Oceans

A robot skims along a ship's hull, using ultrasound to identify hollow spots where goods might be smuggled.

This Stealthy Robot Could Boost Security at Our Ports

MIT researchers have developed a craft to spot pockets of contraband inside ships' hulls

There are more than 400 species of mantis shrimp, including some with claws that can strike with the speed of a bullet and crack glass. But it’s the animal's vision, sensitive to polarized light, that is helping scientists build a compact camera that can see cancer.

A Mantis Shrimp Inspires a New Camera for Detecting Cancer

The mantis shrimp's eyes, which can see differences in polarized light, are informing researchers building a tiny, easy-to-use camera that can spot cancer

An endangered green sea turtle in Hawaii that has contracted fibropapillomatosis.

Pollution From Hawaii Is Giving Sea Turtles Gross, Deadly Tumors

Nitrogen runoff gets into the turtles' food and causes tumors on their faces, flippers and organs

A bobtail squid hides on the ocean floor.

Research Into How Squid Camouflage Leads to An Ultra-Sharp Display for Televisions and Smartphones

Researchers at Rice University have created pixels 40 times smaller than those found in today's LCD displays

New Marine Robots Could One Day Patrol the Oceans

How do you keep an eye on the oceans? With robots

A capture of the map showing how various countries' populations may be affected by sea level rise. For the full experience see the interactive infographic at the

As Many As 3 Million Americans Could Soon Be Threatened by Sea Level Rise

Across the world, 650 million people could be at risk

Sunrise over the Straits of Malacca.

The Waters Around Malaysia, Not Somalia, Are the World’s Worst for Pirates

More than 40 percent of pirate attacks over the last two decades took place in Southeast Asia

The vast unknown deep sea floor

Why We Must Explore the Sea

Robert Ballard, the famed explorer who discovered the wreck of the Titanic, ponders what else is on the ocean floor

None

Thousands of Strange Green Balls Appeared Overnight on a Beach in Australia

Scientists believe that the balls are actually extremely rare algae congregations called marimo

The "skylight" appears as a light pink splotch atop this leatherback sea turtle's head.

Leatherback Sea Turtles Can Measure Sunlight Through Their Skulls

The anatomical skylight allows the turtles to synch up with the seasons

The oaten pipes hydroid (Tubularia indivisa) is a small colonial predator native to the North Atlantic.

College Students Studied These Mail-Order Sea Creatures in the Late 1800s

Restored glass models of marine invertebrates, made by artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, are on display at the Harvard Museum of Natural History

Introducing Dendrogramma, a deep sea creature that resembles a mushroom but has more affinity to a jellyfish.

Deep-Sea Mushroom Creatures Found Off Australia

Neither fungi nor fish, these oddball organisms collected in 1986 may represent an early branch on the tree of life

Pink Sands Beach, Harbour Island, The Bahamas

The World's Most Colorful Beaches

From green sand to glass, here are some of the most eye-popping beaches around the world

A dense flock of starlings in the sky above Rome.

How Just One Bird Can Urge an Entire Flock to Change Directions

The equations that describe these movements are equivalent to those that govern waves

Switching testing scenarios used to take 20 minutes. Rolling waters can now be calmed in just 30 seconds.

The Navy Tests Its Ships in This Indoor Ocean

New technology can precisely recreate eight open-water conditions

What Are the Biggest Waves in Recorded History?

How do waves even get this big?

Seawater contains hundreds of viruses, revealed with dye in the flask on the right. Most are harmless, but some microbes living under the sea and amid the sand aren't.

Eight Diseases To Watch Out For At the Beach

Forget sharks: These potentially deadly pathogens and parasites can lurk in sand and sea

A blue shark near the Azores islands.

Bizarre Blue Shark Nursery Found in the North Atlantic

Rather than emerging in protected coves, baby blue sharks spend their first years in a big patch of open ocean

Seagrass Meadows Are Disappearing at the Same Rate as Rainforests

These underwater habitats are important for several species of sea life

Two-headed smooth-hound (Mustelus)

A Two-Headed Shark and Other X-Rayed Beauties at the Smithsonian

Sandra Raredon's x-rays of fish specimens are critical records for scientists studying various species. And, as works of art, they are breathtaking

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