Science & Tech

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. We hear this mantra time and again. When it comes to carbon—the “Most Wanted” element in terms of climate change—nature has got reuse and recycle covered. However, it’s up to us to reduce.

Author-turned-activist Bill McKibben says the fight to arrest global warming requires an international movement to force political change.

Researchers find strong clues that sea ice covered tropical climes, including the equator, 716.5 million years ago, suggesting there was a time of a “snowball Earth.”

Geologists have found evidence that sea ice extended to the equator 716.5 million years ago, bringing new precision to a “snowball Earth” event long suspected of occurring around that time.

Chesapeake Energy’s chief executive officer, Aubrey McClendon, struck a positive note on the future prominence of natural gas as an energy source, though some critics decried new gas extraction techniques.

Climate change, population growth present fresh challenges to a global food supply system already showing cracks.

An international team of researchers has created a genome-scale map of 26 cancers, revealing more than 100 genomic sites where DNA from tumors is either missing or abnormally duplicated compared to normal tissues.…

In a quest for cheaper power, HBS professor helps Maine islanders get wind turbine project off the ground.

Making good use of the Web, students from the Harvard Graduate School of Education are using virtual internships to gain valuable experience without leaving home.

Harvard engineers have successfully created a silicone rubber stick-on sheet containing dozens of miniature, powerful lenses, bring them one step closer to putting the capacity of a large laboratory into…

By creating diamond-based nanowire devices, a team of Harvard researchers has taken another step toward making applications based on quantum science and technology possible.

Researchers at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences find that a diamond nanowire device could lead to a new class of diamond nanomaterials suitable for quantum cryptography, quantum computing, and magnetic field imaging.

Harvard Kennedy School panelists say that the slippage in mainstream media outlets means more voices argue about environmental issues, prompting the public to have difficulty sorting out the cacophony and even to doubt global warming.

Harvard Medical School professor Nicholas Christakis, whose work focuses on social networks, and economics professor David Laibson, who examines how and why people make the decisions they do regarding savings…

Invasive plants are beneficiaries of climate change in Thoreau’s woods.

Daycare workers and kindergarten teachers tend to offer young humans a lot of coaching about the idea of sharing. But for our ape cousins the bonobos, sharing just comes naturally.

Scientists have long studied how atoms and molecules structure themselves into intricate clusters. Unlocking the design secrets of nature offers lessons in engineering artificial systems that could self-assemble into desired…

Using magnetic toys as inspiration, researchers tease out structures that echo self-assembled clusters of atoms and molecules.

New Harvard research casts doubt on the old adage, “All you need to run is a pair of shoes.”

Felice Frankel, a Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Research Associate in Harvard Medical School’s systems biology department has been awarded the Progress Medal of…

Harvard lecturer David Malan’s introductory computer-programming class spawns an array of imaginative new applications, reflected in the annual CS 50 Fair.

The Harvard Office of Technology Development’s Accelerator Fund helps researchers advance their work to the point where it’s attractive to private industry.

A new analysis of the geological record of the Earth’s sea level, carried out by scientists at Harvard and Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, employs…

Harvard lecturer David Malan’s introductory computer-programming class spawns an array of imaginative new applications, reflected in the annual CS 50 Fair.

Nature and its bottom-up processes for creating robust and responsive materials are inspiring new generations of synthetic materials and creative design.

Donhee Ham, Gordon McKay Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics, uses his personal energy and understanding of physics to design innovative integrated circuits.

In a world marked by dams, oil fields, mines, and other energy infrastructure, scholars in a new Harvard journal begin looking at its social impact.

Energy adviser and former Honeywell executive Maxine Savitz says there are enormous energy savings available through increased efficiency, as much as 30 percent by 2030.

In an era when elementary schoolchildren can create exciting new worlds and explore them with the click of a computer mouse, will we again see bold explorers like Lewis and…

What has the Harvard Stem Cell Institute accomplished in its first 5 years?