News + Impact - MIT EAPS

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: 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

Rogier Braakman with the text

Rogier Braakman awarded Hypothesis Fund seed grant

August 28, 2024

Categories: Awards + Promotions, Community, Life + Environments

portrait of Noelle Selin

Selin to lead new MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy

August 05, 2024

Categories: Climate, Community, Faculty, 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, Life + Environments, Planets, Research

Study: Global deforestation leads to more mercury pollution

February 12, 2024

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

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 carbon-lite atmosphere could be a sign of water and life on other terrestrial planets, MIT study finds

December 28, 2023

Categories: Faculty, Life + Environments, Planets, 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

How forests can cut carbon, restore ecosystems, and create jobs

July 27, 2023

Categories: Climate, Health of the Planet, Life + Environments, Research

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

July 17, 2023

Categories: Faculty, Life + Environments, Research

The North Sea via satellite. The dark blue water has swirls of teal, and Germany peeks out from the bottom right.

Study: The ocean’s color is changing as a consequence of climate change

July 12, 2023

Categories: Alumni, Climate, Faculty, Health of the Planet, Life + Environments, Research

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

Greg Fournier stands in the woods, and there is a stream in background. There are fallen leaves and branches, and it is a cloudy day in early Spring.

Searching across deep time to understand “ecogenesis”

April 7, 2023

Categories: Faculty, Life + Environments, Profile