Departments Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences

Unlike humans, shipworms have no problem with bacteria getting in their cells. Why?

There’s a fine line between helpful bacteria and harmful bacteria, says Dan Distel, who directs the Ocean Genome Legacy Center. Studying the helpful kind in shipworms may help researchers understand dangerous infections in humans.

by Laura Castañón August 10, 2020

Janet Cheung will study political science and environmental studies at Northeastern starting in the fall 2020 semester. She wants to use her degrees to influence climate change policy. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

From penguins to plastic forks, she’s tackling sustainability

As a young teenager, Janet Cheung helped make Northeastern’s finance office run a bit more sustainably. Now an incoming freshman at the university, Cheung will use her passion to study the environment in earnest.

by Kaitlyn Budion August 4, 2020

The underwater research station will allow scientists and engineers to live, work, and conduct long-term experiments under the sea. Rendering by Yves Béhar, courtesy of Fabien Cousteau Ocean Learning Center.

They’re planning to build a new space station… at the bottom of the ocean

The underwater research center is the brainchild of Fabian Cousteau, a renowned aquanaut and grandson of Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Northeastern is helping to make it a reality.

by Laura Castañón July 22, 2020

Volunteers work at My Brother’s Table, the largest soup kitchen on Boston’s North Shore, to provide meals for takeout and delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University

This soup kitchen needed help. The Marine Science Center faculty delivered.

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced My Brother’s Table, the largest soup kitchen on Massachusetts’ North Shore, to change how it serves guests, the community at Northeastern’s Marine Science Center took note, and stepped up.

by Kaitlyn Budion June 1, 2020

Long, thin mollusks known as shipworms are famed (and feared) for their ability to eat wood. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

The bacteria in the clam that sank a thousand ships

Shipworms are long, thin mollusks famed (and feared) for their ability to eat wood. They rely on bacterial partners to break the wood down into nutrients they can use. Studying these bacteria could reveal more efficient ways to use the wood and plant waste generated on land, says marine biologist Dan Distel.

by Laura Castañón May 19, 2020

Andrea Unzueta-Martinez studied Sydney rock oyster larvae at the Port Stephens Fisheries Institute, located 100 miles northeast of Sydney, Australia. Photo by Rachel Kara for Northeastern University

A 10,000-mile journey for microbes

MELBOURNE, Australia—Andrea Unzueta-Martinez, a doctoral candidate at Northeastern’s Marine Science Center, came to the United States to be a dancer, but chose science instead. She spent three months at the Port Stephens Fisheries Institute in Australia raising oyster larvae.

by Andrew Fenton - contributor April 21, 2020

Faculty Expert

Samuel Scarpino

Assistant Professor, and Director of Emerging Epidemics Lab

Amanda Dwyer, a graduate of Northeastern's doctoral program in marine and environmental sciences, is joining the Marine Debris Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University

Billions of tons of plastic are choking the ocean. She’s here to help clean it up.

Northeastern graduate Amanda Dwyer did her doctoral research on how corals change their behavior to survive changing conditions in the oceans. Her next task is help reduce the impact of billions of tons of plastic in the world’s oceans.

by Roberto Molar Candanosa January 23, 2020

Divers from the Three Seas program explore a rocky reef in Coiba National Park, Panama. Photo by Tim Briggs for Northeastern University

A close-up look at the mysterious plague sweeping through Caribbean reefs

BOCAS DEL TORO, Panama—Northeastern students are surveying a coral reef off the coast of Panama for signs of stony coral tissue loss disease, which threatens twenty species that comprise the heart of the Caribbean’s coral reefs.

by Tim Briggs - contributor January 14, 2020

The secret to better eyesight? Just add oxygen (and millions of years of evolution).

A study published by an international collaboration of researchers, including Northeastern professor H. William Detrich, recently revealed how a steady supply of oxygen helped vertebrates evolve better vision.

by Laura Castañón December 18, 2019