Tag: Chemistry

  • Nation & World

    A new spin on an old question

    Understanding how DNA and proteins interact — or fail to — could help answer fundamental biological questions about human health and disease.

    5 minutes
    A rendering of a DNA propeller
  • Nation & World

    Soft robots for all

    The first soft ring oscillator gets plushy robots to roll, undulate, sort, meter liquids, and swallow.

    4 minutes
    Hand holding oscillators
  • Nation & World

    Combing out a tangled problem

    A new technique speeds creation of nanowire devices, boosting research into what’s happening inside cells.

    5 minutes
    Charles Lieber
  • Nation & World

    Gut microbes eat our medication

    Study published in Science shows that gut microbes can chew up medications, with serious side effects.

    6 minutes
    Professor looks over the shoulder of grad student working in the lab
  • Nation & World

    Learning why cancer drugs work (or don’t)

    Assistant Professor Brian Liau of the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department has answered the question of why some new drugs for acute myeloid leukemia don’t work by combining CRISPR gene editing with small-molecule inhibitor treatments in a technique he calls CRISPR-suppressor scanning.

    5 minutes
    Professor sits in front of a white board
  • Nation & World

    Microbial manufacturing

    Emily Balskus and a team of researchers untangled how soil bacteria are able to manufacture streptozotocin, an antibiotic and anti-cancer compound.

    3 minutes
    Emily Balskus standing in her office
  • Nation & World

    Learning catalysts’ secrets

    Cynthia Friend, who recently received a multimillion dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, is well positioned to help “change the face and carbon footprint of the chemical industries sector,” one of her team’s goals.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A role for cyanide in recipe for life

    New Harvard findings show that a mixture of cyanide and copper, when irradiated with UV light, could have helped form the building blocks of life on early Earth.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    ‘I had the conviction that my ideas were correct’

    Interview with Nobel Prize winner Martin Karplus as part of the Experience series.

    36 minutes
    Martin Karplus
  • Nation & World

    Catalyzing discovery

    In a trio of studies published earlier this month, researchers have shown that the process of catalysis is more dynamic than previously imagined, and that molecular forces can vastly influence the process.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    New way to model molecules

    Scientists from Harvard and Google have demonstrated for the first time that a quantum computer could be used to model the electron interactions in a complex molecule.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Defending breakthrough research

    Harvard initiates patent infringement suits to protect inventors’ rights in computer-chip technology.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Tiny wires, great potential

    Harvard scientists have developed a method for creating a class of nanowires that could one day see applications in everything from consumer electronics to solar panels.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Adam Cohen receives 2014 Blavatnik Award

    Adam Cohen, professor of chemistry and chemical biology and of physics, has been named one of three winners of the 2014 Blavatnik National Awards, which honor young scientists and engineers who have demonstrated important insights in their respective fields and who show exceptional promise going forward.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Chemist Thérèse Wilson dies at 88

    Thérèse Wilson, a chemist at Harvard for more than five decades and an expert in chemiluminescence and bioluminescence, died peacefully in Cambridge on April 28.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Breaking down ‘Bad’

    “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan spoke with Harvard President Drew Faust about the origins and evolution of the show.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Battery offers renewable energy breakthrough

    A team of Harvard scientists and engineers has demonstrated a new type of battery that could fundamentally transform the way electricity is stored on the grid, making power from renewable energy sources such as wind and sun far more economical and reliable.

    8 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Nobel in chemistry awarded to Martin Karplus

    Martin Karplus, the Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry Emeritus in Harvard’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology is one of three to share in the Nobel Prize in chemistry, the The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced this morning.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Map to renewable energy?

    Researchers hoping to make the next breakthrough in renewable energy now have plenty of new avenues to explore — Harvard researchers this week released a database of more than 2 million molecules that might be useful in the construction of organic solar cells for the production of renewable energy.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Evolutionary oomph

    Scientists may soon be able to turn to one of the most powerful forces in biology — evolution — to help in their quest to develop new synthetic polymers.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Pickles, prisms, and scientists

    Celebrating its 11th year of public engagement, the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ (SEAS) Holiday Lecture Series dazzled and delighted audiences on Dec. 8 with a show guaranteed to kindle curiosity about the natural world.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Soft Robots, in color

    Having already broken new ground in robotics with the development, last year, of a class of “soft”, silicone-based robots based on creatures like squid and octopi, Harvard scientists are now working to create systems that would allow the robots to camouflage themselves, or stand out in their environment.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Airborne pollutants lead a double life

    Researchers at Harvard University and the University of British Columbia (UBC) have provided visual evidence that atmospheric particles — which are ubiquitous, especially above densely populated areas — separate into distinct chemical compositions during their life cycle.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Fuel cell keeps going after hydrogen runs out

    Materials scientists at Harvard have demonstrated that a solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC), which converts hydrogen into electricity, can also store electrochemical energy like a battery. This fuel cell can continue to produce power for a short time after its fuel has run out.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    William von Eggers Doering

    At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on May 1, 2012, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late William von Eggers Doering, Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Time called Professor Doering’s synthesis of quinine “one of the greatest scientific achievements in a century.”

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Evans wins Welch Award in Chemistry

    David A. Evans, the Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Chemistry Emeritus, was awarded the 2012 Welch Award in Chemistry in recognition of his pioneering research.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Bubble, bubble — without toil or trouble

    Among the advances linked to Harvard is one that came in a field not normally associated with the University: the culinary arts. Cooks use a professor’s 1850s invention, baking powder, as a time-saving replacement for yeast.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Professor Charles Lieber receives Israel’s Wolf Prize

    Charles Lieber, the Mark Hyman Jr. Professor of Chemistry, was recently awarded Israel’s prestigious Wolf Prize.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Reading life’s building blocks

    A team led by Harvard researcher Charles Lieber has for the first time succeeded in creating a device that opens the door to using tiny holes called nanopores in an electrically charged membrane to quickly and easily sequence DNA.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Imaging instruction

    Harvard researchers have developed a “primer” to identify some of the most useful probes for super-resolution imaging. As described recently on Nature Methods’ website, the work also identified the key characteristics that are important for imaging, giving researchers a framework for evaluating other probes, or even designing custom-made molecules to use in imaging.

    3 minutes