Science & Tech
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Even Bill Gates thinks AI is a little scary
Tech pioneer visits campus with his new memoir to discuss beauty of math, dropping out of College, founding Microsoft, value of curiosity
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What prompts genetic adaptation? Ask a finch.
Groundbreaking pangenomic study suggests big DNA flip may have made small bird resistant to some diseases
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Landmark studies track source of Indo-European languages spoken by 40% of world
Researchers place Caucasus Lower Volga people, speakers of ancestor tongue, in today’s Russia about 6,500 years ago
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Researchers make leap in quantum computing
Trapping molecules for use in systems may help make ultra-high-speed experimental technology even faster
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Wish you had a better memory?
Take our research-based quiz for tips on improving recall when it matters most
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A small slice of time
An NSF project builds a special camera to shoot the night sky, light up dark matter, and map the Milky Way
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Dating violence linked with teen pregnancy, suicide attempts
About one in five girls experience physical or sexual dating violence, according to a new study by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, the Boston University School of…
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Stellar apocalypse yields first evidence of water-bearing worlds beyond our solar system
The first evidence that planetary systems beyond our own contain water, a molecule that is an essential ingredient for known forms of life, was discovered recently by using the Submillimeter…
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Preventing cervical cancer in developing nations
Cervical cancer kills approximately 190,000 women each year, most of them in developing nations. It is the third most common cancer world wide. Women who live in more affluent nations…
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New way to ‘see’ DNA
Research by Harvard scientists was driven by the need to make extremely small holes that mimic the pores in human cells through which different molecules must pass to keep the…
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The skin’s the thing for conserving a building’s energy
It has been estimated that a third of the world’s energy is consumed by buildings, a third by transportation, and a third by industry. With gasoline prices rising and electrical…
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School segregation on the rise despite growing diversity
Nearly 50 years after the U.S. Supreme Court declared Southern segregated schools to be unconstitutional, resegregation is happening again. And it is occurring despite the nation’s growing diversity. According to…
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New report highlights safe, secure method for managing spent nuclear fuel
A joint Harvard University/University of Tokyo team of nuclear energy, nonproliferation, and waste management experts concludes in a new study that technologies are available to store spent nuclear fuel from…
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No-fault compensation for medical injury proposed
Three jumbo jets filled with patients crashing every two days — that’s the analogy for the number of patients estimated to die annually from medical injury in the U.S. A…
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Anatomy of the low-income homeownership boom in the 1990s
The rate of home ownership in the United States has grown to an unprecedented 67.7 percent since the 1990s. Low-income ownership has grown in particular. According to a study by…
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Never-before-seen look inside the world of cancerous tumors
Harvard researchers working at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Radiation Oncology unit have used a powerful new microscope to see inside cancerous tumors. The microscope is so powerful that it can see…
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National environmental policy during the Clinton years
Researchers at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government examined the environmental policy record of former President Bill Clinton. Environmental quality improved overall during the decade, the researchers found, continuing a trend…
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Eighty-five percent of immigrant children separated from families during migration
An ongoing study of more than 400 children who have immigrated to the United States shows that 85 percent of them experience separation from one or both parents during the…
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Offshore investment funds: Monsters in emerging markets?
Less moderated by tax consequences, and less subject to supervision and regulation, offshore investment funds are alleged to engage in trading behaviors that are different from those of their onshore…
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Housing market resilient in slowing economy
The housing market has not been affected by a slowing economy, according to a report, The State of the Nation’s Housing: 2001, released in June 2001 by the Joint Center…
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Children from working-class families twice as likely to be depressed adults
Children from low socioeconomic backgrounds have an elevated risk of depression throughout their lifetimes, even if they become more professionally successful than their parents. That’s the conclusion of a study…
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Astronomers detect dust disks around very young brown dwarfs in the Orion Nebula
The results of recent observations by an international team of astronomers suggest that brown dwarfs share a common origin with stars. Brown dwarfs are more similar in nature to stars…
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Star factory near galactic center bathed in high-energy X-rays
A team of astronomers, including some from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has looked into the core of our own Milky Way galaxy and discovered a new phenomenon. The “cauldron”…
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Chandra sees wealth of black holes in star-forming galaxies
Three independent teams of research scientists, including one from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to find what they suspect are groups of mid-mass black holes…
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Depiction of alcohol, tobacco use in G-rated animated films still high
Alcohol and tobacco use is depicted as normal behavior in nearly half of G-rated animated feature films. While researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health say that this is…
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A quasar’s identity may simply be in eye of beholder
A quasar is a super-massive black hole; quasars are among the most energetic objects in the Universe. Most quasars are extremely bright in optical light, but about 10 percent of…
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Oldest mammal is found
When dinosaurs ruled the world, scampering around their feet were platoons of diminutive insect-eating animals, part reptile, part something new. When the giant reptiles and many other animals were wiped…
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Students tackle Harvard Square parking problems
A group of students who studied parking problems in Harvard Square issued wide-ranging recommendations, including installing wireless access-control gates at the more than 50 lots across the University, increasing parking…
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Bringing back the ancient muses
The epic verse of Homer, the love poems of Sappho, the tragedies of Sophocles, and the comedies of Aristophanes – all were accompanied by music. Yet that music – its…
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What determines who goes to college and who does not?
More than ever, policymakers are adopting merit-based, rather than need-based, financial aid programs, a trend that disquiets Harvard Graduate School of Education Assistant Professor Bridget Terry Long. In Georgia, for…
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Doctoral student developing Internet search tool
Harvard Graduate School of Education doctoral student Kathleen Guinee is developing a computer-based tool to make searching the Internet easier for all students. Her research so far has focused on…
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Chandra reveals nest of tight binaries in dense cluster
Observations from a scientific team at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have revealed that an incredibly dense star cluster known as 47 Tucanae includes many binary stars. Most of the…
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Young star may be belching spheres of gas, astronomers say
Observations by astronomers of a young star in the constellation Cepheus, more than 2000 lights-years away, suggest that it is repeatedly belching spheres of gas. Current theories about how young…
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Chandra pinpoints edge of accretion disk around black hole
An object known as XTE J1118+480 is a black hole roughly seven times the mass of our Sun. XTE J1118+480 is locked in a close binary orbit with a Sun-like…
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Handheld calculator measures risk of heart attack
When a patient goes to a hospital emergency room with worsening chest pain, doctors must quickly decide whether that person should be given medication and sent home, or whether he…
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Researcher creates controversy with view of loving families
One of the foremost authorities on the history of the family in the early modern period, Steven Ozment has from his first forays into this field attracted controversy. His latest…