oceanography and ocean engineering archive

MIT's new underwater robot can hover in place - MIT researchers have designed the Odyssey IV, a new robotic underwater vehicle that can hover in place like a helicopter and serve as an invaluable tool for deepwater oil explorers, marine archaeologists, oceanographers and others. September 25, 2008

Nominations open for Doherty Professorship - Nominations are now open for the Doherty Professorship in Ocean Utilization. All nontenured MIT faculty members from any Institute department are eligible. September 10, 2008

MIT tests self-propelled cage for fish farming - A self-propelling underwater cage developed and recently tested by an MIT researcher could not only cut costs for offshore ocean-based fish farms but also aid the movement of such operations into the high seas away from coastal zones. September 2, 2008

Jane McNabb, worked at MIT for 47 years - Jane McNabb, a 47-year employee at MIT's Department of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography--a precursor to the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)--died on Saturday, May 24. She was 84. June 12, 2008

Scientists fathom niches of ocean microbes - Marine bacteria in the wild organize into professions or lifestyle groups that partition many resources, rather than competing for them, according to MIT research that could change the way scientists approach the classification of microbes. May 22, 2008

Happy anniversary, Prochlorococcus - An ocean-dwelling microbe of global importance discovered only 20 years ago by researchers, including one at MIT, is the focus of the May 30-31 ProchlorococcusFest, featuring the smallest and most abundant photosynthetic organism in the sea. May 21, 2008

How strong is a hurricane? Just listen - Knowing how powerful a hurricane will be can help to save lives. Airplanes currently provide this crucial data by flying into the storm, gathering wind speed informaion. Some MIT researchers now think there's a better way: using sound. April 9, 2008

Team probes mysteries of oceanic bacteria - Microbes living in the oceans play a critical role in regulating Earth's environment, but very little is known about their activities and how they work together to help control natural cycles of water, carbon and energy. March 3, 2008

Oceanic effect of river plants reported - Aquatic plants in rivers and streams may play a major role in the health of large areas of ocean coastal waters, according to recent MIT research that could have inform efforts to damp storm surge and lower nutrient levels. January 31, 2008

Cask from the past - For the first time, researchers have identified DNA from inside ceramic containers in an ancient shipwreck on the seafloor, making it possible to determine what the ship's cargo was even though there was no visible trace of it. October 29, 2007

Nominations open for Doherty Professorship - Nominations are now open for the Doherty Professorship in Ocean Utilization. All nontenured MIT faculty members from any department are eligible. October 24, 2007

MIT Museum show celebrates ocean engineer Jerry Milgram - As MIT ocean engineer Jerry Milgram, legendary professor and "sea-going Sherlock Holmes," prepares to retire after more than four decades on the MIT faculty, his career is the focus of a new exhibition in the MIT Museum's Compton Gallery. September 19, 2007

MIT research details parasitic battles - Scientists at MIT and the Technion Israel Institute of Technology have for the first time recorded the entire genomic expression of both a host bacterium and an infecting virus over the eight-hour course of infection. September 5, 2007

Scientists unraveling the secrets of red tide - In work that could one day help prevent millions of dollars in losses for seaside communities, MIT chemists have demonstrated how tiny organisms likely produce the red tide toxin that periodically shuts down U.S. beaches and shellfish beds. August 30, 2007

Researchers building robotic fin for submarines - Inspired by the efficient swimming motion of the bluegill sunfish, MIT researchers are building a mechanical fin that could one day propel robotic submarines. The MIT team hopes to create a more maneuverable, propeller-less underwater robot. August 3, 2007

MIT aims for kinder, gentler scallop dredge - Cliff Goudey of MIT's Sea Grant is working on building a better scallop dredge--one that doesn't harm ocean-floor ecology. Promising tests of the prototype indicate that the dredge could help the fishing industry more sensitively manage fish habitat. July 31, 2007

School of Engineering awards - Recent achievements by members of the MIT community. June 6, 2007

