News + Impact - MIT EAPS

Artist’s illustration of early Earth with fire, lava, volcanos, and meteors.

Geologists discover the first evidence of 4.5-billion-year-old “proto Earth”

October 14, 2025

Categories: Faculty + Senior Researchers, Landscapes + Planetary Interiors, Research

A variety of sea sponges, some tall and cylindrical, some wide and flat, and some bowl-shaped.

The first animals on Earth may have been sea sponges, study suggests

September 29, 2025

Categories: Life + Environments, Research, Students + Postdocs

A map of the Pacific Ocean showing cruise tracks overlaying a temperature gradient of the ocean.

Warming oceans may threaten key oxygen-producing microbe

September 9, 2025

Categories: Climate, Faculty + Senior Researchers, Life + Environments, Research

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 + Senior Researchers

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 + Senior Researchers

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 + Senior Researchers

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 3, 2025

Categories: Faculty + Senior Researchers, 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 + Senior Researchers, Landscapes + Planetary Interiors, Life + Environments

Mars’ missing atmosphere could be hiding in plain sight

September 25, 2024

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

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

April 24, 2024

Categories: Faculty + Senior Researchers, 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 9, 2023

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