News and Blog Landing | MIT Sustainability

Matt Ellis PhD ’17 (left) and Sam Shaner SM ’14 PhD ’18 have designed a nuclear reactor that deploys a molten nitrate salt coolant that allows the reactor to reach higher operating temperatures than current water-cooled reactors.Photo...

MIT News Office

October 11, 2018

Powered by idealism and pragmatism

Matt Ellis PhD ’17 and Sam Shaner SM ’14, PhD ’18 launch a startup to develop an advanced nuclear reactor design.

Based on a rigorous, integrated analysis of population and economic growth, technological change, Paris Agreement pledges and other factors, the 2018 Food, Water, Energy and Climate Outlook projects likely global and regional environmental change...

MIT News Office

October 11, 2018

Charting the Earth’s future for the 21st century

MIT report highlights challenges and opportunities for conserving natural resources and stabilizing the climate.

Karen Dawson participates in a panel discussion about the new MIT interdisciplinary study, “The Future of Nuclear in a Carbon-Constrained World.”Photo: Diana Bowen

MIT News Office

October 5, 2018

Student insight on the "Future of Nuclear Energy" study

Student researchers lend voices, ideas for exploring nuclear energy’s potential to address climate change, and describe insights gained from the experience.

Columnist Thomas L. Friedman of The New York Times, delivering the fall 2018 Compton Lecture at MIT on Oct. 1.Image: Jake Belcher

MIT News Office

October 2, 2018

Thomas Friedman examines impact of global “accelerations”

In fall 2018 Compton Lecture, noted columnist discusses problems and opportunities arising from a society in flux.

MIT News Office

September 28, 2018

From security to systems: J-WAFS name change reflects its breadth and impact

Emphasizing the scope and interdisciplinary mission on which it was founded, J-WAFS has a new name: the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab.

Graduate student Janelle Heslop has been named a Switzter Fellow by The Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation.Photo courtesy of Janelle Heslop

MIT News Office

September 25, 2018

Janelle Heslop awarded Switzer Fellowship

MIT graduate student is one of 20 to join the Switzer Foundation Network, which is committed to environmental change.

A sample of nearly pure copper is deposited on an iron electrode after extraction through an electrochemical process developed by researchers in the lab of MIT Associate Professor Antoine Allanore.Photo: Denis Paiste/Materials Research Laboratory

MIT News Office

September 25, 2018

Developing new ways to advance copper production

U.S. Department of Energy grant will support the Allanore lab's advancement of copper production from sulfur-based minerals.

Since the 1950s, scientists have observed a surprisingly straightforward, linear relationship between the Earth’s surface temperature and its outgoing heat.

MIT News Office

September 24, 2018

How Earth sheds heat into space

New insights into the role of water vapor may help researchers predict how the planet will respond to warming.

This scanning electron microscope image shows the carbon cathode of a carbon-dioxide-based battery made by MIT researchers, after the battery was discharged. It shows the buildup of carbon compounds on the surface, composed of carbonate materia...

MIT News Office

September 21, 2018

New battery gobbles up carbon dioxide

Lithium-based battery could make use of greenhouse gas before it ever gets into the atmosphere.