Oceans
- Animals
A shark encounter inspired this researcher’s career in marine biology
Heidy Martinez never wanted to study sharks as a kid. That changed after encountering a white shark in South Africa.
- Animals
Whale pee is an ocean bounty
Some migrating cetaceans move thousands of miles to their breeding grounds, where whale urine fertilizes ocean waters with valuable nutrients.
- Environment
New ocean sanctuaries house young coral and even flee peril
Two ISEF finalists want to foster growth of new coral reefs. So these teens designed and built self-navigating, undersea houseboats for coral larvae.
- Animals
Some fish have legs that can taste prey underfoot
Taste buds on those legs may explain why northern sea robins are so good at finding food that is buried in the sandy seafloor.
- Animals
Narwhals may use their enormous lance-like tusks to play
Video shows narwhals using their tusks to prod — even flip — fish they don’t target as prey. It’s the first reported evidence of these whales playing.
- Earth
Can engineering save Antarctica’s most vulnerable glacier?
Bold engineering projects might stabilize Thwaites Glacier and slow sea level rise. But no one knows if they will work — or have serious side effects.
- Animals
A changing Arctic current seems to be impacting bowhead whales
A teen researcher investigated bowhead whales and found their migrations may be responding to a changing sea current.
- Planets
So many wondrous moons — just a spaceship ride away
Scientists are studying extraterrestrial moons for clues to how planets form, how life began — and whether there’s life out there right now.
- Oceans
The world’s largest coral is longer than a blue whale
Scientists found the coral off the coast of the Solomon Islands.
- Climate
Meet Chonkus, a mutant microbe that could help fight climate change
A hulking marine cyanobacterium, Chonkus has traits that appears to make it especially good for storing away carbon on the ocean floor.
- Animals
Wayward baby puffins get help from a community-led Puffling Patrol
Fitted with ID tags or tracking devices, birds from one Iceland colony give scientists an eye into puffins’ largely unknown lives at sea.
- Oceans
Underwater mountains in the Pacific Ocean may be home to 20 new species
A recent expedition to undersea mountain ranges off the coast of Chile revealed a new seamount and a rich world of deep-sea biodiversity.
