovered on Antikythera Shipwreck
September 19, 2016 – An international research team discovered a human skeleton during its ongoing excavation of the famous Antikythera Shipwreck (circa 65 B.C.). The shipwreck, which holds the remains of a Greek trading or cargo ship, is located off the Greek island of Antikythera in the Aegean Sea. The first skeleton recovered from the […]