How Life Thrives Under the Ocean’s Crushing Pressure
Like most deep-sea biologists, I have a large collection of decorated Styrofoam cups. A couple dozen line the bookshelf of my office, each displaying a…
An Octopus Nursery Discovered on a Deep Underwater Mountain
Far below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, three quarters of a mile deep, lies the peak of an underwater mountain. Rising 1.4 miles off…
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Wooden Homes on the Seafloor Yield Insights Into the Impacts of Climate Change
Nearly two miles below the ocean’s surface, we are building new worlds. You might be surprised that these ecospheres are wooden—little log cabins hosting a…
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Sunflower Stars: Rulers of the Reef
Back in the day, I ran some experiments looking at different California kelp forest predators and their effects on trophic cascades. It was a fun…
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10 Things Science, Science Communication, and Just Maybe All of Academia Needs
On the heals of being inspired at #scifoo at GoogleX, I’m a little fired up. Monday morning at the American Library Association meeting–after flight delays,…
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So, You Want to Live in the Water? A Tale of Why Aquatic Mammals are So Big
Guest post by William Gearty (Ph.D. Student at Stanford University) It’s summertime and you’re sweating from the heat and humidity. You jump in the pool…
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Embracing Yes/Also: Marine Protected Areas Are Not An Either/Or Proposition
Ocean science and conservation, like any human enterprise, is subject to its fair share of internal messiness from time to time. As someone whose expertise…
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Jellyfish fishing: A multi-million dollar industry
Check out this incredible video of jellyfishing (aka ‘jellyballing’). The first part of the video, with the brown-colored jellyfish, is from the US state of Georgia,…
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Drawing Connections
Art is my favorite way to communicate science. It’s the language that transcends boundaries. For the past couple of months, I have been working with…
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Kelp, Spacecraft, and You
OK, folks, time for some more KEEEELP FROOOOM SPAAAAAACE!!! And an opportunity for you to do some science of your very own! As you know,…
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How We Know Megalodon Doesn’t Still Exist?
Megalodon (Carcharocles megalodon) is the largest shark, at a magnificent maximum length of 18 meters (59 feet), to ever have dwelled in the oceans. We…
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