A new study shows that “hotspots” of nutrients surrounding phytoplankton — which are tiny marine algae producing approximately half of the oxygen we breathe every day — play an outsized role in the release of a gas involved in cloud formation and climate regulation. The new research quantifies the way specific marine bacteria process a […] More
Climate change is a very personal issue to Maria Zuber, MIT’s vice president for research. A native of eastern Pennsylvania, she watched her grandfathers, both coal miners, battle black-lung disease. “The burning of anthracite coal drove my community and was a central part of my childhood,” says Zuber. “Yet it’s been known since the 1800s […] More
If humanity can take the right lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic, we will be better equipped to galvanize action on climate change, MIT President L. Rafael Reif writes in an op-ed published today in The Boston Globe. Marking the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the article notes that despite decades of research and increasingly dire […] More
The Covid-19 pandemic could be a dry run for future impacts of climate change, with challenging and unprecedented situations requiring rapid and aggressive responses worldwide. A proactive approach to climate change aimed at minimizing such impacts will inevitably involve significant cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and investment in more resilient infrastructure. Although current global […] More
On a Tuesday evening earlier this semester, before MIT began to de-densify its campus in response to the emergence of Covid-19, 10 students stood in three small circles and took turns somberly counting to 20. They started calm and low with the number one, then gradually added volume and heartfelt pauses as the counting progressed. […] More
“I’ll never forget the moment when I first saw new Cassini data come down from Titan’s surface,” says Samuel Birch. “I was in awe at witnessing this brand new, never-seen-before bit of our solar system.” Birch explores and models the evolution of the surfaces of planets, moons, and small bodies in the outer solar system, […] More
As the largest ecosystem on the planet, the ocean provides incredible resources and benefits to humanity — including contributing 2.5 percent of global GDP and 1.5 percent of global employment, as well as regulating our climate, providing clean energy, and producing much of the oxygen we breathe. But exploitation and human pressures — like pollution, […] More
There’s a lot the average person doesn’t know about concrete. For example, it’s porous; it’s the world’s most-used material after water; and, perhaps most fundamentally, it’s not cement. Though many use cement and concrete interchangeably, they actually refer to two different — but related — materials: Concrete is a composite made from several materials, one […] More
