Oceans

A screenshot of the first video of a giant squid in the wild.

The Top Five Ocean Stories of 2013

This year we've seen amazing footage of marine creatures, discovered how plastic works its way into the food chain, employed 3D printing to build new reefs

Frozen seafood in the lab, ready for DNA testing.

The DNA Detectives That Reveal What Seafood You're Really Eating

Genetic sequencing allows scientists to uncover increasingly prevalent seafood fraud

More Than Three Years Later, Oil From the Deepwater Horizon Persists in the Gulf

Continued testing has found evidence of oil in the water, sediments and marine animals of the Gulf

Santa could make his home on floating sea ice, but the Arctic may be ice free as early as 2016, according to the U.S. Navy.

Six Ways Climate Change Is Waging War on Christmas

If Santa really lived at the North Pole, he would have drowned long ago--his icy abode is slowly melting

Animals use one of two different mechanisms, bioluminescence and fluorescence, to light up.

This One Little Video Will Help You Understand Fireflies Better Forever

Bioluminescence is a chemical reaction that happens and creates light. Fluorescence requires lights to be seen

Sharks Can Sense When Your Back Is Turned

New research suggests that sharks can sense where you can't see, and will approach just outside your field of vision

Many Animals, Including the Platypus, Lost Their Stomachs

Not only did those animals toss their stomachs out with the evolutionary garbage, they burned the genetic instructions, too

Guadalupe White Shark

Great White Sharks Are Being Killed Before They Can Become Truly Gigantic

Sharks aren't shrinking, they're just being hunted and inadvertently killed by fishing nets so often that they're no longer living long enough to grow up

The seahorse may appear ungainly, but it’s actually a sophisticatedly engineered copepod-killing machine.

The Seahorse’s Odd Shape Makes It a Weapon of Stealth

The shape of the seahorse's snout and its painfully slow movements create help create minimal water disturbance, increasing its odds of bagging prey

Fishing net at Alaska’s Gore Point

Artists Join Scientists on an Expedition to Collect Marine Debris

Now, they are creating beautiful works from the trash they gathered on the 450-nautical-mile journey in the Gulf of Alaska

New research shows that plastic particles can absorb pollution and carry it into fish, leading to biomagnification as it moves up the food chain to humans.

How Plastic Pollution Can Carry Flame Retardants Into Your Sushi

Research shows that plastic particles can absorb pollution from water, get eaten by fish and carry the toxins up the food chain

Despite warming temperatures, the sea ice around Antarctica is increasing in extent.

Why Is Antarctica’s Sea Ice Growing As Temperatures Rise?

New research shows that the explanation for the counterintuitive growth of sea ice near the South Pole can be found blowing in the wind

Searles Lake, California

The Science Behind Earth’s Many Colors

A new book of breathtaking aerial photography by Bernhard Edmaier explains how the planet's vividly colored landscapes and seascapes came to be

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What Is a Species? Insight From Dolphins and Humans

More than 70 definitions exist for what makes a species--each is applied to a different group of organisms & uses different methods for determining a label

Okeanos: A Performance Where Dancers Move Like Octopuses and Seahorses

Jodi Lomask, director of the dance company Capacitor, has choreographed an ocean-inspired show, now at San Francisco's Aquarium of the Bay

By 2100, the world’s oceans may be radically different habitats than they are today.

No Good News for Oceans As Climate Changes

From the ocean surface to the seafloor, climate change is set to ravage marine environments, leaving practically no part of the sea untouched by 2100

Jonah is cast overboard to a sea monster in an image from the earliest known atlas, the Theatrum orbis terrarum, by Flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius, first published in 1570.

The Enchanting Sea Monsters on Medieval Maps

Fictitious animals on 16th and early 17th century maps hint at how people's perception of the ocean has changed over time

Artist Nickolay Lamm’s depiction of a polar-grizzly hybrid

What Would a Cross Between a Polar Bear and a Grizzly Really Look Like?

As climate changes and Arctic sea ice melts, species shift habitats and may interbreed. Lamm digitally manipulates photographs to imagine these hybrids

This ancient fossil, just discovered in China, could upend our understanding of how all vertebrates evolved over time.

This 419-Million-Year-Old Fish Has the World’s Oldest Known Face

The ancient fossil, just discovered in China, could upend our understanding of how all vertebrates evolved over time

Migaloo, the white whale

Call Me Migaloo: The Story Behind Real-Life White Whales

White whales, such as the recently spotted humpback nicknamed Migaloo, are rare and elusive creatures. How many are there and why are they white?

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