President Trump last week nominated Sam Clovis to be chief scientist for the USDA, formally known as the Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics. Clovis is a former economics professor, better known as a conservative talk radio host and Trump campaign advisor. One thing he is not is a scientist, and that has drawn harsh criticism professional organizations of scientists. One of the strongest reactions came from the Union of Concerned Scientists, who issued a statement calling the

Maker spaces have popped up everywhere, typically outfitted with tools and materials that allow people to try making their prototype dreams a reality. Now, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has just launched a maker space for ocean-related innovations called “ Dunk Works ,” a play on Lockheed Martin’s legendary Skunk Works lab. It’s stocked with the 3-D printers and other machines that you might expect for rapid-prototyping of underwater robotics. To build it, WHOI used $784,000 of a larger

Roughly a fifth of all fish eaten globally are caught using nets towed along the bottom of the ocean. There’s long been concern that this method – known as trawling – destroys or severely damages the ecosystems where it’s used. Now, a new meta-analysis of the science available on this topic offers some quantification of the impacts of different type of trawls. Previous studies have found that the mud plumes from some trawls can be seen from space , and that “bottom trawling related to commercial

Human activities are altering rivers and ocean ecosystems in dramatic ways. Science is one way of knowing this, and of communicating it. But it’s not always the most effective way. Robert F. Perkins is a multimedia artist who has been solo canoeing in the Arctic for close to thirty years. He’s also canoed the Limpopo River in Africa, and the Connecticut River – right here in our own backyard. Not surprisingly, he says there's a common theme: more people, more contamination and degradation.

Massachusetts is pushing hard on the renewable energy front, with more than 1600MW solar installed and a target of 1600MW offshore wind energy by 2020. Since sunshine and wind don’t always match consumer demand for electricity, the Commonwealth has set a goal of 200MWh of energy storage capacity by 2020, and is putting more than $10 million into energy storage research and demonstration projects. The Department of Energy Resources puts the Commonwealth’s total energy storage capacity at just

Amy Fleischer is a teacher at Nauset Regional Middle School. But for most of July, she’s part of a team exploring California’s Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and mapping the seafloor aboard the exploration ship E/V Nautilus. One of the main goals of the mission is to find where the coastline was during the last ice age. Fleischer is one of twenty-four teachers, as well as nineteen students, one artist, and a modestly-sized scientific team currently aboard E/V Nautilus. The team has

2017 is shaping up to be one of the worst years on record for North Atlantic right whales, one of the most endangered large whale species. There are only about five hundred individuals left, and numbers have been declining in recent years. A spate of recent deaths has sparked particular concern. In June and early July, seven North Atlantic right whales were found dead near the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in Canadian waters. It is not certain what killed them, but two showed signs of blunt force trauma

There are at least as many bacterial cells in your body as their human cells. And there’s a growing recognition that they’re critical for everything from digestion to mental health. They also play a big role in immunity – our ability to fight off diseases. But the relationship isn’t always easy or friendly. For all the good they do, if gut bacteria get into the wrong places, it can be problematic. Lora Hooper, a professor of immunology at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center,

People around the world have been getting a crash course in cybersecurity in recent weeks. Ransomware attacks have crippled everything from traffic cameras in Australia, multi-billion dollar international companies, healthcare networks, and the Ukrainian electricity grid. Analysts have caused the attacks worrisome, concerning, and other adjectives clearly intended to not cause mass hysteria. But they also warn that attacks are likely to continue and get worse. Earlier this spring, the MIT

What does the ocean mean to you? How do you interact with the sea? Maybe you enjoy fishing, or enjoy eating what others have caught. Maybe you own a home on the water, or relish long days at a favorite beach. Maybe you’re worried about climate change and sea level rise; maybe you’re not. We are all connected to the ocean, through weather, climate, and the very air we breathe (marine life produces half the oxygen in the atmosphere). But everyone experiences that connection differently.