Featured series 
Tag: biology
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Health
Snaring secrets of the Venus flytrap
While “speed” is not a word most people associate with the plant kingdom, the Venus flytrap closes its v-shaped leaves in just one-tenth of a second – fast enough to accomplish a feat thousands if not millions of backyard barbecuers fail at each summer: snaring a fly. So how can a plant pull this off?…
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Health
Is your heart in the right place?
In a frog, the position of the heart is determined within the first hour in the womb, Harvard scientists have discovered. Researchers all over the world believe that frogs and humans develop in a similar way. Experiments show, for example, that some of the same mechanisms put the hearts of both creatures on the left…
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Health
How your heart got where it is
A team of scientists at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and The Forsyth Institute in Boston believes it has found the answer to how bodily organs are formed. And it’s electrifying. “All living things generate all sorts of electric fields inside themselves,” explains Michael Levin, an assistant professor at the Dental School and a…
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Science & Tech
Report documents health effect of biodiversity
A new report catalogues the connections between biodiversity and human health. The interim executive summary was presented at the United Nations in late October 2002, following the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. The report is the first product from a project called “Biodiversity: Its Importance to Human Health,” headed by…
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Science & Tech
Mustard shows backbone in its own defense
Over the past few years, accumulated evidence from many scientists suggests that plants, animals, and insects share common elements in their innate skirmishes with potential pathogens. In the Feb. 28, 2002 issue of the journal Nature, plant scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard and their colleagues have reported another striking similarity. The researchers identified…
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Health
Pigment plays role in Xenopus development
Harvard Medical School researchers have discovered that a pigment contained in the egg of the South African claw-toed frog is indispensable for development. Witout the pigment, called biliverdin, which is present in yolk platelets, the egg cannot go through dorsal axis formation. In its absence, Xenopus laevis embryos develop into headless, eyeless, spineless lumps of…
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Health
Human genome tally: Is recount in order?
The surprising finding that humans have fewer genes than expected led to endless speculations and editorial comments. Would biotech stocks be threatened? Should humans be more humble? Were entirely new theories needed to explain our biological complexity? But these opionions all relied on the idea that comparing the draft sequences of the human genome that…
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Health
Identifying the source of all disease
In a major leap toward learning the basics of human biology and what makes it go awry, Harvard researchers have built the prototype of a high-tech chip that rapidly identifies proteins and their functions. Such chips may ultimately help to determine which proteins are responsible for which diseases. “We don’t yet know how many different…
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Health
Active girls who drink colas are five times more likely to fracture bones
In a study, more than 460 ninth- and tenth-grade girls reported their activity levels, soda drinking habits, and history of bone fractures. A researcher found that drinking any type of soda was linked to an increased likelihood of having a bone fracture, and that the greatest increases were for those girls who drank cola beverages,…
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Health
Biological clock genes identified
“We’ve identified the molecules that we believe form the essential gears of the 24-hour clock,” says researcher Steven Reppert, who is a professor of pediatrics at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. “This understanding could lead to quicker and more efficient ways to reset the clocks of those suffering from jet lag or genetic sleep disorders, or…