Health

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  • Status shift for whale pelvic bones

    New research challenges the notion that the small pelvic bones found in whales are evolutionary vestiges.

  • Preoccupied with life

    Harvard-affiliated surgeon and writer Atul Gawande explores big questions around end-of-life care in “Being Mortal.”

  • Birds everywhere

    “Birds of the World” opened in September as a permanent exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

  • Tackling blindness, deafness through neuroengineering

    The Bertarelli Program in Translational Neuroscience and Neuroengineering, a collaborative program between Harvard Medical School and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, has announced a new set of grants worth $3.6 million for five research projects.

  • Mixed results in report on concussions

    While most colleges and universities in the National Collegiate Athletic Association have created programs to help diagnose and treat concussions sustained by their athletes, many are not fully meeting the NCAA’s standards, according to new research.

  • Behold the mammoth (maybe)

    Harvard geneticist George Church discussed the future of genetic engineering, including possible technological applications allowing new treatment techniques. He saw the potential to improve human health, revolutionize pest management, and perhaps even bring back the mammoth and other extinct species.

  • Mothers’ brains show similar responses to her baby and her dog

    A small study from a group of Harvard-affiliated researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital investigates differences in how important brain structures are activated when women view images of their own children and their dogs.

  • ‘Bubble boy’ gene therapy raises hope

    A new form of gene therapy for boys with the life-threatening condition known as “bubble boy” disease appears to be both effective and safe, according to an international clinical trial run by a team from Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, and other institutions.

  • Giant leap against diabetes

    Harvard stem cell researchers announced a giant leap forward in the quest to find a truly effective treatment for type 1 diabetes, a disease that affects an estimated 3 million Americans.

  • Java in the genes

    Research led by Harvard investigators has found six new genes underlying coffee-drinking behavior.

  • Reduced residents’ hours a healthy move

    A Harvard study finds that reduced resident work hours mandated by 2003 national reforms have not led to lower-quality physicians completing residency, as measured by hospital length of stay and inpatient mortality.

  • Study of lizards shows trade as a force in biodiversity

    New research shows that trade is one of the major drivers of biodiversity among lizard species in the Caribbean islands.

  • A wake-up call on Ebola

    The Dallas Ebola case was a black eye for emergency room workers who sent a Liberian man home even though they were told he had just arrived from the epidemic zone. But the case could act as a wake-up call for emergency workers around the country, panelists say.

  • Confronting Ebola

    Three nonprofits with strong Harvard ties have joined forces at the front lines of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

  • A way to inhibit inflammation of blood vessel linings

    A study led by Harvard-affiliated researchers is the first to demonstrate that BET bromodomain-containing proteins help execute inflammation in the endothelium while inhibition of BET bromodomain can significantly decrease atherosclerosis in vivo.

  • Sweet feat

    New research by Harvard scientists shows how hummingbirds evolved a novel mechanism of taste.

  • Spread of multiple myeloma halted in mice

    In an advance against cancer metastasis, scientists at the Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have shown that a specially developed compound can impede multiple myeloma in mice from spreading to the bones.

  • Weapons for battling viruses

    Bangladesh has used stepped-up surveillance, an understanding of transmission routes, and expert advice on cultural and traditional practices to devise interventions against Nipah, an Ebola-like virus with a high mortality rate.

  • All goes swimmingly

    Using simple hydrodynamics, a team of Harvard researchers was able to show that a handful of principles govern how virtually every animal — from the tiniest fish to birds to the largest whales — propel themselves through the water.

  • Deadly violence a natural tendency in chimps, study finds

    A new study shows that chimps engage in violent and sometimes even lethal behavior regardless of human effects on local ecology.

  • The communications gap on vaccines

    Panelists at the School of Public Health called for a stronger communications effort by physicians to counter misinformation on vaccines.

  • Diabetes’ genetic variety

    Harvard researchers working at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have uncovered nine rare genetic mutations that dramatically increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The discovery of the mutations highlights the dizzying genetic diversity of a disease rapidly spreading around the world.

  • Undermining leukemia

    A Harvard Stem Cell Institute study comparing how blood stem cells and leukemia cells consume nutrients found that cancer cells are far less tolerant of shifts in their energy supply than their normal counterparts. The results suggest there could be ways to target and kill cancer cells without affecting healthy cells.

  • Ebola’s ripple effects

    The fight to end the Ebola epidemic is not just about saving lives, it’s also about heading off a potentially broader humanitarian crisis, according to a Harvard Kennedy School panel.

  • Linking ‘natural mutants’ and evolution

    Researchers uncovered a variety of features in the genomes of five species of African cichlid fish that enabled them to thrive in new habitats and ecological niches. The findings from these “natural mutants” shed new light on the molecular process of evolution in all vertebrate species.

  • Three decades of treating trauma

    For 30 years, the Victims of Violence program at Harvard-affiliated Cambridge Health Alliance has been a force in trauma care.

  • From chance meeting, a chance to save lives

    Harvard scientists have developed a new test for sickle cell disease that provides results in just 12 minutes and costs as little as 50 cents — far faster and cheaper than other tests.

  • Forces of isolation

    Research led by a Harvard biologist demonstrated a method for measuring the strength of selection in favor of reproductive isolation.

  • U.S. diet shows modest improvement

    Dietary quality in the United States has improved steadily in recent years, but overall dietary quality remains poor and disparities continue to widen among socioeconomic and racial/ethnic groups, according to a new study from the Harvard School of Public Health.

  • Ebola genomes sequenced

    A team of researchers from the Broad Institute, Harvard University, and elsewhere has sequenced and analyzed dozens of Ebola virus genomes in the present outbreak. Their findings could have important implications for rapid field diagnostic tests.