Ocean engineering highlights novel ship design - A small ship for near-shore counterterrorism operations was one of 17 projects presented by MIT graduate students at a recent Center for Ocean Engineering symposium attended by industry professionals including Rear Adm. Kevin McCoy of the U.S. Navy. May 18, 2007

Model captures diversity of underwater forests - Scientists at MIT have created an ocean model so realistic that the virtual forests of diverse microscopic plants they "sowed" have grown in population patterns that precisely mimic their real-world counterparts. March 29, 2007

MIT Darwin Project will model ocean microbes - A new program to develop computational models of how marine microbes live and evolve in the global ocean has been launched with a $3.7 million gift from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. March 29, 2007

MIT reveals the tangle under turbulence - MIT researchers report that they have visualized for the first time a convoluted tangle underlying turbulence. This work may ultimately help engineers design better planes, cars, submarines and engines. March 28, 2007

Program to replenish eelgrass educates students - A project led by MIT Sea Grant to bring a special plant back to Boston-area harbors is also giving students in Massachusetts and Rhode Island a hands-on education in the importance of healthy marine ecosystems. March 12, 2007

Doherty professor studies marine organisms - In work that will improve our understanding of the marine microorganisms that are essential to healthy oceans, Roman Stocker is using microfluidics to study these organisms in the lab under conditions close to what they experience in the wild. March 7, 2007

MIT students help design aquarium exhibit - MIT students and the Aquarium of the Pacific plan to make waves together. Today, the sophomores from MIT unveiled their models and ideas for a new tsunami exhibit to experts at the Long Beach, Calif. aquarium. January 26, 2007

Robots headed for deepwater operations - MIT Sea Grant recently co-hosted a technology forum to discuss how autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) can offer low-cost solutions for deepwater oil and natural gas exploration and production. November 8, 2006

Nominations open for Doherty chair - Nominations are now open for the Doherty Professorship in Ocean Utilization. Endowed by the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Charitable Foundation, the two-year chair opens the way for promising, non-tenured professors to undertake marine-related research. September 20, 2006

Deep-sea oil rigs inspire designs for wind turbines - An MIT researcher's vision of wind turbines floating on platforms a hundred miles out to sea, where the winds are strong and steady, can provide onshore customers with enough electricity to power several hundred thousand homes. August 29, 2006

Microbe center plumbs depths of ocean life - Scientists from MIT and six other institutions are part of a new center for exploring the microbial inhabitants of the sea. The alliance aims to bring together the disciplines of oceanography, microbiology, ecology and genomics. August 10, 2006

Crab nabbed; circumstances fishy - MIT researchers have confirmed the first sighting of a Dungeness crab in the Atlantic Ocean. The male, whose species is common on North America's West Coast, was caught off Thatcher Island, Massachusetts, in July. August 9, 2006

Kayaks adapted to test marine robotics - MIT researchers are working toward the day when a team of robots could be put into action like a team of Navy SEALs -- doing such dangerous work as searching for survivors after devastating hurricanes or sweeping harbors for mines. August 7, 2006

Deep-sea sediments could store carbon dioxide - Deep-sea sediments could provide a virtually unlimited and permanent reservoir for carbon dioxide, the gas that has been a primary driver of global climate change in recent decades, according to a team of scientists that includes a professor from MIT. August 7, 2006

Antarctic ocean found crucial to atmosphere's health - Circulation in the waters near the Antarctic coast may be one of the planet's critical means of regulating levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to researchers from MIT, Princeton and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. July 11, 2006

Sea Grant warns of dumping seafood - In its latest outreach campaign, MIT Sea Grant has developed an educational pamphlet to encourage people not to release or dump live and fresh seafood and seafood waste into the wild. June 19, 2006

Human activity linked to rise in hurricanes - Human-induced climate change, rather than naturally occurring ocean cycles, may be responsible for the recent increases in the frequency and strength of North Atlantic hurricanes, according to MIT and Penn State researchers. May 31, 2006

