A religion scholar will visit The Florida State University this week to discuss his work with corporate and government researchers in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to determine the biological, ecological, economic and cultural effects of the spill.

Michael Pasquier, an assistant professor of American religious history... More

With nearly $200,000 in funding from the National Science Foundation, researchers at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at The Florida State University are using incredibly precise analytical tools housed at the lab to analyze petroleum samples collected from the Gulf of Mexico. Results of those analyses will help determine... More

A Florida State University oceanography professor is questioning government estimates that the vast majority of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill is already gone from the Gulf or is being rapidly broken down by bacteria.

“I think the imprint of the BP release, the discharge, will be detectable in the Gulf of Mexico for... More

A giant, low-oxygen “dead zone” where no sea life can exist occurs each summer in the Gulf of Mexico. However, the added effects of this year’s Deepwater Horizon oil disaster raise new questions about just how much environmental degradation the Gulf can handle, Bloomberg News reports.

“You start adding these things up,... More

Five research projects related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and led by Florida State University faculty members have been selected for funding by the Florida Institute of Oceanography’s governing council.

The five were among a total of 27 research projects aimed at examining the vast impacts of the Gulf oil spill that... More

Oil is no longer spewing from the damaged Deepwater Horizon drilling site, but how the oil that is already spilled will continue to effect Gulf ecosystems is largely unknown. Ian MacDonald, a professor of oceanography at Florida State, shared his thoughts during an Aug. 1 interview on NPR.

“The question is: Will the Gulf of... More

“There’s a tremendous amount of outrage with the oil spill, and rightfully so. But where’s the outrage at the thousands and millions of little cuts we’ve made on a daily basis?”

— Felicia Coleman, director of Florida State’s Coastal and Marine Laboratory, quoted in More

A new Florida State University study is investigating how quickly the Deepwater Horizon oil carried into Gulf of Mexico beach sands is being degraded by the sands’ natural microbial communities, and whether native oil-eating bacteria that wash ashore with the crude are helping or hindering that process.

What oceanography... More

In some parts of the Florida Panhandle, coastal communities say they’re seeing 80 percent cancellation rates for vacation rentals because of oil and tar balls washing up the beaches from the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Discussing the summer resort season that wasn’t is Mark Bonn, the Robert H. Dedman Professor of Service... More

“It wouldn’t surprise me if there were 2,000 communities, from suburbs to cities.”

— Florida State University oceanography Professor Ian R. MacDonald, quoted in The New York Times on June 22, 2010, about the possible... More