At Caltech's Ronald and Maxine Linde Center for Global Environmental Science, researchers from diverse disciplines work together to investigate Earth's climate and its atmosphere, oceans, and biosphere; their evolution; and how they may change in the future.

Using new computer models that account for friction, scientists at Caltech find that the Antarctic ice sheets are more sensitive to climate change than we thought.

Two and a half billion years ago, single-celled organisms called cyanobacteria harnessed sunlight to split water molecules, producing energy to power their cells and releasing oxygen into an atmosphere that had previously had none. These early environmental engineers are responsible for the life we see around us today, and much more besides. At 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 19, in Caltech's Beckman Auditorium, Professor of Geobiology Woodward "Woody" Fischer will describe how they transformed the planet. Admission is free.

The effect could be as strong as those due to the wind and tides, the main factors that are known to drive the up-and-down mixing of oceans.