While the English were falling apart a little, with their civil war and their restoration and their succession problems, the Dutch were getting their act together. They were throwing off the yoke of the Spanish Empire, uniting their...

We often think of the ocean’s tide as a simple rise and fall, connected to the motion of the Moon. But on any given shore, the reality is much more complex and oceanic scientists have realized recently that there’s another, more...

In which John Green teaches you about the beginning of the so-called Age of Discovery. You've probably heard of Christopher Columbus, who "discovered" America in 1492, but what about Vasco da Gama? How about Zheng He? Columbus gets a bad...

Stemming from the days of bubonic plague in Medieval Europe, quarantines were originally used to prevent potentially plague-infested ships from disembarking at a port city. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel explain how the length of the...

In 2017, researchers off the Bulgarian coast discovered the oldest intact shipwreck ever found. This ancient Greek vessel was not only nearly 2,500 years old, but was just one of 65 shipwrecks found at the bottom of the Black Sea in...

Huge container ships relying on fossil fuels transport all kinds of goods across the ocean, creating a huge climate change impact. But there's a better way to power this transport using, of all things, water.

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo' is a grammatically correct sentence. How? Emma Bryce explains how this and other one-word sentences illustrate some lexical ambiguities that can turn ordinary words and...

Starting in 80 CE, residents of Rome and visitors from across the Roman Empire would fill the stands of the Colosseum to see gladiators duel, animals fight and chariots race around the arena. And for the grand finale, water poured into...

Ever wonder why something as heavy as a cruise ship could float above the water? Learn about displacement with Jessi and The Giant Squid, Squidstravaganza!

Today, nearly 30% of all global ship traffic passes through the Suez Canal, totaling over 20,000 ships in 2021. The site of the canal had been of interest to rulers as far back as the second millennium BCE, but plans to construct a...

Today we explore what obligations we hold with our personal beliefs. Hank explains epistemic responsibility and the issues it raises with everything from religious belief, to ship owning, to vaccinations.

This week we’re headed out to sea for some marine engineering. How do we design ships to handle aquatic environments? How do we deal with marine life and corrosion and all of the other problems that come with engineering in the ocean?...

2,300 years ago, the rulers of Alexandria set out to fulfill a very audacious goal: to collect all the knowledge in the world under one roof. In its prime, the Library of Alexandria housed an unprecedented number of scrolls and attracted...

In which John Green teaches you the history of the Indian Ocean Trade. John weaves a tale of swashbuckling adventure, replete with trade in books, ivory, and timber. Along the way, John manages to cover advances in seafaring technology,...

The thing about European History is that it tends to leak out of Europe. Europeans haven't been great at staying put in Europe. As human beings do, the people of Europe were very busy traveling around to trade, to spread religion, and in...

Over the last four episodes, we’ve examined some of the stories that make up the idea of a “revolution” in knowledge-making in Europe. But we can’t understand this idea fully, without unpacking another one—the so called Age of...

Peter Tyack of Woods Hole talks about a hidden wonder of the sea: underwater sound. Onstage at Mission Blue, he explains the amazing ways whales use sound and song to communicate across hundreds of miles of ocean.

Throughout the history of mankind, the subject of identity has sent poets to the blank page, philosophers to the agora and seekers to the oracles. These murky waters of abstract thinking are tricky to navigate, so it's probably fitting...

New ReviewWelcome back to the Fluctus Channel, as we explores how modern navies counter submarines through advanced antisubmarine warfare tactics, sonar systems, and destroyer operations. Fluctus is a website and YouTube channel dedicated to sea...

“Dark fleets” (also called the “shadow fleet” or ships that “go dark”) are commercial vessels that deliberately hide or obscure their identity, location, ownership, cargo, or voyage history to evade sanctions, export controls, or oversight.

Welcome back to the Fluctus Channel, as we explores the scale and intensity of international naval warfare exercises, focusing on the missions, live fire events, multinational cooperation, and complex training scenarios seen during...

Welcome back to the Fluctus Channel, as we step aboard America’s guided-missile destroyers and discover how the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer dominates the seas.



Fluctus is a website and YouTube channel dedicated to...

Welcome back to the Fluctus Channel, as we explore China’s massive Goupitan shiplift, one of the world’s tallest ship elevators, and see how advanced engineering keeps inland waterways open for trade.





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Welcome back to the Fluctus Channel, as we explore the vital role of U.S. Navy dry docks in maintaining and extending the life of warships and submarines.



Fluctus is a website and YouTube channel dedicated to sea...