Marine biologist Edie Widder's underwater spy camera finally gives humans a chance to see the freaky world of deep-ocean bioluminescent animals. 08.27.2009
Marine biologist Edie Widder's underwater spy camera is an underwater SETI, finally giving humans a chance to see the freaky world of deep-ocean bioluminescent animals. 08.05.2009
Floating cities. A building with a million residents. An oil rig turned into a tourist getaway. Some architects are dreaming of a wild green revolution. 05.26.2009
The population of American shad rebounded in the 1990s but is again on the wane. 05.17.2009
The economic collapse threatens the long-held dream of underwater mining. 05.04.2009
Fluorescent coral captured on film 02.28.2009
Researchers say this longtime bane of offshore drilling is more cost-efficient than wind and solar. 02.25.2009
First you start with a 1,300-pound 3-D camera… 02.24.2009
Researchers see amazing twists of evolution at the biological hot spots. 02.10.2009
Wind power from the sea could provide an alternative-energy breakthrough. 02.01.2009
Pollution, overfishing, and the rise of microbes spell doom for many bodies of water. 12.22.2008
Undiscovered oil and gas reserves below the ice set off a polar gold rush. 12.22.2008
Lice, interbreeding, and contaminants are killing off the species. 12.16.2008
The soggy brown kelp protects itself with iodides. 12.05.2008
Marine biologists in the world's only undersea lab find wonder hidden in the depths. 10.31.2008
You've heard about the freaky animals at ocean vents. Now check out the freaky water. 10.05.2008
These shore-lining grasses can protect a weak coastline, or harm a thriving one. 08.25.2008
The bumps on a humpback's flipper prevent the beast from stalling as it turns. 08.15.2008
Industrial carbon dioxide is turning the oceans acidic, threatening the foundation of sea life. 07.16.2008
In the central North Pacific, plastic outweighs surface zooplankton 6 to 1. 07.10.2008
Offshore desalination could turn the oceans into an inexhaustible water supply. 06.11.2008
Global warming and overfishing are killing reefs while scientists struggle to save them. 06.05.2008
Microscopic photos of sand show that it's a lot more than just little tan rocks. 05.01.2008
At Mothra Field, more than a mile underwater, temperatures reach 600 degrees. 04.15.2008
The 100-mile-long Sac Actun cave is one of the last unexplored places. 04.11.2008
An underwater glider measures parts of the ocean that scientists can't reach. 03.03.2008
01.14.2008
12.21.2007
Rapidly melting ice in the Far North alarms climatologists and lures nations into competition for newly accessible trade routes and resources. 12.12.2007
Global warming in the once-icy Arctic sets the stage for a modern-day landgrab. 11.21.2007
61 sailors navigate 2,000 treacherous miles using medieval technology. 11.21.2007
The universal human myth may be the first example of disaster reporting. 11.15.2007
The brainless blobs are booming. All scientists know is it isn't good. 09.13.2007
The brainless blobs are booming. All scientists know is it isn’t good. 09.13.2007
After nations carve up the fast-melting region, will there be anything left? 08.30.2007
Chris Mooney's book says yes—and we're in trouble. 08.09.2007
Researchers find 750 new species, including the carnivorous moonsnail. 08.09.2007
Human-caused environmental changes are a boon for the "red devil." 07.26.2007
Strange sea creatures caught on film for the first time 06.13.2007
Most animals in the deep ocean have some kind of luminescence for communication or defense. 05.09.2007
It's easy—stick a big radio transmitter on their heads. 05.04.2007
Amazing photos of animals living in the darkest, deepest ocean 04.24.2007
Photos from Claire Nouvian's new book, The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss. 04.24.2007
Butterfly effect breaks up the world's biggest iceberg 02.25.2007
Jean-Michel Cousteau on the environment, working with family, and how to grab a shark without her noticing. 07.18.2006
PBS showcases the latest underwater adventures of our favorite floating French family. 07.11.2006
Fingerprints for fish 07.01.2006
02.20.2006
Can these sleek mammals of the sea really defy the rules of hydrodynamics? 02.20.2006
Siberian methane, the recovering ozone layer, hurricane history in tree rings, and more. 01.30.2006
The Wave Felt Round The World 01.17.2006
Greenhouse gases turn oceans acidic, and the secret of milky seas. 01.08.2006
Can a mechanical snake that surfs the ocean squeeze enough watts from water? 12.02.2005
Seafloor Food Source Identified 10.24.2005
Scientists wire the oceans with data cables, permanent observatories, and robots that can roam for years 10.24.2005
Meet the first transoceanic shark. 10.21.2005
Is the West Coast Ready for a Tsunami? 09.09.2005
Eight of the last 10 years have been very active—we've never had as much activity. Yet we went from 1992 until last year with no hurricanes coming through Florida 09.09.2005
06.05.2005
05.01.2005
04.28.2005
04.26.2005
A little mercury is all that humans need to do away with themselves quietly, slowly, and surely 03.31.2005
03.04.2005
Tsunamis have always been mysterious monsters—mountain-size waves that race invisiby across the ocean at 500 mph, drain harbors at a single gulp, and destroy coastal communities without warning. But now some researchers are trying to take the mystery away. 01.05.2005
01.05.2005
01.03.2005
