Science & Tech

A reinvigorated “campus as a living laboratory” initiative includes two new, fully funded projects for that will tackle real-world challenges on campus or in the community, and lead to the practical application of emerging technologies or strategies regarding climate change.

Michael McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies, talks about his new book, “Energy and Climate: Vision for the Future.”

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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…

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.

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.

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…

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.”