MIT EAPS: News

EAPS department members are world-renowned experts in their fields. Not only do our professors and researchers comment on the news, they make the news. Read about their latest findings and make plans to attend one of our informative EAPS events.

Featured Stories

Dust in the Clouds

A new study by atmospheric chemist Dan Cziczo and collaborators finds cirrus clouds form around mineral dust and metallic particles

Shaking up EAPS

Read about how Professors Oral Buyukozturk (CEE), Nafi Toksoz (EAPS) and Mehmet Celebi of the U.S. Geological Survey, fitted the Green Building with a seismic monitoring system and what they found out about the tallest building in Cambridge.

Moon rocks offer new view of lunar dynamo

Process that generated magnetism lasted 160 million years longer than previously thought - Clément Suavet, Ben Weiss and Tim Grove in PNAS

Cleaner energy, warmer climate?

Postdoc Willow Hallgren and co-workers have been exploring how changes in land use associated with increased biofuel production might impact climate, potentially making some regions even warmer.

New Faculty

EAPS is delighted to announce that Kristin Bergmann will be joining EAPS as an Assistant Professor in July 2015.

Spring 2013 EAPS Author Night

Featured author Cecil & Ida Green Professor of Atmospheric Science at M.I.T. Kerry Emanuel, presented his book "What We Know About Climate Change" Friday.

Exoplanet Habitability

In this week's issue of the journal Science, Sara Seager reviews just what makes an exoplanet a potential harborer of life

Pace of climate zone shifts quickens as climate warms

According to a new study co-authored by Susan Solomon, as the planet warms, not only do Earth's climate zones keep shifting, they actually shift at an accelerating pace, giving species inhabiting each zone less time to adapt.

Finding a Gecko in the Crowd

Principal Research Scientist Sai Ravela on how a combination of crowdsourcing and computer vision could identify individuals within endangered populations.

Faculty Award

EAPS congratulations to Samuel A. Bowring, the Robert R. Shrock Professor of Geology, among 9 from MIT elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Atmospheric Chemistry @ MIT

In a project led by Colette Heald, MIT's atmospheric chemists have launched a new cross-campus website. Immerse yourself in this new resource towards a better understanding of atmospheric composition and all its impacts.

The Secret Lives of Researchers - Chasing Salt

MIT-WHOI Joint Program grad student, physical oceanographer Alec Bogdanoff on, among other research secrets, a new use for bungee cords.

Green Building

Photographs of our several distinct nighttime incarnations of the past week.

Darwin Goes Bicoastal

At San Francisco's new Exploratorium Museum, the Darwin Project-based interactive plankton table is sure to be a crowd pleaser.

Pulitzer for EAPS Alumna Song

Alumna Lisa Song, MIT BS (EAPS) and MS (Science Writing), wins a shared Pulitzer prize in national reporting for her involvement in a series of stories for the blog InsideClimate News on the poor regulation of oil pipelines.

The Core of the Moon

Associate Professor of Planetary Sciences Ben Weiss is featured speaker at the William Barton Rogers Society event in New York City.

Islands in the Rain

Taylor Perron's Surface Processes Group on using volcanic islands to measure how rainfall sets the pace of landscape formation.

NASA selects MIT-led TESS project for 2017 mission

$200 million project will launch telescopes to perform full-sky search for transiting exoplanets. “The selection of TESS has just accelerated our chances of finding life on another planet within the next decade,” team member EAPS' Sara Seager says.

A ‘green’ Sahara was far less dusty than today

The Sahara’s “green” era, known as the African Humid Period, likely lasted from 11,000 to 5,000 years ago, and is thought to have ended abruptly, with the region drying back into desert within a span of one to two centuries. Now Dave McGee and collaborators report finding that this abrupt climate change occurred nearly simultaneously across North Africa.

Another Earth Called a Certainty

CNN Light Years sits down with exoplanet pioneer Sara Seager

Opinion: Climate change as an intergenerational problem

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Carl Wunsch and co-authors argue that climate science requires a long-term commitment.

Irreversible Does Not Mean Unavoidable

Susan Solomon and Damon Matthews of Concordia University make the case that policymakers, the media, and to some extent the public have misunderstood the implications of two key concepts of climate change — the “irreversibility” of climate change, and the amount of global warming already in the pipeline due to historical greenhouse gas emissions.

Meteor sighting unusual, but space debris is common

Rick Binzel among several scientists explaining that the meteor that blazed across the East Coast sky Friday night was not at all unusual.

Should scientists be held accountable if their predictions are wrong?

If you missed the recent Aquila Earthquake event at the MIT Museum, it's on techTV.

