Departments Marine Sicence Center

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

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

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

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

Would it have been possible to predict the New Zealand volcano eruption?

The deadly eruption off the country’s North Island Monday may have been too small to appear in the data beforehand, according to Daniel Douglass, a geologist at Northeastern.

by Molly Callahan December 9, 2019

A fisherman sorts cod and haddock aboard a trawler off the coast of New Hampshire on April 23, 2016. AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty

The Gulf of Maine cod fishery is in rough shape. The fishermen aren’t doing much better.

Between 2011 and 2015, the amount of cod that New England fishermen were allowed to catch dropped more than 95 percent. Researchers from Northeastern have been working with fishing communities to understand how they were affected, and to enable regulators to manage for people, not just fish.

by Laura Castañón October 28, 2019

Steven Scyphers, assistant professor of marine and environmental sciences, and student Kiera O'Donnell, at the Marine Science Center in Nahant, Massachusetts. Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University

Can nature reduce the damage caused by hurricanes?

When we think of the first line of defense against hurricanes, seawalls might come to mind before all else. Steven Scyphers, an assistant professor of marine and environmental sciences at Northeastern, is studying whether marshlands can help protect communities from the havoc wreaked by intense storms.

by Kerry Benson - contributor October 8, 2019