News + Impact - MIT EAPS

The surface of Venus, with cloudy atmosphere. In two insets are stringy, colorful peptides.

Study: Peptides can form well-defined structures in harsh, Venus-like conditions

September 1, 2026

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

Gage Coon portrait, seated, with two yellow chairs in foreground.

Gage Coon: An Earth scientist exploring the power of microbes

August 28, 2026

Categories: Climate, Life + Environments, Natural Resources, Profile, Students + Postdocs

A photo of Sheila Baber in front of cherry blossoms in Washington, DC

Sheila Baber ’21 Combines Love of Farming, Passion for Space

August 20, 2026

Categories: Alumni, Life + Environments, Natural Resources, Profile

Exploring the Ediacaran-Cambrian Transition with Lyle Nelson and the GSA

August 13, 2026

Categories: Faculty + Senior Researchers, In the Media, Life + Environments

A portrait of Raymond Pierrehumbert next to an image of the atmosphere of Jupiter.

Q&A with Professor of the Practice Raymond Pierrehumbert: The geology of planetary atmospheres

June 29, 2026

Categories: Faculty + Senior Researchers, Life + Environments, Planets

Fossil wall of various species.

What happens when environmental change outpaces life’s ability to adapt?

June 24, 2026

Categories: Faculty + Senior Researchers, Health of the Planet, Life + Environments, Research

A rendering of a planetary atmosphere, showing a jet stream in shades of maroon.

New algorithm helps redefine our understanding of jet streams

May 04, 2026

Categories: Life + Environments, Planets, Research, Students + Postdocs

Oceans and climate: Raffaele Ferrari on Climate Reveal podcast

April 20, 2026

Categories: Climate, Faculty + Senior Researchers, In the Media, Life + Environments

A cartoon cereal box is called “Phyt-O’s: the phytoplankton of the future” and shows a happy plankton with a bowl of plankton. Bubbles say “Carbs!” and “Protein?!”

Climate change may produce “fast-food” phytoplankton

March 31, 2026

Categories: Life + Environments, Research, Students + Postdocs

New study reveals hidden “chemical currency” fueling the ocean’s carbon cycle

March 18, 2026

Categories: Life + Environments, Research

Ocean flood with floating dust.

Understanding how “marine snow” acts as a carbon sink

March 9, 2026

Categories: Faculty + Senior Researchers, Life + Environments, Research, Students + Postdocs

Lyle Nelson named Kerr-McGee Career Development Professor

February 17, 2026

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

How the search for extraterrestrial life helps sustainability on Earth

February 11, 2026

Categories: Life + Environments, Planets, Research, Students + Postdocs

A minimalist evolutionary tree in front of stylized cyanobacteria.

Some early life forms may have breathed oxygen well before it filled the atmosphere

February 06, 2026

Categories: Life + Environments, Research, Students + Postdocs

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

Stephanie Dutkiewicz in front of computer display

Research Insight: the role of marine microbial diversity and dynamics in climate models

September 1, 2025

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

Three colorful watery planets in space.

Planets without water could still produce certain liquids, a new study finds

August 11, 2025

Categories: Life + Environments, Planets, Research

Satellite view of the Atlantic Ocean and neighboring continents with colored swirls superimposed over the ocean indicating distribution of Synechococcus phytoplankton.

NASA StoryMap: MIT Darwin Project ecosystem model explores biogeography of microbial environments

July 2, 2025

Categories: In the Media, 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