Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences [BIOS] microbiologist and doctoral candidate Rachel Parsons Biggs has been seconded to Helix Bermuda where she is one of the many people helping the island in the fight against Covid-19.
Research Week Opens the World of Oceanography for C-CoMP Students
June 20, 2023
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.
Spending a Short Semester Studying Abroad
January 25, 2023
Paul Gensbigler, 20, is no stranger to the water, having spent the past two years studying the health of the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States. A junior majoring in molecular and cellular biology at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Maryland, Gensbigler is researching the microbes that help control nutrient levels in the Bay. However, this January he traded the brackish waters of the northern Chesapeake for the salty waters of the northern Atlantic in a “Hopkins Intersession Abroad” program.
BIOS-SCOPE Scientists Reflect on the Project’s Success – and Look Ahead to its Future
August 31, 2023
Now in its eighth year, BIOS-SCOPE is a multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary initiative that annually gathers scientists from Bermuda, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States to explore fundamental questions about the ocean’s biogeochemical cycles and how diverse communities of marine microbes influence the carbon cycle and other fundamental processes and, ultimately, the planet’s ability to sustain life. An overarching goal of the project is to form and foster collaborations across scientific disciplines, an aspect that enables the team to advance their understanding of the interactions of organisms and compounds at various scales, across both time and ocean depths. Along the way, the principals and collaborators of BIOS-SCOPE (Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences – Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology) have formed professional bonds and friendships that add value to the work. On the eve of the program’s eleventh cruise from ASU BIOS – with 18 scientists and two marine science technicians on board, Currents spoke with BIOS-SCOPE Co-Principal Investigators and adjunct faculty Craig Carlson (University of California, Santa Barbara) and Stephen Giovannoni (Oregon State University) and Investigator Rachel Parsons (ASU BIOS Microbial Ecology Laboratory) about the project’s past, present and future.
BIOS’s Ocean Academy Opens Doors of Opportunity
November 30, 2022
Through the generous support of a philanthropic sponsor, two BIOS Bermuda Program alumni are continuing to develop valuable scientific laboratory techniques and research skills outside of the Institute’s annual summer internship program. Jihad Muhammad, 22, and Marcus Rewan, 21, are working as part-time research interns through the BIOS Curriculum Enrichment Program.
BIOS Scientists Support BUEI Climate Camp
September 02, 2022
Over two days in mid-August, a team of BIOS scientists, along with the Institute’s science writer, supported the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute’s (BUEI’s) inaugural “Earth Reporters: Climate Change” summer camp. Designed for students aged 11 to 14, the week-long camp aimed to provide participants with the skills required to investigate environmental issues, then report on their findings using a variety of journalistic techniques, including photography, storytelling, and videography.
A Rising Star Through BIOS’s Ocean Academy
September 30, 2022
Not many people can say their selection of a university degree program was largely influenced by electrical wire and pieces of PVC pipe. But for An Mei Daniels, 18, a second-year student in the University of Exeter’s (U.K.) Integrated Masters in Natural Sciences program, it’s true. Her passion for science was discovered by way of a robotics club that she joined during her first year at Warwick Academy, a Bermuda-based secondary school.
‘An Amazing Place to Learn and Grow’
July 05, 2022
The Bermuda Program, part of BIOS’s Ocean Academy suite of local education programs, has been providing internship opportunities to Bermudian students, aged 18 and older, since 1976. In that time, more than 250 summer internship placements have been provided to young Bermudians. The program pairs students with BIOS faculty and scientific staff, who serve as mentors for participants while they conduct research projects in the fields of marine and atmospheric science.
A Big Commotion about Bermuda’s Coccolithophores
July 30, 2022
It’s rare that we hear about a new species discovered in Bermuda’s waters. Even rarer to hear about dozens of new species. And rarer still when these species play a key role in the global carbon cycle. A team of researchers led by Josué G. Millán, PhD candidate at Indiana State University and including BIOS zooplankton ecologist Leocadio Blanco-Bercial, have discovered 40 new morphospecies, and likely one new genus, of undescribed coccolithophores—a type of phytoplankton.
A Sign of Summer: Students on Campus
May 25, 2022
Nicole Coots, a PhD student in her third year of evolutionary biology research at Arizona State University, is smitten by radiolarians, drifting plankton known for their complex, beautifully-sculpted miniature skeletons they make from minerals in ocean water. Like snowflakes, they seem to exist in almost unlimited variety. They are also key members of the food web throughout the surface waters of the global ocean, providing nutrition for other sea life.