Renewable power sources have seen unprecedented levels of investment in recent years. But with political uncertainty clouding the future of subsidies for green energy, these technologies must begin to compete with fossil fuels on equal footing, said …
Berly McCoy and Sushmita Pathak of NPR’s Short Wave spotlight research by postdoctoral associate Funing Li and his team on tornado occurrence. The researchers used “historical data to model and simulate the interaction between land and the atmosphere,” …
LHF: Hello, and welcome to Today I Learned: Climate, brought to you by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I’m Laur Hesse Fisher. Where are you listening to this episode from today? Maybe you’re riding the bus on your morning commute, or taking a …
David L. Chandler The process of catalysis — in which a material speeds up a chemical reaction — is crucial to the production of many of the chemicals used in our everyday lives. But even though these catalytic processes are widespread, researchers often …
MIT engineers have developed a new system that helps pesticides adhere more effectively to plant leaves, allowing farmers to use fewer chemicals without sacrificing crop protection, reports Michigan Farm News. The new technology “adds a thin coating around …
MIT and GE Vernova today announced the creation of the MIT-GE Vernova Energy and Climate Alliance to help develop and scale sustainable energy systems across the globe. The alliance launches a five-year collaboration between MIT and GE Vernova, a global …
David L. Chandler It’s tricky to predict precisely what the impacts of climate change will be, given the many variables involved. To predict the impacts of a warmer world on plant life, some researchers look at urban “heat islands,” where, because of the …
Lee Selwyn PhD '69 speaks with WVCB reporter Ben Simmoneau about how gas companies in Massachusetts promised consumers discounts on their March and April bills, following soaring energy costs this winter.
Kara Miller: From the MIT Energy Initiative, this is What if it works?—a podcast looking at the energy solutions for climate change. I’m Kara Miller. Robert Stoner: And I’m Rob Stoner. KM: On today’s show, a glimpse into the future, the future of nuclear …
Around 11 billion tons of goods, or about 1.5 tons per person worldwide, are transported by sea each year, representing about 90 percent of global trade by volume. Internationally, the merchant shipping fleet numbers around 110,000 vessels. These ships, …
David L. Chandler Reducing the amount of agricultural sprays used by farmers — including fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides — could cut down the amount of polluting runoff that ends up in the environment while at the same time reducing farmers’ costs …
To help find solutions to the planet’s climate crisis, MIT Associate Professor Daniel Suess is looking to Earth’s ancient past. Early in the evolution of life, cells gained the ability to perform reactions such as transferring electrons from one atom to …
By Mark Dwortzan | MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy Study shows how ‘optimized’ diets could reduce malnutrition and environmental degradation “You are what you eat.” When it comes to the Earth and humanity, that phrase might well be …
LHF: Hello, I’m Laur Hesse Fisher, and welcome back to MIT’s climate change podcast, Today I Learned: Climate. When a natural disaster hits a community, the first priority is to get people safe and to save what we can. But after the initial danger passes, …
Kara Miller: From the MIT Energy Initiative, this is What if it works? A podcast looking at the energy solutions for climate change. I’m Kara Miller. Robert Stoner: And I’m Rob Stoner. KM: Today, we’re talking with Jacopo Buongiorno about a source of …
As the price of solar panels has plummeted in recent decades, installation costs have taken up a greater share of the technology’s overall price tag. The long installation process for solar farms is also emerging as a key bottleneck in the deployment of …
A study by MIT scientists has found that increased greenhouse gas emissions will shrink the Earth’s upper atmosphere causing a “drop in the satellite-carrying capacity of low Earth orbit,” repots Passant Rabie for Gizmodo. “Without an atmosphere, most …
This course examines and experiments with pathways to decarbonization at the million-person scale. Our field site is Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia—the coldest capital on Earth and one of the world’s most polluted cities, largely as a result of coal combustion. We …
New Yorker reporter Brent Crane spotlights Quaise Energy, an MIT geothermal energy startup founded by Carlos Araque BS '01, MS '02. Crane explains that central to Quaise’s system is the gyrotron, a tubular device that “works like a very, very …
LHF: Hello, I’m Laur Hesse Fisher, and you’re listening to Today I Learned: Climate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Imagine, for a moment, that you’re standing on a massive sheet of ice that spans from the high Arctic, all the way into the …
