Science & Tech

All Science & Tech

  • Giving teachers a DNA refresher

    Mansi Srivastava’s lab worked with middle school teachers in an education workshop on DNA and evolution.

    teachers participating in a workshop
  • The Mesoamerican attraction to magnetism

    Led by Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences Roger Fu, a team of researchers has shown that the makers of ancient Mesoamerican statues found in Guatemala intentionally carved the figures to place the magnetic areas over the navel or right temple — suggesting not only that they were familiar with the concept of magnetism, but had some way of detecting the magnetic anomalies.

  • Electrifying insights into how bodies form

    A researcher is reviving the study of bioelectricity to learn how cells communicate with each other to form tissues and organs, and how harnessing those signals could one day lead to truly regenerative medicine, in which amputees could simply regrow limbs.

    Mike Levin
  • Visual forensics that can detect fake text

    Researchers at the SEAS and IBM Research developed a better way to help people detect AI-generated text.

    Typewriter with word fake typed out
  • Using body heat to speed healing

    To speeding up wound healing, researchers have developed active adhesive dressings based on heat-responsive hydrogels that are mechanically active, stretchy, tough, highly adhesive, and antimicrobial.

    Hand with tough gel adhesive bandage
  • 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.

    A rendering of a DNA propeller
  • A way to make Mars habitable

    Researchers from Harvard University, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, and the University of Edinburgh suggest that regions of the Martian surface could be made habitable with a material — silica aerogel — that would mimic Earth’s atmospheric greenhouse effect.

    Robin Wordsworth
  • Harvard reflects on Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong’s moon walk

    A trio of Harvard astronomers reflect on the impact of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon, then and now.

    Earthrise viewed from lunar orbit.
  • Beneath the surface

    New study debunks long-held theory that dolphins had ridged skin, which helped them swim faster.

    Dolphins swimming
  • Solving a statistical nightmare

    Researchers have discovered why the North Atlantic and Northeast Pacific appeared to warm twice as much as the global average, while the Northwest Pacific cooled over several decades.

    Image of ocean
  • Are we alone in the universe?

    Harvard astronomer Laura Kreidberg studies the atmospheres of extrasolar planets to search for signs of life.

    Center for Astrophysics astronomer Laura Kreidberg framed by a metal structure
  • Plague genomes show extent, diversity of massive Roman-era pandemic

    New research from an interdisciplinary team of researchers shows an early plague pandemic reached post-Roman Britain and had unexpected genetic diversity.

    Michael McCormick standing with a tree
  • A product idea with legs

    Dakota McCoy, in collaboration with David Haig, led a group of researchers at Harvard studying the black spider and its ultrablack coat with microlenses that could lead to innovations in solar panels and sunglasses glare.

    Peacock spider.
  • Spreading seeds of life

    Scientists at the Institute for Theory and Computation have made a comprehensive calculation suggesting that panspermia could happen, and have found that as many as 10 trillion asteroid-sized objects might exist that carry life.

    Idan Ginsburg at Harvard College Observatory.
  • Soft robots for all

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

    Hand holding oscillators
  • Polarizing apposite

    A portable, miniature camera that can image polarization in a single shot has potential applications in machine vision, autonomous vehicles, security, atmospheric chemistry, and more.

    Polorization graphic illustration
  • So you think he can dance?

    Snowball the dancing cockatoo is the subject of a study by Radcliffe fellow and Tufts neuroscientist Ani Patel, who suggests the bird’s ability to move in time to music is connected to the way humans groove to a beat.

  • Single letter speaks volumes

    Scientists have used an optimized version of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system to prevent hearing loss in so-called Beethoven mice, which carry a genetic mutation that causes profound hearing loss in humans and mice alike.

  • Combing out a tangled problem

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

    Charles Lieber
  • Oceans away

    A new NASA-funded program will study water worlds and environments to understand the limits of life as part of the search for life on other planets.

    Fish in the ocean
  • Speeding up single-cell genomics research

    Harvard researchers have devised a time-saving method that makes it possible to speed up the process of profiling gene regulation in tens of thousands of individual human cells in a single day, a development that promises to boost genomics research.

    Image of a cell
  • The RoboBee flies solo

    Several decades in the making, the Harvard Microbiotics Lab’s RoboBee made its first solo flight.

    To achieve untethered flight, the latest iteration of the Robobee underwent several important changes, including the addition of a second pair of wings.
  • Leave those calluses alone

    A running-studies pioneer takes a look at walking, with and without shoes, and gives calluses a thumbs-up.

    Nick Holowka, Postdoctoral Researcher, performs an ultra sound on callouses
  • Blood-brain barrier chip performs human-like drug and antibody transport

    Wyss Institute scientists have developed chip technology that mimics the blood-brain barrier in humans. The new models will help researchers study drugs to treat cancer, neurodegeneration, and other diseases of the central nervous system.

    A transparent plastic model of a human skull
  • The little robot that could

    The iRobot Corp. announced its acquisition of Root Robotics, Inc., whose educational Root coding robot got its start as a summer research project at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University in 2011

    The Root robot with a whiteboard and iPad
  • The science of the artificial

    Researchers propose a new field of study — “machine behavior” — to look at artificial intelligence through the lens of biology, economics, psychology, and other behavioral and social sciences.

    David Parkes.
  • Beyond the cloud

    Every day, more and more information is filed in less and less space. Even the cloud will eventually run out of space, can’t thwart all hackers, and gobbles up energy. Now, a new way to store information could stably house data for millions of years.

    Brian Cafferty works in the lab.
  • No laughing matter

    A recent study shows that nitrous-oxide emissions from thawing Alaskan permafrost are about 12 times higher than previously assumed. About a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere is covered in permafrost, which is thawing at an increasing rate. And, even though researchers are monitoring carbon dioxide and methane, no one seems to be monitoring N2O, the most potent greenhouse gas.

    Aerial photo of Alaska
  • Forward thinking

    Research led by scientists at Harvard and the Broad Institute has optimized the process of making human brain “organoids” — miniature 3D organ models — so they consistently follow growth patterns observed in the developing human brain.

    Scientists
  • Editing genes at the source

    Study shows how genes could be edited in stem cells within intact organs, without having to remove them from their normal environment. The new approach could treat a variety of diseases.

    uninjected and injected cells