3 Questions: How AI is helping us monitor and support vulnerable ecosystems
MIT PhD student and CSAIL researcher Justin Kay describes his work combining AI and computer vision systems to monitor the ecosystems that support our planet.
Darcy McRose and Mehtaab Sawhney ’20, PhD ’24 named 2025 Packard Fellows for Science and Engineering
McRose, an environmental microbiologist, is recognized for researching the ecological roles of antibiotics in shaping ecosystems, agriculture, and health.
The first animals on Earth may have been sea sponges, study suggests
MIT researchers traced chemical fossils in ancient rocks to the ancestors of modern-day demosponges.
Students and staff work together for MIT’s first “No Mow May”
With advocacy from GSC Sustain, the No Mow May project supports pollinator habitats and provides educational opportunities.
Deep-dive dinners are the norm for tuna and swordfish, MIT oceanographers find
These big fish get most of their food from the ocean’s “twilight zone,” a deep, dark region the commercial fishing industry is eyeing with interest.
How nature organizes itself, from brain cells to ecosystems
McGovern Institute researchers develop a mathematical model to help define how modularity occurs in the brain — and across nature.
Streamlining data collection for improved salmon population management
Assistant Professor Sara Beery is using automation to improve monitoring of migrating salmon in the Pacific Northwest.
Seeking climate connections among the oceans’ smallest organisms
MIT oceanographer and biogeochemist Andrew Babbin has voyaged around the globe to investigate marine microbes and their influence on ocean health.
A new way to determine whether a species will successfully invade an ecosystem
MIT physicists develop a predictive formula, based on bacterial communities, that may also apply to other types of ecosystems, including the human GI tract.
Ecologists find computer vision models’ blind spots in retrieving wildlife images
Biodiversity researchers tested vision systems on how well they could retrieve relevant nature images. More advanced models performed well on simple queries but struggled with more research-specific prompts.
Oceanographers record the largest predation event ever observed in the ocean
The scientists’ wide-scale acoustic mapping technique could help track vulnerable keystone species.
Focus on function helps identify the changes that made us human
A new approach for identifying significant differences in gene use between closely-related species provides insights into human evolution.
Andrea Lo ’21 draws on ecological lessons for life, work, and education
With a minor in literature and environmental sustainability, the biology alumna considers perspectives from Charles Darwin to Annie Dillard.
A clean alternative to one of the world’s most common ingredients
C16 Biosciences, founded by MIT alumni, has developed a microbial oil to replace palm oil, whose production reaps environmental devastation.
Fieldwork class examines signs of climate change in Hawaii
MIT students research effects of climate change on forests and sulfur dioxide emissions as a model for planet-wide events.