One recent Friday morning I received an email that started like this: Dear MBL-ers For your information we can confirm that specimens of Portuguese man o’ wars…
View More Video: catching a killer jellyAuthor: RR Helm
RR Helm is a postdoc studying sea anemones and jellyfish at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
DNA feels like soggy cotton candy: A recipe for a DNA cocktail
DNA is something I depend on not only in a literal way: it keeps me and my cell mini-peeps running, but also in a figurative…
View More DNA feels like soggy cotton candy: A recipe for a DNA cocktailHow marine biologists brush their teeth
Yep, this is how we do it. Every morning and night: And what are these fish to excited about? Perhaps the pickings of an awesome…
View More How marine biologists brush their teethThe moon jelly’s shocking family secret
The moon jelly: with its eye-catching looks and mild sting it is a favorite among aquarists, a rising novelty pet, and often featured species on…
View More The moon jelly’s shocking family secretHow horseshoe crabs may have saved your life
During my first year of grad school I conducted a jailbreak– a fellow grad student and I snuck into the Invertebrate Zoology lab and freed all…
View More How horseshoe crabs may have saved your lifeBreaking News: Dangerous and costly jelly washing ashore in Ireland by the thousands
Update: exactly three months after I wrote the original article below, this same species has hit yet another salmon farm in Ireland (21OCT13). It is my…
View More Breaking News: Dangerous and costly jelly washing ashore in Ireland by the thousandsThe landscape of a sea urchin
I’ve long thought of echinoderms, a group that includes sea urchins, starfish, and sea cucumbers, to be among the most alien-like animals. I did not,…
View More The landscape of a sea urchinThe Real Shark Week: Diving in with oceanic whitetips
Discovery Channel’s Shark Week kicked off with a *fake* documentary about sharks, and under normal circumstances this would sink me into a big blue pit of bummer.…
View More The Real Shark Week: Diving in with oceanic whitetipsThe 60 foot long jet powered animal you’ve probably never heard of
I was living in Africa the first time I saw a pyrosome, and I nearly cried. I was doing research on plankton, which meant long…
View More The 60 foot long jet powered animal you’ve probably never heard ofAre Jellyfish Immortal?
A species of jelly, Turritopsis dohrnii, is able to cheat death, curling into a ball (signaling the end for most species), only to grow from its own shriveled remains…
View More Are Jellyfish Immortal?