State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Ecology42

  • When the Sahara Turned to Sand

    When the Sahara Turned to Sand

    The Sahara wasn’t always a desert. Trees and grasslands dominated the landscape from roughly 10,000 to 5,000 years ago. Then, abruptly, the climate changed. A study by Lamont-Doherty’s Peter deMenocal says it took just a few hundred years to happen.

  • CUriosity3: Intersection Between Arts and Sciences

    CUriosity3: Intersection Between Arts and Sciences

    Join instructors from our Executive Education Certificate Program in Conservation and Environmental Sustainability including Dr. Shahid Naeem, Dr. Matt Palmer, and Dr. Eric Sanderson. for a FREE public seminar program addressing the intersection between Arts and Science with the goal of initiating discussions and debate around the common ground of creative practice and scientific discovery.

  • Visit Ecosystems in Brazil, India, or Jordan This Summer

    Visit Ecosystems in Brazil, India, or Jordan This Summer

    Are you curious about environmental sustainability in a global context? Want to earn course credit while traveling the world this summer? Take advantage of The Summer Ecosystem Experiences for Undergraduates program (SEE-U) offered through The Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability! Through summer field courses in Brazil, India, or Jordan, you will have the unique…

  • Nature-Inspired Robots

    Nature-Inspired Robots

    Scientists at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland created a new breed of robots to advance their research in robotic movements. But the cheetah-cub robot is not the first animal to bound across laboratory floors. Scientists have produced a “mechanical menagerie” of robots that mimic four legged mammals, compact insects, and everything in…

  • The Arctic’s Secret Garden

    The Arctic’s Secret Garden

    Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory marine biologists Craig Aumack and Andy Juhl spend a month each spring in Barrow studying the algae dwelling in and under the sea ice. Their goal is to learn more about the different species of algae that compose these communities and their role in the Arctic marine food web.

  • Finding Threatened Animals New Homes

    Finding Threatened Animals New Homes

    Translocation in wildlife conservation is the capture, transport and release or introduction of species, habitats or other ecological material from one location to another. The authors argue that many species will need to move to a different location in order to survive. For species that are unable to relocate naturally, the only chance of survival…

  • A Fellow’s Story: Crossing Oceans, Breaking Boundaries

    A Fellow’s Story: Crossing Oceans, Breaking Boundaries

    After working in tropical forests and coastal areas throughout college and graduate school, Manhattan did not seem like a natural place to migrate after completing my PhD. But pursuing an Earth Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship was was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

  • Students Travel to Belize through Earth Institute Course Support Funding

    Fieldwork is an important component of environmental education and research. Every year, the Earth Institute’s Office of Academic and Research Programs provides funding to help underwrite faculty-organized field trieps that augment undergraduate and graduate classroom learning experiences. With assistance from the Earth Institute Course Support Program, 10 students with Dr. Josh Drew and Dr. Elisa…

  • Notes from an Increasingly Lonely Planet:  Humongous Killer Viruses and the New Life Form

    Notes from an Increasingly Lonely Planet: Humongous Killer Viruses and the New Life Form

    In Nature|News (18 July 2013), where one can check out the latest happenings in science, we learned that when Jean-Michel Claverie and Chantal Aberget from Aix-Marseille University in France discovered their new species of humongous killer virus, they experienced one of the most exciting things that could ever happen to any of us – they…

Blue banner with kids and Earth photos. Text: "Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Open House, Saturday, October 17, 2026, 10am-4pm.

On Saturday, October 17, 2026 from 10am to 4pm, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Open House—our biggest, best science fun and discovery event of the year—will take place on our beautiful campus in Palisades, NY. Mark your calendar and join us for this free, family-friendly celebration of science! RSVP Today!

  • When the Sahara Turned to Sand

    When the Sahara Turned to Sand

    The Sahara wasn’t always a desert. Trees and grasslands dominated the landscape from roughly 10,000 to 5,000 years ago. Then, abruptly, the climate changed. A study by Lamont-Doherty’s Peter deMenocal says it took just a few hundred years to happen.

  • CUriosity3: Intersection Between Arts and Sciences

    CUriosity3: Intersection Between Arts and Sciences

    Join instructors from our Executive Education Certificate Program in Conservation and Environmental Sustainability including Dr. Shahid Naeem, Dr. Matt Palmer, and Dr. Eric Sanderson. for a FREE public seminar program addressing the intersection between Arts and Science with the goal of initiating discussions and debate around the common ground of creative practice and scientific discovery.

  • Visit Ecosystems in Brazil, India, or Jordan This Summer

    Visit Ecosystems in Brazil, India, or Jordan This Summer

    Are you curious about environmental sustainability in a global context? Want to earn course credit while traveling the world this summer? Take advantage of The Summer Ecosystem Experiences for Undergraduates program (SEE-U) offered through The Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability! Through summer field courses in Brazil, India, or Jordan, you will have the unique…

  • Nature-Inspired Robots

    Nature-Inspired Robots

    Scientists at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland created a new breed of robots to advance their research in robotic movements. But the cheetah-cub robot is not the first animal to bound across laboratory floors. Scientists have produced a “mechanical menagerie” of robots that mimic four legged mammals, compact insects, and everything in…

  • The Arctic’s Secret Garden

    The Arctic’s Secret Garden

    Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory marine biologists Craig Aumack and Andy Juhl spend a month each spring in Barrow studying the algae dwelling in and under the sea ice. Their goal is to learn more about the different species of algae that compose these communities and their role in the Arctic marine food web.

  • Finding Threatened Animals New Homes

    Finding Threatened Animals New Homes

    Translocation in wildlife conservation is the capture, transport and release or introduction of species, habitats or other ecological material from one location to another. The authors argue that many species will need to move to a different location in order to survive. For species that are unable to relocate naturally, the only chance of survival…

  • A Fellow’s Story: Crossing Oceans, Breaking Boundaries

    A Fellow’s Story: Crossing Oceans, Breaking Boundaries

    After working in tropical forests and coastal areas throughout college and graduate school, Manhattan did not seem like a natural place to migrate after completing my PhD. But pursuing an Earth Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship was was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

  • Students Travel to Belize through Earth Institute Course Support Funding

    Fieldwork is an important component of environmental education and research. Every year, the Earth Institute’s Office of Academic and Research Programs provides funding to help underwrite faculty-organized field trieps that augment undergraduate and graduate classroom learning experiences. With assistance from the Earth Institute Course Support Program, 10 students with Dr. Josh Drew and Dr. Elisa…

  • Notes from an Increasingly Lonely Planet:  Humongous Killer Viruses and the New Life Form

    Notes from an Increasingly Lonely Planet: Humongous Killer Viruses and the New Life Form

    In Nature|News (18 July 2013), where one can check out the latest happenings in science, we learned that when Jean-Michel Claverie and Chantal Aberget from Aix-Marseille University in France discovered their new species of humongous killer virus, they experienced one of the most exciting things that could ever happen to any of us – they…