Latest Roman Stocker Stories
National Science Foundation New research shows that ocean turbulence directly affects the ability of microscopic marine organisms to recycle organic material back into the food web. Results of the study are published in this week's issue of the journal Science. Scientists John Taylor of Cambridge University and Roman Stocker at MIT found that there's a relationship between the natural movement of water in the ocean and the ability of marine bacteria to act as recyclers. "The...
Adding particles to liquids to make currents visible is a common practice in the study of fluid mechanics, one that was adopted and perfected by artist Paul Matisse in sculptures he calls Kalliroscopes. Matisse's glass-enclosed liquid sculptures contain an object whose movement through the liquid creates whorls that can be seen only because elongated particles trailing the object align with the direction of the current; light reflects off the particles, making the current visible to the...
Microorganisms display a behavior characteristic of larger animalsNew research indicates that the interactions of microscopic organisms around a particular organic material may alter the chemical properties of the ocean and ultimately influence global climate by affecting cloud formation in the atmosphere.Justin Seymour, a research fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, is the lead author of a paper published in the July 16 issue of Science that describes how a relative of the smelly...
Major impact envisioned for pharmaceutical, food, agriculture industriesScientists studying how marine bacteria move have discovered that a sharp variation in water current segregates right-handed bacteria from their left-handed brethren, impelling the microbes in opposite directions.This finding and the possibility of quickly and cheaply implementing the segregation of two-handed objects in the laboratory could have a big impact on industries like the pharmaceutical industry, for which the...
MIT researchers have created a microbial ecosystem smaller than a stick of gum that sheds new light on the plankton-eat-plankton world at the bottom of the aquatic food chain.The work, reported in the January print issue of American Naturalist, may lead to better predictions of marine microbes' global-scale influence on climate.Through photosynthesis and uptake of carbon compounds, diverse planktonic marine microorganisms "” too small to be seen with the naked eye "” help regulate carbon...
