New study sets oxygen-breathing limit for ocean’s hardiest organisms
Bacteria can survive in marine environments that are almost completely starved of oxygen.
"Song of the Human": An origin story
New work by composer Pete M. Wyer draws inspiration from MIT linguistic scholar Shigeru Miyagawa's hypothesis on the origins of human language.
3Q: Historian Harriet Ritvo on what it means to be "wild"
Scientists, social scientists, and humanists heed the call of the wild at MIT workshop.
Retracing the origins of a massive, multi-ring crater
Scientists reconstruct first hours after a giant impact created one of the largest craters on the moon.
Gregory Stephanopoulos receives Samson Prize for Innovation in Alternative Fuels
Metabolic engineering pioneer recognized for his work in the engineering of microbes for biofuels production.
MIT researchers prove fast microbial evolutionary bursts exist
Study reveals closely related microbes can diversify rapidly via horizontal gene transfer.
A mutual breakdown
Species relationships devolve from jointly beneficial to competitive in benign environments.
Microbial engineering technique could reduce contamination in biofermentation plants
Approach could lower cost and eliminate need for antibiotics during biofuel production.
Microbiome genes on the move
Largest metagenomic view of the developing world uncovers “mobile genes” that reveal how culture shapes the human microbiome.
Study pinpoints timing of oxygen’s first appearance in Earth’s atmosphere
Beginning 2.33 billion years ago, atmospheric oxygen built up in just 10 million years.
Code of the humans
New book by Noam Chomsky and Robert Berwick explores how people acquired unique language skills.
Title for ‘Earth’s first animal’ likely goes to simple sea creature
Sponges may be source of molecular fossils that significantly predate Cambrian explosion.
The rapid rise of human language
New paper suggests people quickly started speaking in a now-familiar form.
Evolutionary approaches to big-data problems
Una-May O'Reilly applies machine learning and evolutionary algorithms to tackle some of the world's biggest big-data challenges.