A restored and carefully managed wetland on the Chinese coast is a much larger carbon sink than a natural marsh nearby. Since 1970, 35% of global wetland habitat has disappeared, largely owing to human activity. Researchers say that wetlands restoration is crucial for both maintaining biodiversity and combating climate change. Jianwu Tang at the Marine
By Courtney Linder For the first time, scientists have sequenced the genome of the ever-curious giant squid, hoping to find answers about the creature’s massive size. The draft genome sequence and supporting research was published today in the scientific journal GigaScience. Through their analysis, the researchers have uncovered hints about how the cephalopod’s brain became
MBL’s Roger Hanlon and Bret Grasse shared their octopus expertise with CBS’s Chip Reid on “CBS News Sunday Morning,” airing Jan. 12. It’s one of the most bizarre creatures on Earth, and not just because it looks so different. The octopus can camouflage itself in a flash; squeeze its entire body through a one-inch hole;
By Veronique Greenwood The cuttlefish hovers in the aquarium, its fins rippling and large, limpid eyes glistening. When a scientist drops a shrimp in, this cousin of the squid and octopus pauses, aims and shoots its tentacles around the prize. There’s just one unusual detail: The diminutive cephalopod is wearing snazzy 3-D glasses. Putting 3-D
By Caroline Pritchard
My time and training in the 2016 MBL Embryology course has innovated every aspect of my lab work since — and in 2019, brought two awards for scientific imaging my way!
Whitman Center Fellow Trevor Wardill and team conducted experiments on cuttlefish vision over the past year in the MBL’s Marine Resources Center, publishing their results this week in Science Advances. While cuttlefish wearing glasses is an unexpected sight, a University of Minnesota-led research team built an underwater theater and equipped the cephalopods with specialized 3D
By Eve Zuckoff Report for America/WCAI WOODS HOLE, Mass. — As you jog along the curving 3-mile road that leads down to the water on the southernmost tip of Cape Cod, you’ll pass five of the world’s leading marine and environmental institutions. You’ll glimpse the solar arrays and wind turbine of the Woods Hole Research Center,
By Mark Dwortzan On December 3 and 4, Boston University convened a workshop exploring how synthetic biology—the engineering of genetic “circuits” in living cells and organisms to enable them to perform specified tasks—can help address climate change. Participants, who included thought leaders in science, economics, policy and ethics, considered a wide range of complex challenges
Not everyone has a genus (nevermind a species) named after them! But this study by a team of Czech and Slovak scientists introduces the bacteria Gibliniella, named “in honor of Anne E. Giblin, a well–known North American ecologist who stud[ies] anthropogenic inputs to ecosystems.” Giblin, director of the MBL Ecosystems Center, has worked for decades
By Rebecca Pool Using novel epifluorescence imaging developed at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, researchers have unravelled the structure of the microbial communities that coat microplastic trash in the world’s oceans. To study the ‘Plastisphere’ – microscopic communities on plastic marine debris – Linda Amaral-Zettler from MBL and the Royal Netherlands Institute for