Science & Tech

All Science & Tech

  • Now arriving: Internet of Things

    The Internet of Things is growing ever more sophisticated, enabling everything from smart cities to automatic appliances. A Harvard ethicist says we should think not just about what we can do, but what we should do.

  • Worlds of promise

    The future of visual and augmented reality was the theme of a HUBweek event that attracted students, scientists, educators, entrepreneurs, and software developers for an afternoon of demonstrations and discussions.

  • A hot idea for conserving energy

    Aldís Elfarsdóttir ’18 didn’t like the energy-wasting implications of cracking the window to lower the temperature in her Eliot House room. So she and two recent grads have launched a temperature data-gathering project to help the House conserve wasted energy.

  • Why lose the headphone jack?

    Harvard Engineering Professor Woodward Yang discusses Apple’s decision to get rid of the headphone jack.

  • Strong case for seagrass

    New findings on seagrass reinforce the need to direct research where biodiversity is most at risk, says Harvard Herbaria fellow Barnabas Daru.

  • Testing the test questions

    A group of researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has found a way for schools, professors, textbook publishers, and educational researchers to check the quality of their test questions that turns out to be both fast and cheap. It invokes the power of crowdsourcing.

  • What artificial intelligence will look like in 2030

    “Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030” is the first product of the One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100).

  • Asteroid mission will carry student X-ray experiment

    At 7:05 p.m. (EDT) today, NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu. Among that spacecraft’s five instruments is a student experiment that will use X-rays to help determine Bennu’s surface composition.

  • Milky Way had blowout bash 6 million years ago

    Researchers analyzed archival X-ray observations from the XMM-Newton spacecraft and found that the missing mass from the Milky Way is in the form of a million-degree gaseous fog permeating our galaxy.

  • The first autonomous, entirely soft robot

    Developed by a team of Harvard researchers, the first autonomous, entirely soft robot is powered by a chemical reaction controlled by microfluidics. The 3-D-printed “octobot” has no electronics.

  • Exoplanet might have oxygen atmosphere, but not life

    Researchers believe they may for the first time detect oxygen on a rocky planet outside the solar system.

  • ‘Smoke waves’ will affect millions in coming decades

    Wildfires threaten more than land and homes. The smoke they produce contains fine particles (PM2.5) that can poison the air for hundreds of miles. Air pollution from the 2016 Fort…

  • Toward a better screen

    Harvard researchers have designed more than 1,000 new blue-light-emitting molecules for organic light-emitting diodes that could dramatically improve displays for televisions, phones, tablets, and more.

  • Resolving conflict: Men vs. women

    Using videos of four sports in 44 countries, researchers found that men are far more likely to engage in friendly physical contact — handshakes, back pats and even hugs — following competition than women are.

  • Calculating the odds of life between the Big Bang and the final fade

    The universe is 13.8 billion years old, but our planet formed just 4.5 billion years ago. Some scientists think this time gap means that life on other planets could be…

  • Design for movement

    GSD architecture graduate Lauren Friedrich, M.Arch. ’16, looks at how architecture can better support health by providing unexpected physical challenges and minor obstacles rather than always prioritizing ease and comfort.

  • New way to model molecules

    Scientists from Harvard and Google have demonstrated for the first time that a quantum computer could be used to model the electron interactions in a complex molecule.

  • Between Cuba and Harvard, an uncommon garden

    Historian Leida Fernandez-Prieto came to Cambridge to research a Cuban botanical garden with Harvard roots.

  • Just-so black holes

    New findings advance insight on formation of supermassive black holes in the early epochs of the universe.

  • Minding the details of mind wandering

    A new study sheds light on important differences between intentional and unintentional mind wandering.

  • A battery inspired by vitamins

    Harvard researchers have developed a new class of battery electrolyte material based on vitamin B2 that could enable large-scale, inexpensive electricity storage for renewable power sources.

  • The high price of workplace stress

    Experts discuss findings from a new Harvard T.H. Chan School survey about how workers say their jobs affect their health, and what companies can and should be doing to help.

  • Eternal light, up for grabs

    Martin Elvis of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics warns that a loophole in the Outer Space Treaty leaves open the possibility of a race for resources on the moon.

  • Microscopy taps power of programmable DNA

    With a super-resolution microscopy, a team of researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute has leveraged the power of programmable DNA.

  • Turning the brain green

    Harvard neurosurgeon Ann-Christine Duhaime thinks a better understanding of the brain’s reward system might help encourage greener living.

  • The power of babble

    Babies need conversational stimulation for their intellectual development, and a piece published in JAMA Pediatrics hopes to advise parents and pediatricians on how and when to best nurture that development.

  • Unveiling Jupiter’s mysteries

    In less than a week, the spacecraft Juno will reach Jupiter, culminating a five-year, billion-dollar journey. Its mission: to orbit and peer deep inside the gas giant and unravel its origin and evolution. One of the biggest mysteries surrounding Jupiter is how it generates its powerful magnetic field, the strongest in the solar system.

  • Nature as storm defender

    The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study’s new program “Next in Science” brought together early career scientists to present their research to Harvard and the public. The event, which included speakers from the University of Glasgow and the Sea Education Association, offered a preview of Radcliffe’s October ocean symposium, “From Sea to Changing Sea.”

  • Tackling carbon emissions in China

    A Beijing symposium co-sponsored by the Harvard China Project and the Harvard Global Institute explored the possibility of China adopting a carbon tax as a way to reduce climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions. The Gazette spoke with economist Dale Jorgenson, the Samuel W. Morris University Professor, and Chris Nielsen, the executive director of the China Project, about the symposium and the broader issues involved.

  • On demand, and now on schedule

    Joshua Meier ’18, a computer science and chemistry concentrator at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, launched TaxiLater, an iPhone app that lets users arrange an Uber pickup hours, days, or even months in advance.