ocean

Scientists used tools of genetics research similar to those used in genealogical research to evaluate the diversity of marine life off the California coast.Scientists Announce Comprehensive Regional Diagnostic of Microbial Ocean Life Using DNA TestingLarge-scale ‘metabarcoding’ methods could revolutionize how society understands forces that drive seafood supply and the planet’s ability to remove greenhouse gases.Researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, the J.…

Small launch firm Rocket Lab on Monday captured a falling rocket stage out of the air with a helicopter before dropping it in the ocean, appearing to achieve a partially successful test of the company's novel cost-savings approach to recovering used rockets for multiple mission to space.The demonstration, involving parachutes and a long cable hanging from a helicopter, sought to check off a key milestone for the Long Beach, California-based company as it ventures to slash the cost of sending things into space, an industry…

Crew on the WHOI-operated research vessel Neil Armstrong prepare to deploy a sediment corer to the seafloor of the Puerto Rico Trench. Credit: Paul Walczak, Oregon State University A team of scientists, engineers, and ship's crew on the research vessel Neil Armstrong operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) recently collected a 38-foot-long cylindrical sediment sample from the deepest part of the Puerto…

Credit: CC0 Public Domain A new study describes a period of rapid global climate change in an ice-capped world much like the present—but 304 million years ago. Within about 300,000 years, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels doubled, oceans became anoxic, and biodiversity dropped on land and at sea. …

While AUVs (autonomous underwater vehicles) are invaluable for gathering oceanographic data, they also tend to be fairly large and very expensive. The Hydrus offers a much smaller, less costly alternative, which still packs a lot of punch.Most AUVs are torpedo-shaped robotic watercraft that can autonomously explore the undersea world for days at a time, utilizing a suite of sensors to record video and other forms of data as they do so. They're typically big enough that they have to be launched and retrieved using cranes…