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Oceans

In Focus

Oceans

While more than 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by its oceans, nearly 80% of that remains unexplored. Harvard experts are investigating the mysteries of the deep, diving into the impact of climate change, and searching for answers only found beneath our ocean’s waters.

Under the sea

Harvard students and faculty are using the latest technology to study the ocean’s largest, smallest, and most unique creatures.


An octopus' tentacles

Creatures of the deep

Why did you love ‘My Octopus Teacher’?

Scholars reflect on the somewhat surprising appeal of the popular award-winning documentary.

Read more about the documentary

Sperm whales swim near the ocean's surface

Creatures of the deep

Understanding the whales

Scientists who met at the Radcliffe Institute are exploring how whales communicate and if they have language

Read more from the Harvard Gazette

Fossils of prehistoric fish

Prehistoric

Walking underwater

Researchers have found that some deep sea creatures use the same motor neurons and genes that help humans and other land vertebrates walk. 

Read more from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

An illustration of a new dinosaur believed to live in water

Prehistoric

Water beast

A recent paper argues the Spinosaurus was an aquatic dinosaur and powered by a predatory tail.

Read more from the Harvard Gazette

A view of fish silhouettes from the ocean floor looking upward

Advances in technology

Exploring 3,000 meters under the sea

Life is better under the sea. Take it from a group of Harvard undergraduates who were among the first to glimpse life on the ocean floor 10 miles off the coast of California.

Read more from the Harvard Gazette

Advances in technology

How do mantis shrimp produce deadly, ultra-fast movements?

New research answers long-standing biological questions and paves the way for small but mighty robots.

Read more from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Innovation in exploration

 

A multidisciplinary group of engineers, marine biologists, and roboticists have developed a sampling device that is soft, flexible, and customizable, allowing scientists to gently grab different types of organisms from the sea without damaging them.

Read more from the Wyss Institute

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