Wedged between two windy weeks in April, calm weather descended upon Bermuda just as 11 graduate and PhD-bound students arrived at BIOS, primed to head out to sea for a taste of hands-on oceanography under the guidance of Institute scientists, technicians and support personnel.

For nearly 40 years, the U.K. Associates of BIOS have provided scholarships to students enrolled in colleges and universities throughout the U.K. who are interested in furthering their studies in the marine and atmospheric sciences. In the last four years alone, more than 40 students have participated in internships at BIOS or attended one of the Institute’s three-week summer courses with support from the U.K. Associates of BIOS.

Molecular biologist Julius Barsi hosted three student interns from Bermuda, Canada, and the Netherlands this summer for an introduction to systems biology. Their research, on purple sea urchin embryos, focused on differential gene expression analysis, the mechanism by which cells become specialized to conduct a specific “job” for the organism.

Naomi Villiot knew the path to research abroad during a global health crisis wouldn’t be easy or simple. However, “after a great deal of paperwork, navigating canceled flights, virus testing, and isolation for days upon arrival in Bermuda in September, I have been able to continue with my research,” said Villiot, who hails from a small island in France and studies at a British university.

Nestled between the 75 vertical miles (120 kilometers) of Earth’s atmosphere and the deepest point of the ocean is a strip of air called the planetary boundary layer. This region, located in the lower troposphere (the lowest portion of the atmosphere, up to six miles, or 10 kilometers, in altitude), is where friction from the earth’s surface influences temperature, moisture, and wind.

New research is shedding light on the impact of oxybenzone, a chemical filter found in many sunscreens, on Bermuda’s coral reefs. With funding from the Bermuda Government Department of Nature and Environmental Resources and NASA, a team of researchers at BIOS, led by senior scientist and coral reef ecologist Eric Hochberg, conducted a study to characterize the presence of oxybenzone, or benzophenone-3, in Bermuda’s nearshore waters, as well as the impacts on corals from long-term, low-dose exposure to the chemical.

For 20 days in July 2019, BIOS welcomed 18 students on campus to learn first-hand about the natural and anthropogenic factors in play to sustain life on Bermuda’s famed coral reefs. Course attendees travelled from Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Italy, Mexico, Slovenia, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S., to further their knowledge of the coral, fish, and algae that form reef ecosystems.