Living Lab

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:

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

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.

Falmouth voters went to the polls in force yesterday, and delivered a mandate: do NOT take down the wind turbines.

A whopping 41% of registered voters turned out for town elections. And the vast majority voted not to appropriate funds for the removal of Wind-1 and Wind-2, the two town-owned wind turbines at the center of a controversy that pits clean energy advocates against neighbors who say their health is impacted by the turbines. The margin on Question 2 was 2:1, with 6,001 votes against the measure and 2,940 voting for it.

"Green" has become synonymous with "good" in many circles. Not inside the Arctic circle.

Two recent studies - one projecting into the future, and one reconstructing the ancient past - both lead to the same conclusion: The Arctic of the near future will be warmer, wetter, and dramatically greener, with more trees and less snow and ice.