SeaOrbiter Surprisingly, we know little about Earth’s oceans despite covering more than 70% of our planet’s surface. With more than 95% of the world’s underwater realm unexplored, scientists know more about the surface of the Moon and Mars than the bottom of the ocean. Due to intense pressures and poor visibility, the deep ocean is an extremely […]

Harvesting the blood of horseshoe crabs. The marvelous thing about horseshoe crab blood besides the baby blue color, is a chemical found only in the amoebocytes of its blood cells that can detect mere traces of bacterial presence and trap them in inescapable clots.  

Dolphins are believed to be one of the most intelligent animal species on the planet. Scientists have developed a working translator that can take dolphin sounds and turn them into spoken English. The translator called CHAT (Cetacean Hearing and Telemeintry), takes the whistling sounds that dolphins make to communicate, and matches them to a known database of meanings. […]

When a shark comes roughly within .6 mile to shore a transmitter triggers an alert to send a tweet. Western Australia (WA) scientists have equipped at least 320 sharks with transmitters that update a Twitter feed when the shark nears shore, meaning that technology is one step closer to finally defeating sharks.    

Dolphins have individual signature whistles. Humans use particular vocal labels for objects and for people. These are called words, and names. There are many animals that use sounds to convey information such as a wolf’s howl.  Some creatures, such as parrots and dolphins, can learn specific vocal labels. And wild dolphins are known to have […]

An information war has erupted around the world. Around the world an information war has erupted. The lines for battle have been drawn between governments that regard the free flow of information, and the ability to access it, as a matter of fundamental human rights, and those that regard official control of information as a […]

Dolphins that use marine sponges to forage for food have been found to socialize in cliques. In the first definitive example of subculture in animals, Australian bottlenose dolphins that use marine sponges to forage for food have been found to socialize in cliques.  

Dolphin behavior is still largely an enigma to humans. Research from the University of Southampton, which examines how dolphins might process their sonar signals, could provide a new system for human-made sonar to detect targets, such as sea mines, in bubbly water.

Coral reef The Florida Keys are a magnet for tourists.  But the kaleidoscope of life in the coral reefs under the turquoise waters isn’t just a pretty view.  The same chemistry that helps corals and sponges survive is also helping people fight cancer.

A hermit crab uses an anemone as a shell. A strange and rare hybrid site in the deep sea where two extreme seafloor environments exist side by side has been discovered by scientists.  They are home to a parade of weird hybrid creatures seemingly adapted to the hardships posed by both intense environments.