Science & Tech

Every month, Sarah Stewart-Mukhopadhyay fires her 20-foot gun in the basement of Harvard’s Hoffman Lab, sending shivers through the concrete and steel structure that can be picked up by seismometers upstairs.

Harvard University study suggests that the pain of torture can make even the innocent appear guilty to those interrogating them.

Taking nanomaterials to a new level of structural complexity, Harvard researchers have determined how to introduce kinks into arrow-straight nanowires, transforming them into zigzagging two- and three-dimensional structures with correspondingly…

Activist and author Bill McKibben ’82 takes to the pulpit in a plea for climate change action.

An insight from the labs of Harvard chemist George M. Whitesides and cell biologist Donald Ingber is likely to make a fundamental shift in how biologists grow and study cells…

After 25 years at the University of California, Santa Barbara, a pioneer in the fabrication of miniature electronic and photonic devices takes up residence at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Dr. Kenneth Chien speaks about a cardiac stem cell discovery that may be the first step on the path to regenerating healthy heart muscle.

In remarks last month at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., President Barack Obama said not only do we need stimulus money to create thousands of jobs…

Harvard science historian and physicist Peter Galison is using part of his Radcliffe year to explore the intersections of forbidden wilderness and nuclear wasteland.

A new study seeking to answer the question of why some galaxies are extremely dark compared with others may eventually help to explain the formation of all galaxies, according to…

Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., founding director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, has been awarded the Biomedical Engineering Society’s prestigious Pritzker Distinguished Lectureship for 2009.…

Amid calls for transformative change in the world’s energy supply, Harvard chemist Ted Betley is taking a back-to-basics approach and examining the mother of all energy supplies — photosynthesis —…

University of Calgary Professor David Keith calls for investment in geoengineering research as part of the search for solutions to climate change.

Two Harvard faculty members who study present and past ice sheets and the science behind familiar objects and everyday events have been named recipients of prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius” grants.…

Researchers from chemistry, computer science, and astronomy are learning a trick or two from video games and investigating a new kind of computing based on graphics processing units.

A new analysis of extinct sea creatures suggests that the transition from egg-laying to live-born young opened up evolutionary pathways that allowed these ancient species to adapt to and thrive…

A team of environmental scientists from Harvard and Tsinghua University has demonstrated the enormous potential for wind-generated electricity in China.

Rewards go further than punishment in building human cooperation and benefiting the common good, according to research published in the journal Science by researchers at Harvard University and the Stockholm School of Economics.

Chia Shen at the Scientists Discovery Room Lab is devising new ways for researchers to visually explore large data sets.

The Berkman Center and the Center for Research in Computation and Society (CRCS) have joined their fellowship programs for the 2009-10 academic year.

Outcomes matter more than intention when choosing to punish or reward individuals who’ve caused accidents, according to new research from Harvard University.

A multidisciplinary team of computer scientists, engineers, and biologists at Harvard received a $10 million National Science Foundation (NSF) Expeditions in Computing grant to fund the development of small-scale mobile robotic…

Adam Cohen and Ben Rapoport needed materials to conduct a science experiment, but supplies were hard to come by. Cohen, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology and of physics…

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu described the U.S. failure to anticipate changes in the global energy supply during a talk at the John F. Kennedy School of Government Aug. 6.…

As the climate warms in the coming decades, atmospheric scientists at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and their colleagues expect that the frequency of wildfires will increase…

Substantial numbers of parents who have children in school or day care report that two-week closings in the fall would present serious financial problems for them, according to the results…

There she is again: the cute girl at the mall. Big eyes. Long legs. She smiles at you. You’re about to make your move … but wait! What’s she wearing?…

Last week (July 8), Harvard University planners presented preliminary designs to residents of Allston for the new 1.74-acre public park to be constructed behind the Honan-Allston Branch of the Boston Public Library on North Harvard Street.

New research shows that childhood adversity is associated with diminished neural activity in certain regions of the brain. Harvard researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor brain activity…

A new study of the cognitive processes involved with honesty suggests that truthfulness depends more on absence of temptation than active resistance to temptation. Using neuroimaging, psychologists looked at the…