Undersea channels studied to aid oil recovery - MIT studies of deep channels in the ocean floor filled with permeable, porous sedimentary deposits may help energy companies withdraw millions of additional barrels of oil from beneath the sea. May 2, 2006

Researchers: Plankton swap genes in ocean - New evidence from open sea experiments shows there's a constant shuffling of genetic endowments going on among tiny plankton, and the "coinage" they use seems to be a flood of viruses, MIT scientists report. March 23, 2006

Warbling whales speak a language all their own - Researchers led by an MIT graduate student have now mathematically confirmed that whales have their own syntax that uses sound units to build phrases that can be combined to form songs that last for hours. March 22, 2006

Stojanovic named Doherty Professor - Vladimir Stojanovic, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has been awarded the 2006 Doherty Professorship in Ocean Utilization from the MIT Sea Grant College Program. March 8, 2006

Microbe DNA helps scientists understand ocean - Using DNA analysis, MIT researchers and colleagues have gained new insight into how marine microbes thrive and survive at different depths of the ocean. February 22, 2006

Bacterium found with strange magnetic personality - Like living compasses, magnetotactic bacteria point to the poles -- north in the Northern Hemisphere, and south in the Southern Hemisphere. But in one little area of New England, researchers led by an MIT graduate student have found a magnetic misfit of sorts. February 17, 2006

One fish, two fish: New sensor improves fish counts - Researchers at MIT have found a new way of looking beneath the ocean surface that could help definitively determine whether fish populations are shrinking, using a sensor system that tracks fish populations over a 10,000-square-kilometer area. February 2, 2006

Robot photographs ancient Greek shipwreck - Sometime in the fourth century B.C., a Greek merchant ship sank in the eastern Aegean Sea. Filled with ceramic jars of wine and olive oil, it might never have divulged its clues to ancient Greek culture, except for a research team including scientists from MIT. February 2, 2006

Professor Emeritus Donald Harleman dies at 82 - Donald R. F. Harleman, a renowned civil engineer whose love for the ocean and expertise in water quality and waste treatment benefited urban harbors throughout the world, died of cancer on Sept. 28 on Nantucket, Mass. October 4, 2005

Nominations open for Doherty Professorship - Nominations are now open for the Doherty Professorship in Ocean Utilization. All nontenured MIT faculty members are eligible. September 28, 2005

New web site explores local hurricane risk - MIT Sea Grant's newly launched hurricane web site provides information about planning and risk, as well as news about hurricane-related research being conducted by MIT experts. September 28, 2005

MIT leads water safety outreach - Rip currents can be deadly--exhausting even strong swimmers who try to fight being carried out to sea. MIT Sea Grant is now getting the word out on these currents with a poster campaign on New England beaches. August 19, 2005

Celebrate American history at MIT Museum - As America celebrates its birthday, an exhibition at the MIT Museum celebrates a powerful symbol of American ingenuity and entrepreneurship: the clipper ship. July 1, 2005

Doyle awarded Doherty Professorship - Patrick Doyle, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, has been awarded the 2005 Doherty Professorship in Ocean Utilization from the MIT Sea Grant College Program. March 9, 2005

Robots serve humans in many settings - There's still a long way to go before today's robots evolve into everyday technologies, but even now, autonomous robotic vehicles are exploring uncharted places, assisting troops in combat and performing household tasks. March 2, 2005

Plastic helps monitor pollutants - Phil Gschwend, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is using plastic to collect data on levels of organic pollutants in Boston Harbor waters and sediments. January 12, 2005

Ocean and mechanical engineering merge - The Executive Committee of the Corporation approved on Dec. 2 the merger of the departments of ocean engineering and mechanical engineering. December 8, 2004

Marine microbes focus of major gift to MIT - Thanks to new major grants, MIT researchers aim to learn dramatically more about marine microbes, some of the most important organisms on the globe. September 21, 2004

Doherty award nominations now open - The selection committee for the Doherty Professorship in Ocean Utilization is accepting nominations from department heads for non-tenured faculty members from any department. September 15, 2004

