COS News

Undergraduate researchers are an integral part of the Marine and Environmental Sciences department and significant contributors to our labs’ scientific advancement. We caught up with undergraduate student Mark Teh to chat about his exciting research endeavors both within the MES department and with external partners.   Q: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself, […]

Grace Arents, a fourth-year environmental and sustainability sciences student, had never had a glass of wine before when she saw a posting for a co-op at a winery on NUWorks. Still, her interest was piqued and she applied to spend a semester learning enology — the process of making wine — in Napa Valley. Before […]

In the world of termites studied by Northeastern professor Rebeca Rosengaus, worker termites spend their few short months on Earth cleaning and feeding their enormous long-lived queen mother and tending to her eggs and their young siblings. Since termite workers and queens both possess a network of genes called the Queen Central Module, it has […]

Two unexploded ordnance were fished out of the Charles River in Needham, Massachusetts, this week. A sweep of the river by the state police bomb squad and a marine dive team didn’t turn up any more munitions. Beyond the obvious safety risks, the old weapons and ammunition left underwater also present environmental risks, a Northeastern […]

Students from a dozen area schools measured oysters, dissected squid and learned why plastic is called “ocean smog” during the annual High School Marine Science Symposium at Curry Student Center on Northeastern’s Boston campus. The 250 students got a chance to talk with fledgling and experienced scientists during the event, which was sponsored by Northeastern […]

A new offering for the spring 2024 semester, PSYC-4660 is a seminar in cognition, a subset of psychology that covers how people encode, represent and process information from the environment in the brain, according to Coley, a psychology professor with a dual appointment in environmental science. Humans & Nature zeros in on how those things […]

Dr. Bowen's work in this collaborative project focuses on using tools from molecular biology to understand how the diverse metabolisms of microbes affect the ecosystem services provided by marshes.

The San Joaquin Valley of California, despite supplying a significant percentage of the country’s food, is nevertheless a dry, arid place. Fresno, at the heart of the valley, receives just over 10 inches of rain a year on average, according to the National Weather Service, and sometimes as little as 3. And yet, until the […]

A Northeastern marine scientist has discovered a new species of tiny mollusk that lives in an ancient, submerged cypress grove called the Alabama Undersea Forest. Dan Distel, research professor at Northeastern’s Marine Science Center, says the bivalve written up in the journal Deep Sea Research represents a new genus and species of mussel and offers […]

What is believed to be a live newborn great white shark has been spotted on camera for the first time ever, potentially providing marine biologists with the best look yet at where the apex predator may give birth. Dan Distel, Northeastern professor of marine and environmental sciences, says the discovery could play a role in […]

There are very few animals as important to our world as honeybees. There is, of course, the delicious honey they produce, but they are also essential in maintaining food security and the biodiversity that is threatened by climate change and fast-becoming our strongest natural defense against it.

The signs started appearing in early November, and people waited anxiously as earthquakes and ground swells indicated a volcanic eruption near Grindavik, Iceland, was imminent.