NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected what could be a chemical relic of long-ago life on Mars: long-chain organic molecules likely derived from fatty acids, a common building block of cell membranes on Earth. DEEPS Professor Jack Mustard commented on these exciting findings, suggesting that Curiosity’s successor, Perseverance, will likely find similar molecules.

In a new article in Nature Review Earth & Environment, Postdoctoral Fellow Lily Dove explores how, with Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite data, oceanographers are beginning to understand the global distribution of submesoscale currents and their associated vertical motions. This information will inform global and regional-scale climate models, improving predictions of heat and carbon storage in a changing climate.

Professor Amanda Lynch was recently named to the Advisory Council of the The Hague Institute for Global Justice: North World Approach. Building upon the success of The Washington Compact for Off World Governance, The Hague Institute for Global Justice is pioneering a new frontier in global governance with The North World Approach. This initiative is a necessary step towards ensuring sustainable, cooperative, and just governance in one of the world’s most strategically significant and rapidly changing regions—the Arctic.

Sarah Esenther won within the Hydrology section for her AGU presentation, "Machine learning empowers remote sensing of ice shelf supraglacial stream works." Yiran Huang won within the Tectonophysics section for her talk, “Investigating Layered Cratonic Lithosphere in the Fennoscandian Shield”. Jared Nirenberg won within the Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology for his presentation, “Plant Waxes Record East Antarctic Hydroclimate during Miocene Global Warmth.” Lastly, Leadership Alliance REU student Margaret Gonzalez, who worked with Mara Freilich and Lily Dove in the summer of 2024, won in the Ocean Sciences section for her presentation, “The importance of Antarctic Winter Water in the global carbon cycle.” Congratulations to all four winners for their hard work and achievements!

Brown University's Ibarra Lab recently helped verify a meteorite that landed in a Pennsylvania resident's ice cream.

Pope Francis has appointed five new members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, including Maria Zuber, a 1985 graduate of Brown University and an accomplished planetary scientist involved in multiple NASA missions.

NASA has chosen eight scientists to participate in its Lucy mission, including Fiona Nichols-Fleming, a 2023 graduate of Brown's Department of Earth, Environmental Sciences and currently a Postdoctoral Research Geologist at the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The Lucy mission aims to study the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, which are considered remnants from the early solar system.

As President Donald Trump’s administration looks to reverse a cornerstone finding that climate change endangers human health and welfare, scientists say they just need to look around because it’s obvious how bad global warming is and how it’s getting worse. “There is no possible world in which greenhouse gases are not a threat to public health,” said IBES Director and DEEPS Professor Kim Cobb. “It’s simple physics coming up against simple physiology and biology, and the limits of our existing infrastructure to protect us against worsening climate-fueled extremes.”

A new study by DEEPS Professors Colleen Dalton, Chris Huber, Tim Herbert, and Senior Research Associate Weimin Si explores how variations in global mean sea level over millions of years originate from changes in both the climate and solid Earth systems.

Since US President Donald Trump stated his ambition to acquire Greenland by sale or by force, the upcoming election in Greenland and political discourse among the almost 60,000 Inuit inhabitants has acquired a new level of intensity. In a new article in the Journal of the North Atlantic & Arctic, authors Dr. Charles H. Norchi from the University of Maine School of Law and Dr. Amanda H. Lynch from Brown University cast light on the past, present, and future issues of international interest that Greenlanders face in the upcoming elections.

Julia Vaz explores the Amazon's flying rivers and their unique relationship with climate change in her essay, written for the EEPS 1400 Climate Modeling class during the Fall 2024 semester.

Alejandra Lopez, a first-year PhD student in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Brown University, explored the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in a paper as part of EEPS 1400 Climate Modeling (Qualitative Track) this past fall semester.

IBES Director and DEEPS Professor Kim Cobb acknowledged the grim reality of increasing global temperatures while asserting that "peak fossil fuel emissions are in reach, this year or next...if we keep our eyes on the prize."

Colorado School of Mines recently announced the appointment of Dr. Stefanie Tompkins as its next Provost, effective May 12, 2025. Dr. Tompkins is a 1997 graduate of Brown with a PhD and MS in geology, and brings a distinguished career in scientific research, public service and executive leadership to Mines.

Some environmental nonprofits and researchers still don’t have access to their federal grants after the Trump administration ordered them halted on Jan. 27. Professor Laurence C. Smith offered commentary, noting that he has three new federally funded projects he would normally recruit graduate students to work on, “but I don’t know whether I should recruit them or not.”

Two new papers, coauthored by Associate Professor Ingrid Daubar, show that meteoroids striking Mars produce seismic signals that can reach deeper into the planet than previously known. Researchers used machine learning to find more than 100 new impact craters near NASA's InSight lander on Mars, many of which could be responsible for seismic events previously thought to be natural marsquakes.

A recent study, supported by Alianza Coachella Valley, reveals the alarming environmental and public health risks posed by the Salton Sea’s ongoing environmental crisis, and highlights the urgent need for comprehensive solutions to mitigate the risks faced by nearby communities. “The community based approach is essential to the success of the research. Our research aims to inform action and that action will only be impactful and equitable if impacted communities are front and center in all decision-making,” said Mara Freilich, DEEPS Assistant Professor, corresponding author on the study, and PI of the NASA grant, ‘Earth Observations for Resilient Salton Sea Communities.’

A recent article features forthcoming research from Assistant Professor Daniel Ibarra and Physics Professor Brad Marston. Their research shows that using crushed rock dust to speed up the rate at which soils absorb carbon dioxide could also affect the climate by making Earth’s surface reflect more or less of the sun’s radiation.

Heatmap queried more than 30 climate insiders, including DEEPS Professor and IBES Director Kim Cobb, about the future of environmental policy.