Health

In a talk sponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History, biologist E.O. Wilson said that competition among groups of humans is a likely explanation for the rise of altruistic behavior in individuals.

A new study led by researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Massachusetts General Hospital has found that normalizing blood vessels within tumors, which improves the delivery of standard chemotherapy drugs, can actually block the delivery of larger nanotherapy molecules.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have significantly reduced from hours to minutes the time it takes to accurately detect autism in young children.

MGH’s Herbert Benson, author of “The Relaxation Response,” says that the methods outlined in his book can create genetic changes in irritable bowel syndrome sufferers, and with further study might be used to treat other ailments.

David Butler-Jones, Canada’s chief public health officer, believes that the relatively mild 2009 global flu outbreak might have been as deadly as the 1918 Spanish flu that killed millions, if not for improved scientific, public health, and medical practices.

The likely culprit in sharp worldwide declines in honeybee colonies since 2006 is imidacloprid, one of the most widely used pesticides, according to a new study from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Harvard stem cell researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have taken a critical step toward discovering in the relatively near future a drug to control cystic fibrosis, a fatal lung disease that claims about 500 lives each year, with 1,000 new cases diagnosed annually.

From pondering prehistoric man to employing high-tech 3-D imaging, Harvard researchers are leaving no shoe unturned to discover why we run, and how we can do it better.

New Harvard School of Public Health research suggests that routine mammography screening — long viewed as an essential tool in detecting early breast cancers — may in fact lead to a significant amount of overdiagnosis of disease that would have proved harmless.

Findings by a team at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center suggest a new strategy for diagnosing and treating Alzheimer’s disease.

A new study from Harvard School of Public Health finds no evidence that the largest hospital-based pay-for-performance program in the U.S. improved 30-day mortality rates, a measure of whether patients survive their hospitalization.

The Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia is an academic-industry collaboration resource that marries deeply detailed cancer genome data with predictors of drug response, information that could lead to refinements in cancer clinical trials and future treatments.

The world is in the midst of a global health transition, with the population growing older and primary health threats coming from chronic, not infectious, diseases, according to speakers at an Advanced Leadership Initiative think tank.

Scientists from Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and their colleagues have found a genetic marker that predicts which aggressive “triple-negative” breast cancers and certain ovarian cancers are likely to respond to platinum-based chemotherapies.

Perhaps botany, not boxing, is the real sweet science. Harvard Forest researchers are seeking to illuminate maple tree dynamics, investigating a possible link between autumn “mast seeding” and the sugar content of spring sap.

In one of the largest studies of its kind, Harvard researchers have found that carbon records from the mid-Neoproterozoic era can be “read” as a faithful snapshot of the surface carbon cycle between 717 million and 635 million years ago, a finding that directly challenges a decades-long belief of most scientists.

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at Harvard are exploring the use of gamelike programs on smartphones to treat anxiety disorders.

A new study by Harvard School of Public Health researchers has found that red meat consumption is associated with an increased risk of total, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality.

Cranky, sleep-deprived America got some advice from experts at a Harvard School of Public Health Forum: Get some rest, and reap the health and productivity benefits shown in numerous scientific studies.

A new Museum of Natural History exhibit focuses on the enormous diversity of mollusks, which live everywhere from the deep ocean to fresh water to land.

A new investigational drug significantly reduced urinary cortisol levels and improved symptoms of Cushing’s disease in the largest clinical study of this endocrine disorder ever conducted.

The twin epidemics of obesity and its cousin, diabetes, have been the target of numerous studies at Harvard and its affiliated hospitals and institutions. Harvard researchers have produced a dizzying array of findings on the often related problems.

A study by researchers at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital indicates that the inhaled anesthetic isoflurane impairs learning and memory in mammalian brains by damaging mitochondria, a finding that suggests the anesthetic desflurane may be a better choice for Alzheimer’s patients and others susceptible to cognitive dysfunction.

Astronomy Professor Daniel Eisenstein is using a new understanding of spacing between galaxies to build a 3-D map of the cosmos and confirm theories about its structure.

Harvard researchers find that a subpopulation of the immune cells targeted by HIV may play an important role in controlling viral loads after initial infection, potentially helping to determine how quickly infection will progress.

A new paper shows that earlier studies of the peppered moth are “completely correct” — the moths evolved darker coloration via natural selection to better camouflage themselves during the height of the Industrial Revolution, then evolved back to their natural, mottled black-and-white color as air quality improved.

As reported in the online version of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology on Feb. 5, researchers have produced 3-D images of the protein system that works to repair DNA. The images reveal that the proteins can actually alter their shape in what amounts to a genetic “pat-down,” or a way for the mechanism to identify areas of the genetic code that need repair.

A team of researchers, led Harvard Professor David I. Laibson and Christopher F. Chabris of Union College, has found that virtually all claims that intelligence is associated with specific genes are wrong.

Children in the U.S. whose activity choices, interests, and pretend play before age 11 fall outside those typically expressed by their biological sex face increased risk of being physically, psychologically, and sexually abused, and of suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by early adulthood, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health.

In a preview of what is likely now playing out in a closed-door meeting of the World Health Organization, a cadre of experts on infectious disease gathered Feb. 15 at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) to debate whether efforts to combat a deadly form of flu have actually increased the risk to public health.