Earth and atmospheric sciences

Eight from MIT elected to AAAS

April 20, 2009

Bras to deliver Killian Award lecture on March 30

March 25, 2009

Near miss, but no threat

Asteroid in close pass was smaller than thought, astronomer shows

March 16, 2009

New greenhouse gas identified

Early detection may permit 'nipping it in the bud'

March 11, 2009

Illustration from 'Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life.'

Children's book illuminates photosynthesis

March 10, 2009

Evidence of early sponges was found in these sediments in Oman, a Marinoan age (about 635 million yearÂ old) rock unit of calcium carbonate deposited on rocks of glacial origin. The oldest sponge steroids detected in sedimentary rocks underlie this cap carbonate, and so pre-date the end of the global Marinoan glaciations.

Signs point to sponges as earliest animal life

'Chemical fossils' provide evidence for first multicelled creatures

February 4, 2009

Astronomers crack longstanding lunar mystery

Ancient rock's magnetic field shows that moon once had a dynamo in its core

January 15, 2009

MIT scientists to be key Lunar Institute members

January 12, 2009

Math professor discovers chaos on a 'fluid trampoline'

Latest milestone in MIT's contributions to chaos theory

December 22, 2008

Developing a better flight plan for weather forecasting

Flying robots could give people more time to prepare for the worst

December 11, 2008

Professor Adam Burgasser, physics, has a paper on the discovery of the faintest brown dwarfs ever found.

Dimmest star-like objects discovered

December 10, 2008

MIT planetary scientist Maria T. Zuber has been named this year by the magazine U.S. News and World Report as one of "America's Best Leaders."

Zuber named to list of 'best leaders'

U.S. News honors luminaries in arts, science and politics

November 21, 2008

Pan-STARRS 1 prototype, part of the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, Haleakala mountain, Maui.

Early warning of dangerous asteroids and comets

Detectors developed at Lincoln Laboratory deployed in powerful telescope

November 18, 2008

Burying the greenhouse gas

New tool could aid safe underground storage of CO2

November 17, 2008

MIT's Ashleigh Hildebrand and Howard Herzog are working toward a more eco-friendly option for coal power plants.

A quicker, easier way to make coal cleaner

'Partial capture' of emissions could be near-term move