Welcome to Emil Ruff, who has joined the Marine Biological Laboratory as an Assistant Scientist in the Ecosystems Center and the Bay Paul Center. The Ruff lab studies microbial life in deep-sea ecosystems, where light doesn’t penetrate and energy is scarce. To thrive in this environment, most microbes collaborate and develop complex food webs. The
MBL Senior Scientist Zoe Cardon has received a collaborative grant from the Department of Energy to study how viral infections in plants can affect the fate of the largest pool of organic carbon stored in soils: organic carbon bound to minerals. As carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the atmosphere continue to rise, driving further climate
In most soil microbial communities, the controls on growth and metabolism are poorly understood and are simply too complex to be included in computer models of climate, soil fertility for agriculture, or waste management. To determine the principles by which soil microbial communities function under varying environmental constraints, development of a scalable biogeochemical modeling approach
Octopus, squid, and cuttlefish are extraordinary animals in many ways. Although they are soft-bodied creatures related to sea slugs and clams, they engage in sophisticated behaviors that can eerily resemble vertebrate intelligence. In 2015, Joshua Rosenthal of the MBL, Eli Eisenberg of Tel Aviv University and colleagues discovered a striking trait in squid: They edit
MBL Senior Scientist Rudolf Oldenbourg has received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to co-present a national workshop on “Enabling Biological Discovery Through Innovations in Imaging and Computation.” The workshop will be held at the Marine Biological Laboratory on November 26-28, 2018. The agenda is here. The workshop was inspired by major transformations
Matt Everett, an undergraduate at Northeastern University, spent a six-month co-op (extended internship) with Taylor Sakmar and Bret Grasse in MBL’s Cephalopod Operations program. Everett was given an independent project to pursue: Figure out how to raise the Lesser Pacific Striped Octopus (Octopus chierchiae), which had never been cultured in captivity before. He relished the
Anne Giblin, Interim Director of the MBL Ecosystems Center, has received funding for a study on “Oil Spills as Stressors in Coastal Marshes: The Legacy and the Future.” The grant is a sub-award from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), which has been tracking the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the
A decade ago, the MBL’s Irina Arkhipova and colleagues made the curious discovery that the bdelloid rotifer – a microscopic animal – has an abundance of foreign genes in its genome that it has acquired from bacteria, fungi, and plants. Typically, genes are transmitted vertically from parent to offspring, while in some cases organisms can
Kate MacCord, McDonnell Foundation Fellow at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and MBL Fellow Jane Maienschein, who is also University Professor at Arizona State University, have received a renewal award from the James S. McDonnell Foundation to study regenerative biology from the perspectives of its history, philosophy, and its science. All complex living systems, from
A lively discussion on whether cuttlefish can count (and how to experimentally test that question) wrapped up the weekly talk series by The Cephalopod Group, which was birthed at the MBL this summer. About 10-20 octopus, squid, and cuttlefish researchers attended the talks each week, organized by Heather Rhodes, Associate Director of the Grass Fellows