News + Impact - MIT EAPS

Researchers taking samples from a small pool of water.

When Earth iced over, early life may have sheltered in meltwater ponds

June 19, 2025

Categories: Life + Environments, Research, Students + Postdocs

Three different rock core samples

3Q’s: Demystifying Earth’s Ancient Nitrogen Cycle

May 16, 2025

Categories: Landscapes + Planetary Interiors, Life + Environments, Research, Students + Postdocs

How do we know what the Earth’s climate was like millions of years ago?

March 21, 2025

Categories: Climate, Faculty

A close up shot of an asteroid sample suspended in a drop of water on a microscope slide.

Asteroid sample collected by NASA mission contains building blocks of life

February 24, 2025

Categories: Alumni, Planets, Research

Side-by-side headshots of Oliver Jagoutz and Gaia Stucky de Quay.

Oliver Jagoutz and Gaia Stucky de Quay appointed to named professorships

February 12, 2025

Categories: Awards + Promotions, Faculty

Headshots of Oliver Jagoutz and Shuhei Ono

Oliver Jagoutz named new director of ERL; Shuhei Ono to take over as chair of PGGG

January 6, 2025

Categories: Awards + Promotions, Community, Faculty

Cartoony illustration of a large green bean-shaped Prochlorococcus shedding bits of itself, as pink SAR11 happily sleep and eat.

An abundant phytoplankton feeds a global network of marine microbes

January 03, 2025

Categories: Life + Environments, Research

Lyle Nelson at a desert field site.

3 Questions: Meet Lyle Nelson, EAPS newest faculty member

October 25, 2024

Categories: Climate, Community, Faculty, Landscapes + Planetary Interiors, Life + Environments

Mars’ missing atmosphere could be hiding in plain sight

September 25, 2024

Categories: Faculty, Landscapes + Planetary Interiors, Planets, Research

Geologists discover rocks with the oldest evidence yet of Earth’s magnetic field

April 24, 2024

Categories: Faculty, Landscapes + Planetary Interiors, Planets, Research

Student Spotlight: Emma Bulllock on researching extreme environments

April 19, 2024

Categories: Health of the Planet, Life + Environments, Profile, Students + Postdocs

Fatima Husain stands in a lab with arm resting on table. The table has a complex machine with a cylindrical base and tubes and wires connected to the table and ceiling.

Unlocking history with geology and genetics

January 25, 2024

Categories: Life + Environments, Profile, Students + Postdocs

A mineral produced by plate tectonics has a global cooling effect, study finds

November 30, 2023

Categories: Climate, Landscapes + Planetary Interiors, Research

Climate Explained: Enhanced rock weathering

November 09, 2023

Categories: Climate, Faculty, Landscapes + Planetary Interiors, Natural Resources, Research

An Amazonian village with about 20 huts that form a large a ring around an empty, brown, circular area. Lots of trees are around the village.

Ancient Amazonians intentionally created fertile “dark earth”

September 20, 2023

Categories: Faculty, Landscapes + Planetary Interiors, Life + Environments, Research, Students + Postdocs

Greg Fournier on Curiosity Unbounded, episode 3: Decoding the tree of life

July 17, 2023

Categories: Faculty, Life + Environments, Research

Radar image of a lake taken from high above Titan's surface shows liquid areas as dark blue and land areas as dark yellow.

Studying rivers from worlds away

July 10, 2023

Categories: Faculty, Landscapes + Planetary Interiors, Planets, Research, Students + Postdocs

Illustration has a black, rocky background, a large river forks off. A large greenfin darter is overlayed on the large river. The 3 forks each have smaller greenfin darters, each with a unique colorful glow.

River erosion can shape fish evolution, study suggests

May 25, 2023

Categories: Faculty, Landscapes + Planetary Interiors, Life + Environments, Research, Students + Postdocs

3 cartoony green microbes ride a raft made of shell on a blue ocean. One microbe has a telescope to look ahead. A sign in the water says they are heading towards to the “Ocean.”

Like ancient mariners, ancestors of Prochlorococcus microbes rode out to sea on exoskeleton particles

May 11, 2023

Categories: Climate, Life + Environments, Research

Becca Mastrola sits on a rock formation and smiles at the camera.

Unlocking Age-Old Secrets Set in Stone

May 2, 2023

Categories: Landscapes + Planetary Interiors, Planets, Profile, Students + Postdocs