News + Impact - MIT EAPS

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

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 6, 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

A microscopic image of SAR11, a type of pelagibacterales, which look like worms.

New Study Illuminates Invisible Architects of the Ocean’s Carbon Cycle

May 22, 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

Swimming tuna.

Deep-dive dinners are the norm for tuna and swordfish, MIT oceanographers find

April 1, 2025

Categories: Life + Environments, Research, Students + Postdocs

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

Rogier Braakman with the text

Rogier Braakman awarded Hypothesis Fund seed grant

August 28, 2024

Categories: Awards + Promotions, Community, Faculty + Senior Researchers, Life + Environments

portrait of Noelle Selin

Selin to lead new MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy

August 5, 2024

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

Black spheres with the letter “C” on them, representing carbon molecules, float out of the water.

Study: Weaker ocean circulation could enhance CO2 buildup in the atmosphere

July 8, 2024

Categories: Climate, Life + Environments, Research

Student Spotlight: Emma Bulllock on researching extreme environments

April 19, 2024

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

Venus in space with multi-colored amino acid molecules in its atmosphere.

Study: Life’s building blocks are surprisingly stable in Venus-like conditions

March 20, 2024

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

Study: Global deforestation leads to more mercury pollution

February 12, 2024

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