Tag: Earth

  • Nation & World

    Life on Mars?

    A study of magnetic fields suggests the Red Planet held water for longer than previously believed.

    5 minutes
    Roger Fu and Sarah Steele in the lab.
  • Nation & World

    Study shows higher sperm counts in men who lift heavy objects

    Occupational factors, such as physical demands and work schedules, were associated with higher sperm concentrations and serum testosterone, according to a new study.

    2 minutes
    Construction worker.
  • Nation & World

    6 things to know about Earth

    Andrew Knoll, Harvard’s Fisher Research Professor of Natural History and author of the recent popular science book “A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters,” shares six facts about the Earth.

    4 minutes
    Andrew Knoll.
  • Nation & World

    Astrochemist brings search for extraterrestrial life to Center for Astrophysics

    Clara Sousa-Silva, whose expertise in phosphine as a biosignature gas was key to a recent analysis that may have detected life in the clouds of Venus, has moved to the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian for the final two years of her fellowship. She discusses the finding and the broader topic of the…

    21 minutes
    Venus.
  • 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

    Last survivors on Earth

    A testament to the resiliency of life, the microscopic tardigrade can survive any cosmic calamity, according to an Oxford-Harvard study.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Innovative faculty research receives support

    Five winners have been named as recipients of this year’s Star Family Challenge for Promising Scientific Research awards. Now in its second year, the challenge is designed to acknowledge and support some of the most innovative research being done by Harvard faculty in the natural and social sciences.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Surfing on a super-Earth

    For life as we know it to develop on other planets, those planets would need liquid water, or oceans. Geologic evidence suggests that Earth’s oceans have existed for nearly the entire history of our world.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Delving into dark matter

    Harvard physicists have suggested that a disk of dark matter may lie along the center line of the galaxy.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    How Earth was watered

    Evidence is mounting that Earth’s water arrived during formation, aboard meteorites and small bodies called “planetesimals.”

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Mars rover, slightly used, runs fine

    Originally scheduled to operate on the Red Planet’s surface for 90 Martian days, the rover Opportunity has now logged more than 3,500 days, traveled nearly 39 kilometers, and collected a trove of data that scientists have used to study the planet’s early history, particularly any past traces of water.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    What rocks can teach

    The Harvard Museum of Natural History has opened its renovated Earth and Planetary Sciences gallery, linking the fantastic mineral displays to the story of the Earth and the work of faculty members who conduct research on geological processes.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Water worlds surface

    Astronomers have found a planetary system orbiting the star Kepler-62. This five-planet system has two worlds in the habitable zone — the distance from their star at which they receive enough light and warmth for liquid water to theoretically exist on their surfaces.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Astronomically close

    Earth-like planets potentially capable of supporting life may be right in our galactic neighborhood, according to researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the California Institute of Technology.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Search for Earth’s twin shows promise

    The quest for a twin Earth is heating up. Francois Fressin, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), presented the new analysis of Kepler data that shows that about 17 percent of stars have an Earth-sized planet in an orbit closer than Mercury.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Intelligent Earth

    Once its axis tilts, how does the Earth “know” to return to its normal orientation? Work by Harvard researchers provides some answers.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Planet probe

    In a paper published in the June 7 issue of Nature, Associate Professor Sujoy Mukhopadhyay presents evidence that the Earth’s deep mantle incorporated gas found in the solar nebula in the first few millions of years of the solar system’s formation.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Magnetism on the moon

    A team of researchers from Harvard, MIT, and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris have proposed a surprisingly simple explanation for magnetic anomalies that have baffled scientists since the mid-1960s, suggesting they are remnants of a massive asteroid. As described in a paper published in Science, the researchers believe an asteroid slammed into…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Alien worlds, just like home

    Harvard astronomers, working as part of NASA’s Kepler mission, have detected the first Earth-sized planets orbiting a distant star, a milestone in the hunt for alien worlds that brings scientists one step closer to their ultimate goal of finding a twin Earth.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Earthly extremes hint to life elsewhere

    Scientists are examining single-celled organisms in extreme environments for clues to what life might look like on the myriad planets being discovered in the universe.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Deep thinker

    Scientists are advancing in their understanding of the biology of the deep sea, which still remains largely unexplored and mysterious, according to Associate Professor Peter Girguis.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The speedup of climate change

    Scientist discusses growing effects of global climate change with members of Harvard’s Class of 2014.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Telescope Detects Possible Earth-Size Planet

    Harvard researchers working with NASA’s Kepler satellite reported Thursday that they might have spotted a planet just 1.5 times the diameter of Earth around a Sun-like star 2,000 light-years away…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Time travel in chalk

    Members of Professor Ann Pearson’s lab switched from science to art recently, decorating the slate panels outside the Hoffman Laboratory with depictions of three great eras in Earth’s history: the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Constant temps key to biodiversity

    New paper answers the long-standing scientific question about cause of tropics’ stunning biodiversity.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Ecosystems under siege

    Environmental panel discusses the problems facing the Earth, and what it would take to reverse the damaging trends.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    ‘Settle down,’ warns E.O. Wilson

    Esteemed biologist Edward O. Wilson called for renewed efforts to understand and conserve the planet’s biodiversity, in the first of three Prather Lectures being presented this week.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Earth’s ‘Boring Billion’ Years Blamed on Sulfur-Loving Microbes

    “If we really want to understand what’s happed in the history of Earth, we really have to understand this cross talk between the physical and biological processes,” says study coauthor Andrew Knoll of Harvard University.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Kepler starts search for other Earths

    As NASA’s Kepler space telescope this week begins scanning the Milky Way for planets that might harbor life, scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) are keeping their fingers crossed and waiting for the data to start flowing.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Jerry Mitrovica named geophysics professor

    Theoretical geophysicist Jerry X. Mitrovica, whose studies of the Earth’s structure and evolution have important implications for our understanding of climate and sea-level changes throughout Earth’s history, has been named professor of geophysics in Harvard University’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, effective July 1.

    3 minutes