Science & Tech
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Mapping our deep-rooted relationship with medicinal plants
Regions with longer histories of human settlement tend to have greater variety, study finds
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Technically, it’s possible. Ethically, it’s complicated.
Surge in AI use heightens demand for Harvard program that examines social consequences of computer science work
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Solving mystery at tip of South America
Study finds previously unknown ancient lineage of indigenous people, which gave rise to surprisingly diverse mix of cultures
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Is AI dulling our minds?
Experts weigh in on whether tech poses threat to critical thinking, pointing to cautionary tales in use of other cognitive labor tools
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A potential quantum leap
Harvard physicists unveil system to solve long-standing barrier to new generation of supercomputers
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No one knows the answer, and that’s the point
‘Genuinely Hard Problems’ pilots novel approach to scientific education
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Midwest summer storms threaten ozone, study warns
Summer storms in the central U.S. create the same chemical reactions damaging ozone in the Arctic, warns a Harvard study calling for a closer look at the region’s UV radiation risk.
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Will business fill the Paris void?
Q&A with HBS Professor George Serafeim on the response among corporate leaders to the U.S. exit from the Paris climate agreement.
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New robotic exosuit could push the limits of human performance
Harvard researchers have demonstrated that a tethered soft exosuit can bring those dreams of high performance closer to reality.
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Figuring out superconductors
A team of physicists has taken a crucial step toward understanding superconductors by creating a quantum antiferromagnet from an ultracold gas of hundreds of lithium atoms.
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Probing the Black Death for lead pollution insights
The natural level of lead in the air is essentially zero, according to research backed by data from the 14th-century Black Death, when mining and smelting ceased.
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Human stem cells model the kidney’s filtration barrier
Researchers say their glomerulus-on-a-chip lined by human stem cell-derived kidney cells could help model patient-specific kidney diseases and guide therapeutic discovery.
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Sorrow, frustration, hope in opioid crisis
The Ed School and the Harvard Chan School brought together experts to discuss the nation’s opioid crisis in separate panel events.
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Drone’s-eye view
Researchers in recent years have begun applying the emerging technology of the drone aircraft to research efforts, and are now even using them to quickly create 3-D maps of ancient sites in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
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Me, steal? Impossible
New findings suggest a surprisingly common default in human behavior: the view that immoral actions are impossible.
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Five-minute warnings
The Harvard University Center for the Environment has produced 35 videos in which experts in various fields describe work related to climate change.
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Pick climate or economics
To make a difference on climate change, author Naomi Klein says, government and business would have to shift their ways, and likely won’t.
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Advice for scientists: ‘Be vocal’
Carlos Moedas, European Union Science Commissioner, spoke about the importance of science in the “post-truth” era in a visit to the Harvard Kennedy School.
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Light years ahead
Q&A with Dava Sobel, whose new book “The Glass Universe” explores pioneering work by female analysts at the Harvard College Observatory.
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‘Make it new’ isn’t for everyone
New Harvard research examines the gap between stories we like to tell and stories we like to hear.
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Bringing values, not just facts, to climate fight
Professor Naomi Oreskes wants scientists to make a stronger case for action on climate change.
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Where cooperation thrives
Harvard scientists helped develop an algorithm for predicting whether a social structure is likely to favor cooperation.
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Harvard launches data science initiative
Harvard launches sweeping data science initiative, and names Francesca Dominici and David Parkes as co-directors.
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Using a smartphone to screen for male infertility
New findings indicate that a smartphone-based semen analyzer can identify abnormal semen samples based on sperm concentration and motility criteria with approximately 98 percent accuracy.
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Creative path through Harvard Forest
David Buckley Borden, a Bullard Fellow at Harvard Forest, is using art to make a point about sustainability and conservation.
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More money, same results
A new study led by Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researchers examines the impact of individual physicians’ spending patterns on patient outcomes.
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Robots, exoskeletons, and invisible planes
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, is the rare government agency that is all about change, in this case endlessly improving technology that has military applications.
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Why sing to baby? If you don’t, you’ll starve
A new study suggests that infant-directed song evolved as a way for parents to signal to children that their needs were being met, while leaving time for other tasks, like food foraging or caring for other offspring.
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7 projects win funding for climate change solutions
Seven Harvard projects will share $1 million to help battle climate change across a range of academic boundaries.
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Making math more Lego-like
A trio of Harvard researchers has developed a new 3-D pictorial language for mathematics with potential as a tool across a wide spectrum, from pure math to physics.
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A mother’s influence
Researchers have shown, for the first time, that chimpanzees learn certain grooming behaviors from their mothers. Once learned, chimps continued to perform the behavior long after the deaths of their mothers.
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When bias hurts profits
Based on data collected from a French grocery store chain, a new Harvard study has found that minority workers were far less efficient in a handful of important metrics when working with biased managers.
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What to expect from Pruitt’s EPA
The Gazette speaks to Robert Stavins, director of the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements and a past member of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board, about the future of the EPA under the leadership of Scott Pruitt.
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To advance sustainability, fight inequality, researcher says
A new Harvard study argues that technological approaches to sustainability must be accompanied by efforts to reduce inequality.
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No cookie-cutter fixes on air pollution
A Nobel Prize-winning chemist has called for additional research into the air pollution blanketing the world’s megacities, saying that solutions found in the developed world’s cities are not likely to apply in other places.
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Catalyzing discovery
In a trio of studies published earlier this month, researchers have shown that the process of catalysis is more dynamic than previously imagined, and that molecular forces can vastly influence the process.