Tag: In the Field
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Health
Strict enforcement of lead-exposure-prevention policies shows clear benefits
Even at low levels, lead poisoning in children can cause IQ deficiencies, reading and learning disabilities, impaired hearing, reduced attention spans, hyperactivity and other behavior problems. Children who live in…
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Science & Tech
Polar bear research shows global warming is real
Harvard Professor James McCarthy was among a handful of top scientists who coordinated a remarkable report by the world scientific community in 2001 that said global warming is real, it’s…
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Health
Testing to identify drug-resistant AIDS strains is cost-effective
A new study led by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in March 2001, finds that testing people with HIV to determine whether…
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Science & Tech
Minority students more likely to be labeled “mentally retarded”
When compared with their white counterparts, African-American children were almost three times more likely to be labeled “mentally retarded,” according to a paper by Thomas B. Parrish, managing research scientist…
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Science & Tech
Is E.T. flashing us?
Harvard recently broke ground for a new telescope to look for extraterrestrial beacons. This instrument will be capable of covering a million times more celestial space than the present instrument…
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Science & Tech
Ancient Chinese script rewrites history
“This is like the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls,” says Tu Weiming, director of the Harvard Yenching Institute, who has played a key role in the preservation of ancient…
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Science & Tech
Study confirms that students in “substance-free” dorms drink less
Residents of college housing where alcohol and smoking were banned were less likely to be victims of actions by students who were drinking. Findings from the Harvard School of Public…
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Science & Tech
Drivers place children in rear seat because of new law
A Rhode Island law that requires that children sit in the back and wear proper restraints imposes fines of $30 for violation of the rear seating requirement and $150 for…
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Science & Tech
High school dropouts concentrated in 35 cities
The nation’s high school dropout problem is most desperate in between 200 to 300 schools in the 35 largest cities in the U.S. The cities are Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, San…
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Science & Tech
Marine science expert monitoring Boston Harbor pollution
Harvard researcher James Shine is currently researching pollutants in the sediment of Boston Harbor and other harbors. He is crafting criteria for the Environmental Protection Agency that would measure pollution…
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Science & Tech
Uncovering new evidence for ‘event horizons’ surrounding black holes
With results that fundamentally differ from earlier black hole studies, Harvard researchers have shown that some recently discovered black holes are not only ultra-dense, but actually possess event horizons that…
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Science & Tech
Telescope will look toward the edge of the universe
A mountaintop in Chile provides one of the best places on Earth to see light that has been traveling toward our world for billions of years. “It’s an inspiring place…
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Science & Tech
Environmental health researcher studies lead poisoning in India
Lead is a naturally occurring toxic element, and exposure poses a serious threat to children whose neurological systems are still developing. Some children suffer from brain damage, poor motor skills…
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Science & Tech
Street vendors often define urban landscape
“The question is, how is public space to be created — by designers, by the state, or by the people who use it?” asks Margaret Crawford, a professor at the…
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Science & Tech
Chandra X-ray Observatory helps put pieces together on gamma-ray bursts
Astronomers have long debated how gamma-ray bursts (or “GRBs”) originate. One theory contends that GRBs result when two “compact objects,” that is, neutron stars or black holes, collide and coalesce.…
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Health
Shorter treatment as effective, less costly in preventing HIV in babies
Of the more than 1,500 infants who get HIV from their infected mothers every day, 95 percent live in developing countries where the poverty level is high. Many mothers in…
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Science & Tech
Examining differing reproductive desires in Gambia
For men in rural Gambia, more than 15 kids are desirable. That’s double the number of children that women are actually delivering. The number may seem high to people in…
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Science & Tech
Chandra clinches case for missing-link black hole
Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, scientists have zeroed in on a mid-mass black hole in the galaxy M82. This black hole – located 600 light years away from the center…
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Health
Mapping the brain’s response to breathlessness
In an experiment, healthy men were placed on ventilators, and their ability to take deep breaths was controlled. As their breathing was regulated, their brains were imaged using a PET…
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Science & Tech
Cosmic ‘superbubbles’ bespeak toil and trouble
The merging Antennae Galaxies in constellation Corvus are producing massive bubbles of expanding X-ray-emitting gas at such astonishing rates that they are bumping into each other. Giuseppina Fabbiano, Andreas Zezas…
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Health
Nearly half of college students used tobacco in one-year period
In 2000, nearly one-half of college students reported using tobacco products in the previous year. By including the use of cigars and smokeless tobacco, a study found a greater prevalence…
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Science & Tech
Mystery of cometary X-rays solved
Comets, which resemble “dirty snow balls” a few miles in diameter, until recently were thought to be too cold to emit X-rays. So the detection of X-rays from comet Hyakutake…
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Science & Tech
The whys and woes of child beauty pageants
Hilary Levey, a member of the Harvard College Class of ’02, studied child beauty pageants. “With the death of JonBenet Ramsey, there’s been a barrage of interest in beauty pageants…
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Science & Tech
Nebula resembles gigantic cosmic crossbow
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory captured the details of a compact nebula that resembles a gigantic cosmic crossbow. The nebula, located in the Vela supernova remnant, is created as a rapidly…
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Science & Tech
Chandra discovers elusive ‘hot bubble’ in planetary nebula
A planetary nebula (so called because it looks like a planet when viewed with a small telescope) is formed when a dying red giant star puffs off its outer layer,…
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Science & Tech
Helping clear the air in China
Across China’s industrial areas, black soot settles into people’s lungs and bronchial tubes, producing an annual epidemic of respiratory disease. That’s the result of heating homes, schools, and offices with…
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Health
Potent cancer drugs made from sea squirts
In May 2000, researchers at Harvard University announced that they had succeeded in synthesizing a complex anti-tumor drug that is more powerful than any other known drug. The drug, ecteinascidin,…
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Health
Understanding how fish swim
The pattern is hard to see at first because the movement seems to happen in the blink of an eye.
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Science & Tech
Cosmic pressure fronts mapped by Chandra
The collision of two giant clusters of galaxies has been imaged by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. For the first time, the pressure fronts in this system, which has been compared…
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Science & Tech
Scientists probe Northern Hemisphere ozone loss
The ozone layer shields us from cancerous ultraviolet radiation. Understanding how it is being destroyed was the mission of more than 350 scientists from the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan,…