Meet the New Assistant to the Department Head

A warm EAPS welcome for new senior administrative assistant Allison Provaire who replaces Morgan Banea as assistant to Department Head Rob van der Hilst.

A Fiery Conclusion

Some 200 million years ago, an increase in atmospheric CO2 caused acidification of the oceans and global warming that killed off 76 percent of marine and terrestrial species on Earth.

Demystifying the Cretaceous Hothouse

For any climate scientist who enjoys stretching the limits of current theory by imagining ancient worlds, the ever warm polar regions of the mid-Cretaceous have long presented a paradox. Recently published work by Brian Rose (PhD ’10) and EAPS research scientist David Ferriera explores an ice-less Earth.

Classroom Earth > Classroom Space

Over the past couple of weeks the Binzel Lab has been hosting overnight link-enabled observing sessions

Mapping the Early History of the Moon

In 41st annual Killian Lecture, Maria Zuber describes looking deep into the moon’s interior to chart its early history.

The Secret Lives of Researchers: Head in the Clouds

Graduate student Sarvesh Garimella on why those lights stay on through the night in the Green Building.

Zuber addresses potential impact of federal sequestration on MIT research

Maria Zuber, MIT's new vice president for research as well as the E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics in EAPS, sent the following letter to all MIT principal investigators and research administrators yesterday, outlining the possible effects of the federal government's automatic budget cuts — also known as "sequestration" — that are expected to take effect March 1.

Mercury may have Harbored an Ancient Magma Ocean

Combining observations from spacecraft acquired data with Earth-based laboratory experiment, EAPS researchers propose that Mercury may have harbored a large, roiling ocean of magma very early in its history, shortly after its formation about 4.5 billion years ago.

New Prof. News

It's official. EAPS is delighted to announce that Mick Follows, recent recipient of a Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation marine microbial ecology award, is now an associate professor with tenure.

Cosmic Fly By

An international team led by Binzel Group postdoc Nicholas Moskovitz, observed DA 14 with a number of telescopes, including the 2.1m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Here: Moskovitz's video of the asteroid as it was leaving the vicinity of the earth.

Media Impact

While NASA was able to schedule a press briefing about DA14 a week ahead, news of the coincidental meteorite impact in Russia had EAPS' Professor Rick Binzel juggling interviewers and film crews all day Friday. Here, 3 Questions answered by our own Professor Binzel.

The Rock That Has Everyone's Attention

DA14 not a threat but will come closer to us than some man-made satellites: EAPS Professor of Planetary Sciences Ben Weiss on Fox 25 News yesterday.

Close Call on the Horizon

In case you haven't being paying attention: Look out -- Asteroid 2012 DA14 is coming and it's going to be a close one!

MIT Excellence Award

Geologist Frank Dudás wins 2013 MIT Excellence Award

Leadership Award

Assistant Professor of Engineering Systems and Atmospheric Chemistry Noelle Selin receives a 2013 Leopold Leadership Fellowship.

Forging a New Direction in Climate Research

In this Faculty Forum Online broadcast, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Atmospheric Science, Professor Kerry Emanuel '76, PhD '78, discusses a new approach to climate science that emphasizes basic understanding over black box simulation.

Rewriting India's geologic history

EAPS' Oliver Jagoutz and co-authors have found that the collision between India and Asia occurred only 40 million years ago — 10 million years later than previously thought.

The New Two

The Earth Resources Laboratory has a new space (and it's lovely)

Cumulus, cirrus, stratus: what clouds say about climate change

In this recent Faculty Forum broadcast event, Dan Cziczo set out to answer what happens when particles in the atmosphere, especially manufactured ones, interact with water vapor and temperature to form clouds in a changing climate.

Class of 2012 Goes to AGU

For Deepa Rao '12 (XII) AGU was an incredible week of reconnecting with friends, advisors, professors, and fellow researchers

Paint Pigment, Violent Raccoons and Other Surprising Mercury Trivia

EAPS graduate students Alice Alpert, Bethanie Edwards, and Rebecca Saari were part of the group from MIT blogging about their trip to Geneva for the fifth and final meeting to address global controls on mercury.

Susan Solomon wins Vetlesen Prize

Susan Solomon shares the 2012 Vetlesen Prize with French geochemist Jean Jouzel.

Groundwater: The river no one sees

Groundwater that enters the coastal ocean from underground aquifers carries nutrients and pollutants, but scientists have lacked good techniques to measure that flow. MIT-WHOI Joint Program student Meagan Gonneea uses coral skeletons to track the flow of groundwater into the coastal ocean.

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