Science & Tech
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What if AI could help students learn, not just do assignments for them?
Professors find promise in ‘tutor bots’ that offer more flexible, individual, interactive attention in addition to live teaching
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You see Saturn’s rings. She sees hidden number theory.
Math professor finds psychedelic beauty in complex sequences
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Her science writing is not for the squeamish
It takes a lot to gross out ‘Replaceable You’ author Mary Roach
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Over 60 and online
In new book, law professor busts myths about ‘hapless grandparents’ in the digital age
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Harsh past might bare its teeth
Early adversity leads to higher aggression and fearfulness in adult canines, study says
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What will AI mean for humanity?
Scholars from range of disciplines see red flags, possibilities ahead
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Back in days of great floods
Harvard researcher explains how overflowing rivers billions of years ago helped shape what Mars looks like today.
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What it takes to be a scientific breakthrough
Harvard Medical School Professor Anthony L. Komaroff explains the difference between a scientific advance and a true breakthrough.
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A different kind of queen’s gambit
The n-queens challenge dates back to 1869. After working on the problem for about 5 years, mathematician Michael Simkin has an almost definitive solution.
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How a bubble gives birth to young stars
Scientists have shown how a chain of events led to the creation of the vast bubble that is responsible for the formation of all young stars within 500 light-years of the sun and Earth.
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5 ways to learn new things in the new year
Adults can continue to learn new things if they follow a few simple rules.
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Seeing squid more clearly
Harvard researchers shed new light on squid eye development and convergent evolution.
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Turns out smarter kids are made, not born
A study co-authored by experts at the Graduate School of Education found that mothers with positive mindsets can mitigate the negative effects of maternal stress on mother-child interactions and help promote children’s healthy development.
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Gut-brain connection in autism
Researchers have identified a possible mechanism linking autism and intestinal inflammation in mouse models.
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Geneticists’ new research on ancient Britain contains insights on language, ancestry, kinship, milk
Two new studies highlight technological advances in large-scale genomics and open windows into the lives of ancient people.
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Twin gene-editing system gives twice the efficiency
A new gene-editing technique that enables larger edits than earlier ones could create new ways to study and treat genetic diseases, such as hemophilia or Hunter syndrome.
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Telescope to help tell the story of the universe
Harvard astrophysicist details the most ambitious space probe NASA ever built.
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Why that song is stuck in your head
Brain scientist explains earworms
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Touching the sun
An instrument made by scientists and engineers at the Center for Astrophysics has helped verify that — for the first time in history — a spacecraft has entered the corona of the sun.
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University seen as well-equipped to meet goals of ambitious institute
Scholars across University say Harvard is well-suited to the challenge owing to breadth, size of intellectual resources, experience.
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New University-wide institute to integrate natural, artificial intelligence
University-wide initiative made possible by gift from Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg.
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Negotiating the irrational with Daniel Kahneman
Nobel-winning behavioral economist and author of “Thinking Fast and Slow” shares advice on negotiation at Harvard event.
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Step in quest for quantum computing
Harvard researchers observe a state of matter predicted and hunted for 50 years, but never previously observed.
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Potential step toward new superconductors
Never-before-seen electron behavior could help scientists create superwires for supercharged technology.
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Getting the asteroid before it gets us
Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics explains the science and objectives guiding the agency’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test.
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Elizabeth Kolbert sees a world depleted, and possibly defeated, by climate change
New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert and Planetary Health Alliance Director Samuel Myers discussed whether humans can save the Earth during a “Weather Reports” panel hosted by the Harvard Divinity School.
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Meat and muscles, sure. But the human eye is a stretch, for now.
The author and MIT professor Ritu Raman discussed the promise and ethical challenges of a lab-shaped future.
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When will a robot write a novel?
In considering whether a robot could write a work of fiction, the computer science Krzysztof Gajos says it depends—trashy novel or a good one?
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A Rosetta Stone of biology
Harvard researcher develops program to read any genome sequence and decipher its genetic code.
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Lessons in regeneration by light of glowing worms
Harvard-led team is learning secrets of regeneration through a method for manipulating genome, which allows a better view of workings of cells.
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If we could talk to the animals … whales, specifically
A group of scholars who met at Radcliffe in 2017 have formed a nonprofit aimed at deciphering whale communication.
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A big discovery of a tiny critter
Discovery in 16-million-year-old amber is the third species of water bear ever found.
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Mathematician’s life advice: Subtract the boring parts
Marcus du Sautoy discussed his latest work “Thinking Better: The Art of the Shortcut in Math and Life,” with Melissa Franklin, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics.
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Why did some mammals develop tusks?
New study defines and traces the evolution of tusks from the first animals to sport them.
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Coming to grips with planetary existential threat
Environmental Science and Public Policy takes multidisciplinary approach to complex existential threat.
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People weren’t so lazy back then
Research comparing 19th- and 21st-century Americans finds a half-hour decline in physical activity. Blame it on planes, trains, and automobiles.