Science & Tech

All Science & Tech

  • Human skull is 7 million years old

    When a 7-million-year-old skull was first found, Daniel Lieberman, a professor of anthropology at Harvard, called it “one of the greatest discoveries of the past 100 years.” After studying new…

  • Prof. Lene Hau: Stopping light cold

    In 2005, Professor Lene Hau did something that Einstein theorized was impossible. Hau stopped light cold using atoms and lasers in her Harvard lab.

  • Astronomers measure slowest motion across the sky

    “A snail crawling on Mars would appear to be moving across the surface more than 100 times faster than the motion we measured for this galaxy,” said Mark Reid of…

  • Study identifies mechanism of resistance to targeted therapy in lung cancer patients

    Gefitinib acts on the receptor for the epidermal growth factor protein (EGFR) to halt the spread of cancer cells by fitting into the activating pocket of the protein, blocking the…

  • In China, gems used as tools millennia earlier than thought

    Researchers have uncovered strong evidence that the ancient Chinese used diamonds to grind and polish ceremonial stone burial axes as long as 6,000 years ago – and incredibly, did so…

  • High school AP courses do not predict college success in science

    A survey of 18,000 college students enrolled in introductory biology, chemistry, and physics has found little evidence that high school Advanced Placement (AP) courses significantly boost college performance in the…

  • Functional protein changes caught and quantified

    Just knowing that a protein is expressed in a cell does not reveal what it is up to; increasingly, the chemical modifications it undergoes are the key to understanding its…

  • Most Milky Way stars are single

    Common wisdom among astronomers holds that most star systems in the Milky Way are multiple, consisting of two or more stars in orbit around each other. Common wisdom is wrong.

  • Racial, ethnic gap in youth violence linked to social factors

    A study conducted by Robert J. Sampson of Harvard University and Jeffrey D. Morenoff and Stephen Raudenbush of the University of Michigan shows that the longstanding gap in the racial…

  • Tiny RNA molecules fine-tune the brain’s synapses

    Non-coding regions of the genome – those that don’t code for proteins – are now known to include important elements that regulate gene activity. Among those elements are microRNAs, tiny,…

  • Interns crash more after long shifts

    A safety group at Harvard University has looked into the behavior of those in training in hospitals and found that overworked interns made 36 percent more serious medical errors and…

  • Growing supermassive black holes from seeds

    Astronomers announced Jan. 12, 2006 that they have found the first sample of intermediate-mass black holes in active galaxies – a discovery that will help in understanding the early universe.…

  • New maser measurements trace detail in active galactic core

    The roiling cores of many active galaxies are difficult to see in detail because of surrounding gas and interstellar dust. Smithsonian astronomers announced Jan. 12, 2006, however, a first-time measurement…

  • Astronomers spot the Great Orion Nebula’s successor

    Astronomers announced Jan. 11, 2006, that they have found the next Orion Nebula. Known as W3, this glowing gas cloud in the constellation Cassiopeia has just begun to shine with…

  • See-through galaxy

    To peer into the galactic center of our own Milky Way galaxy, astronomers Silas Laycock and Josh Grindlay used the unique capabilities of the 6.5-meter-diameter Magellan Telescope in Chile. By…

  • Going beyond Einstein

    Observations by two astronomers confirm one important theory about how a black hole’s extreme gravity can stretch light. The data also paint an intriguing image of how a spinning black…

  • Scientists find black hole’s ‘point of no return’

    By a score of 135 to zero, scientists using NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer have compared suspected neutron stars and black holes and found that the black holes behaved as…

  • Spitzer puts a new spin on the Helix Nebula

    Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) is a challenging stargazing target for amateur astronomers. It is one of the closest planetary nebulas – a type of nebula formed from gas ejected by…

  • New calculations suggest economic cost of Iraq war much larger than previously recognized

    A paper presented to the annual Allied Social Sciences Association meeting in Boston, in a session jointly sponsored by the American Economic Association and the Economists for Peace and Security,…

  • When oil became black gold

    Texas, Alaska, Russia, the Middle East – these are the regions one is likely to think of when asked to name the world’s top oil- producing areas. Galicia, an area…

  • Studying Boston’s race trends

    Guy Stuart, an associate professor of public policy at the Kennedy School of Government, is the author of a new study, “Boston at the Crossroads: Racial Trends in the Metropolitan…

  • Method automates capture of cell image data

    A new type of drug profiling will be useful in identifying the biological targets of experimental compounds and predicting drug toxicity. “This work brings microscopy into the ‘omics’ era,” said…

  • Alien treasures in our backyard

    Astronomers have gained an important clue to guide their hunt for extrasolar worlds. And that clue points to the unlikeliest of places — our own backyard. “It’s possible that some…

  • Taking a CAT scan of the early universe

    Reporting in the Nov. 11, 2004, issue of Nature, astrophysicists J. Stuart B. Wyithe (University of Melbourne) and Abraham Loeb (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) have calculated the size of cosmic…

  • Frequent starbursts sterilize center of Milky Way

    A scenario in which exploding stars kill all life within the center of our galaxy is detailed by stronomer Antony Stark (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and colleagues in the October…

  • Charter schools get high grades

    For many parents, educators, and policy-makers in the United States, charter schools – innovative public schools that are free from much bureaucratic oversight but must “compete” for students in order…

  • Galactic collision reveals fate of Milky Way galaxy

    Sixty-eight million light-years away, the Antennae galaxies are locked in a dance of death, with stars being ripped from their orbits and spiral arms being shredded into streamers that dangle…

  • China’s one-child policy comes of age

    When the Chinese government dictated that families limit themselves to one child each, it was a huge change: Chinese women averaged six births a piece in 1970, and parents traditionally…

  • The inside scoop on the Apostle Paul

    Laura Nasrallah’s newest book, “An Ecstasy of Folly: Prophecy and Authority in Early Christianity,” argues that, in early Christian communities, dreams, visions, and prophecies were often central to communication and…

  • Tiny “David” telescope finds “Goliath” planet

    A newfound planet detected by a small, 4-inch-diameter telescope demonstrates that we are at the cusp of a new age of planet discovery. Soon, new worlds may be located at…