Heather Goldstone

The ocean covers three quarters of the planet and provides half the oxygen in our atmosphere. It's home to an estimated ninety percent of life on Earth.

Despite its vastness, the ocean is also vulnerable to human impacts - plastic pollution, overfishing, and the myriad changes wrought by rising carbon dioxide levels.

It's been turning the rumor mill for months. Now it's official. MBL and University of Chicago have agreed to form an affiliation.

One couldn't dream up a more perfect topic for citizen science than biodiversity. It happens anywhere and everywhere, scientists need more data points than they could ever possibly gather on their own, and you can see (at least some of) it with your own two eyes.

Here are just a few ways you could get involved:

It’s estimated there are 8.7 million species alive on planet Earth today. But scientists have only named and cataloged about fifteen percent of that number and there’s increasing concern about the rate at which species are going extinct.

The Magnuson-Stevens Act that governs U.S. fisheries management calls for regulations to be based on "best available science" - a fuzzy and moving target. New technologies and new research are constantly reworking our understanding of ocean ecosystems and the fisheries they support.

Here are three new or pending initiatives that could shape fishery regulations of the future:

NOAA's fishery service can't catch a break. The agency is facing two lawsuits - one claiming its groundfish regulations are too harsh, and one claiming they're too lax.

Chances are, when you think about bacteria, you think about getting sick. But some marine microbes may hold potential treatments for human diseases.

Two new developments today in New England groundfishermen's fight for their livelihoods:

• Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced this afternoon that her office has filed a federal lawsuit against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency that oversees commercial fishing. According to a press release from the Attorney General's office, the lawsuit alleges that federal regulators "used flawed science to over-restrict the Massachusetts fishing industry" and "ignored the devastating economic impact" of severe cuts in cod catch quotas aimed at ending overfishing.

Memorial Day has come and gone, marking the unofficial start of summer. Here's what experts say is in store for the season.

2010, 2011, and 2012 were the hottest three consecutive summers in over a century, and each year tied with two earlier years for third most named storms in a season. We may be poised to continue those streaks.

It's long been a mantra of the feminist movement that women can have it all - a happy family and a successful career. In reality, there are always tradeoffs.