Written in the Ocean

What if the most important things happening in the ocean are the ones we cannot see? Half of every breath you take comes from the ocean. But what happens inside that system — at a microscopic level — is almost entirely invisible to us. This episode takes us to three places from everyday life: a kitchen and a concert hall. Each one is a window into a different invisible process happening right now...

What happens to the CO₂ we release into the atmosphere every day, from our cars, our factories, and even from wars? A significant part of it ends up in the ocean. But how does the ocean absorb it, store it, and process it? And how long can it keep doing that? In this episode, we speak with two scientists at MARUM, the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, who are tr...

Welcome to Episode 3: Planet Glacier What do we really know about the ice that is disappearing from our planet? We think we understand glaciers. We have seen the images: ice collapsing into the sea, polar bears stranded on shrinking platforms, ecosystems disappearing. The story seems simple. It is not. In this episode, Professor Ben Marzeion: climate scientist at the University of Bremen and assoc...

What if there is fresh water hidden beneath the ocean floor? In September 2025, scientists confirmed for the first time the existence of vast reserves of fresh water beneath the seafloor off the coast of New England, in the United States. The water, collected during Expedition 501 of the International Ocean Discovery Program, turned out to be far fresher than anyone expected — reaching levels clos...

What if the answer to the climate crisis has been buried at the bottom of the sea for millions of years? At MARUM, the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, there is a place that holds more than 200 kilometers of material drilled from the ocean floor. More than 350,000 core pieces. Collected over 55 years of scientific expeditions across the Atlantic, the Arctic, th...