12.03.2004
A geophysicist revisits a provocatively simple—and previously unworkable—process for extracting freshwater from the sea 10.01.2004
09.21.2004
The world would be a barren place without these ubiquitous plants at the bottom of the food chain 08.02.2004
07.25.2004
The physics of pure hell at sea 07.25.2004
06.27.2004
06.27.2004
06.17.2004
05.29.2004
Scientists have discovered that fish in the ocean glow, gleam, spark, and light up like neon signs. Now they want to know how 05.29.2004
Two miles long, with towers nearly as tall as those of the World Trade Center, the Messina Bridge challenges science's ability to design around wind, earthquakes, and environmentalists 05.29.2004
Worried about global warming? Talk to a few scientists at Woods Hole. Oceanographers there are seeing big trouble with the Gulf Stream, which warms both North America and Europe 05.22.2004
Are gangs of orcas feasting on protected seals, sea lions, and otters because we fished their normal food supply out of the oceans? 04.21.2004
03.28.2004
Scientists have discovered that nearly a third of all the life on this planet consists of microbes living under the seafloor in a dark world without oxygen. Many of these tiny creatures make so much methane gas that if even a small proportion of it is released, we might be overwhelmed by huge tsunamis, runaway global warming, and extinctions 03.28.2004
02.05.2004
01.02.2004
01.02.2004
What's the purpose of nature's most powerful sound? 12.03.2003
Oysters graced the Pilgrims' feast of plenty, but today few remain in the waters off Virginia and Maryland. Can they be brought back? 11.27.2003
Could a massive marine extinction have been caused by . . . trees? 11.18.2003
Should we torch oil spills off Alaska with napalm? 11.08.2003
Scientists are relying on buoys and bath toys to map the global oceans. 09.30.2003
The more electrophysiologist William Gilly learns about these mysterious denizens of the deep, the more they seem like an alien intelligence 04.01.2003
02.01.2003
01.01.2003
09.01.2002
Scientists hope to find rare high-energy particles in the sea. 09.01.2002
Darlene Ketten's fascination with how whales hear has swept her into a storm of controversy 04.01.2002
04.01.2002
For centuries the Sargasso was seen as a desert drifting in an ocean. Now scientists are rediscovering it as a nursery of biodiversity 03.01.2002
01.01.2002
In July scientists declared once and for all that we're killing the oceans. Then they came up with something even more astounding: a possible fix 01.01.2002
There's a hot crack in the Earth under the Indian Ocean. Can a shipload of 35 scientists find it, dive on it, make sense of it, and come back with enough to justify the $1.5 million cost? 12.01.2001
01.01.2001
03.01.2000
Colorado State University meteorologist William Gray flew into his first hurricane in 1958 and got hooked. He's now one of the leading experts in forecasting the Atlantic hurricane season. 08.01.1999
06.01.1999
Sharks gather off the coast of California each year and feast on seals and sea lions, but not humans. A new tracking system may help reveal why. 06.01.1999
There's only one place left to find the next wave of supermedicines. Fortunately, it's where we should have been looking all along 03.01.1999
There's only one place left to find the next wave of supermedicines. Fortunately, it's where we should have been looking all along 03.01.1999
The cod, haddock, and other fish off New England's coast, pushed to the brink by overfishing, face a new threat: tiny, tentacled killers that eat fish larvae. 06.01.1998
Until James Childress built his unique aquarium, you could find live tube worms only on the ocean floor, at depths of two miles or more. 05.01.1998
Instead of patiently unraveling life's secrets gene by gene, we can now read them at breakneck speed—thanks in great part to an ingenious, admired, despised, once aimless and now wealthy biologist named Craig Venter. 05.01.1998
Some parasitic copepods have seizedon a unique piece of ocean real estate. 03.01.1998
The Salt Sea 01.01.1998
The Jaws You Can't See 01.01.1998
11.01.1997
11.01.1997
The best plan in the open sea is to be gelatinous. Failing that, you should grab onto something that is. 09.01.1997
05.01.1997
04.01.1997
04.01.1997
03.01.1997
01.01.1997
01.01.1997
Quickly shifting currents can radically alter Earth's climate. 12.01.1996
09.01.1996
09.01.1996
Is shark cartilage just newfangled snake oil? 04.01.1996
The new plan for exploring the ocean: let a thousand robots roam. 04.01.1996
03.01.1996
The world's best map of the seafloor comes from satellites. 03.01.1996
01.01.1996
01.01.1996
12.01.1995
In a modest, nondescript building just outside Los Angeles, researchers are stockpiling a treasure--of organs, bones, and half-digested meals. 08.01.1995
07.01.1995
07.01.1995
The sea was thick with them once; they practically jumped into your boat. Since the time of Columbus we've finished for cod--and now, from Cape Code to Newfoundland, they are fished out. 04.01.1995
11.01.1994
10.01.1994
04.01.1994
What could be easier than a routine dive, in a sub that's made the trip thousands of times before? But when you're working deep, on the bottom of the sea, nothing is ever easy, and there's no such thing as routine. 12.01.1993
11.01.1993
The ocean is a menagerie of plants and animals of a diversity we're only beginning to fathom. 11.01.1993
09.01.1993
09.01.1992