Input sought for department merger - A committee chaired by Professor Steven Tannenbaum, Underwood-Prescott Professor of Toxicology and Professor of Chemistry, is seeking input on a possible merger of Ocean Engineering with Mechanical Engineering. September 15, 2004

Whales safer with new buoy - How can trombones help keep whales safe at sea? With a little MIT ingenuity. May 19, 2004

Studying ocean pathogens - Scientists from MIT and two other institutions have joined together to create a new center for research on issues involving oceanographic, biological and environmental health sciences. May 5, 2004

Center to study impact of ocean pathogens - Scientists from MIT and two other institutions have joined together to create a new center for research on issues involving oceanographic, biological and environmental health sciences. April 23, 2004

Fish in schools - New study provides direct view of the technique used by fish to exploit the energy of eddies generated by the swimming movements of other school members. December 3, 2003

How fish save energy - The study provides the first direct view of the technique used by fish to exploit the energy of eddies generated by the swimming movements of other members of a school. December 1, 2003

Aboard the R/V Knorr - Brendan Foley is chief archeologist aboard the R/V Knorr, on an expedition to navigate and scan archeological sites on the deep sea floor of the Mediterranean. August 14, 2003

Microbes' 'blueprints' promise insights - Three international teams of scientists will announce the genetic blueprints for four closely related forms of these organisms, which numerically dominate the phytoplankton of the oceans. August 13, 2003

MIT designed systems map shipwrecks - David Mindell will use his newest deep-sea archeology equipment, a high-precision navigation system named "Exact," in two collaborative expeditions this summer. July 16, 2003

How EXACT works - This diagram explains how EXACT uses a technology known as JASON closed-loop microbathymetry to make detailed maps of underwater sites. July 16, 2003

Deep-sea pioneer speaks - Don Walsh, the Navy commander who piloted a U.S. submersible in its dive to the deepest spot in the ocean four decades ago, spoke at MIT. March 19, 2003

'Adopt-a-Boat' - Adopt-A-Boat, which began in fall 2001, partners New England fishermen with educators and their classes. December 18, 2002

MIT team studies hurricanes - The following story is adapted from one that appeared in the spring 2002 issue of Two If By Sea, a joint newsletter of the MIT and WHOI Sea Grant programs. October 30, 2002

Adopt-a-Boat links fishermen and educators - Tim Alley, captain of the 72-foot trawler Bay Flyer, is accustomed to long, rough days at sea. But earlier this year he found himself barraged by questions from second-grade students. October 11, 2002

Nominations open for Doherty Professorship - Nominations are open for the Doherty Professorship in Ocean Utilization. All nontenured MIT faculty members from any department are eligible. October 2, 2002

Student sub waves aside competition - Project ORCA, an MIT group for students interested in autonomous underwater vehicle technology, won the $5,600 first prize in the annual AUV competition. September 11, 2002

Schmidt to act as head of ocean engineering - Professor Henrik Schmidt was named interim head of the Department of Ocean Engineering effective Sept. 1. September 11, 2002

Deep sea conference begins Friday - Experts in archaeology, oceanography and underwater vehicle engineering will convene at MIT April 26-28 for a conference on deep sea archaeology. April 24, 2002

Oceans at risk - A policy tool aimed at arresting global warming could potentially wreak havoc on the oceans if it is implemented with no restrictions. October 24, 2001

Oceans at risk - A policy tool key to arresting global warming could potentially wreak havoc on the oceans if instituted with no restrictions, warn an MIT professor and colleagues. October 18, 2001

Studying marine pathogens - How tedious is Martin Polz's research with harmful microorganisms? September 26, 2001

MIT researchers seek ocean on Jupiter's moon - Acoustic techniques used by MIT researchers to explore the Arctic may help determine whether there is a vast liquid ocean under the ice blanketing Jupiter's moon, Europa. June 4, 2001

New fishery targets scientific data - New England fishermen accustomed to hauling in cod and flounder may soon find themselves with a new, valuable -- if nonedible -- catch: scientific data. March 14, 2001