Scientists find ozone depletion began decades before discovery of ozone hole
Using modern tools, they also determined that carbon tetrachloride, used as a dry-cleaning and degreasing agent as early as the 1930s, was at the root of early ozone loss.
What happens when environmental change outpaces life’s ability to adapt?
A new model links Earth’s mass extinctions to mismatches between rates of environmental change and biological adaptation.
Characterizing Earth’s damping mechanisms
Fourth-year PhD candidate Perrin Davidson studies the carbon cycle to understand how the planet responds to global disturbances.
Susan Solomon named 2026 Tang Prize laureate
The MIT professor’s groundbreaking work on atmospheric chemistry helped lay steps towards recovery of the ozone layer and demonstrated the lasting impacts of carbon emissions on Earth’s climate.
Innovative projects explore ways to deal with extreme heat
Low-cost personal cooling and emissions-free air conditioning among ideas studied with MIT’s Climate Project seed funding.
A day in the life of MIT MBA student Patrick Yeung
MIT Sloan’s Sustainability Initiative provides opportunities to lead in ways that will help build a more sustainable future.
From technical solution to systems change: Tackling the problem of plastic waste
Akorfa Dagadu, an MIT senior in chemical engineering, learns the importance of community-engaged research and innovation through the PKG Center for Social Impact.
Q&A: Expanding MIT’s global reach through Universal Learning
Dimitris Bertsimas and Megan Mitchell discuss the motivation behind Universal Learning, and what sets the new MIT Open Learning educational initiative apart.
Mapping the ocean with autonomous sensors
Founded by Ravi Pappu SM ’95, PhD ’01, Apeiron Labs is deploying low-cost ocean sensors to improve storm forecasts, detect endangered species, and more.
Sixteen new START.nano companies are developing hard-tech solutions with the support of MIT.nano
Startup accelerator program grows to over 30 companies, almost half of them with MIT pedigrees.
Climate change may produce “fast-food” phytoplankton
With warmer ocean temperatures, the composition of marine plankton could shift from protein-rich to carb-heavy, a new study suggests.
A complicated future for a methane-cleansing molecule
A new model shows how levels of the “atmosphere’s detergent” may rise and fall in response to climate change.
X-raying rocks reveals their carbon-storing capacity
New research by MIT geophysicists could assist efforts to remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it underground.
Study reveals climatic fingerprints of wildfires and volcanic eruptions
In research that could help elucidate humans’ role in global warming, scientists showed how three major natural events impacted global atmospheric temperatures.
Some early life forms may have breathed oxygen well before it filled the atmosphere
A new study suggests aerobic respiration began hundreds of millions of years earlier than previously thought.