Tag: Research
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Health
Researchers create embryonic stem cells without embryo
Researchers have created embryonic stem cells without an embryo. This discovery of a novel reprogramming method of adult cells, without introducing external genetic material, could dramatically shift stem cell research.

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Health
In search of nature’s camouflage
Cuttlefish, the “chameleon of the sea,” may offer researchers a model for bio-inspired human camouflage and color-changing products, some of which could be invaluable in wartime.

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Science & Tech
Architectural fever dreams
Master’s degree students in architecture present thesis topics in a traditional daylong January event that draws critical crossfire and praise.

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Health
Vitamin D could slow MS progression
For patients in the early stages of multiple sclerosis (MS), low levels of vitamin D were found to strongly predict disease severity and hasten its progression, according to a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) investigators in collaboration with Bayer HealthCare.

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Health
‘Beige’ cells key to healthy fat
“Beige fat” cells found in healthy subcutaneous fat in mice play a critical role in protecting the body against the disease risks of obesity, report Harvard researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who say their study findings may have implications for therapy of obesity-related illness in humans.

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Health
Bio-inspired glue keeps hearts securely sealed
The waterproof, light-activated glue developed by researchers at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital Boston and their colleagues at MIT can successfully secure biodegradable patches to seal holes in a beating heart.

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Science & Tech
Battery offers renewable energy breakthrough
A team of Harvard scientists and engineers has demonstrated a new type of battery that could fundamentally transform the way electricity is stored on the grid, making power from renewable energy sources such as wind and sun far more economical and reliable.

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Health
Color-coded labels, healthier food
Using color-coded labels to mark healthier foods and then displaying them more prominently appears to have prompted customers to make more healthful long-term dining choices in their large hospital cafeteria, according to a report from Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital

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Health
Fighting disease on a global scale
The idea that the wave of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer breaking over the world is largely the result of wealth and inactivity is not only wrong, it’s counterproductive, says a Harvard research fellow who recently founded a nonprofit organization to fight disease.

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Health
Ludwig Cancer Research awards HMS $90M
Ludwig Cancer Research, on behalf of its founder, Daniel K. Ludwig, has given Harvard Medical School $90 million to spur innovative scientific inquiry and discovery. According to the Ludwig announcement, this new financial support is among the largest private gifts ever for cancer research.

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Science & Tech
Following the weather
From the violence of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot to Earth’s own extreme weather, Ziff Environmental Fellow Pedram Hassanzadeh is investigating atmospheric vortices, those swirling air masses that make the weather go — and sometimes make it stop.

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Health
Saving tortoises by a hair
Five species of giant, long-lived Galapagos tortoises are thought to have gone extinct, but recent DNA analysis shows that some may survive on other islands in the archipelago, according to work by Michael Russello, Harvard Hrdy Fellow in Conservation Biology.

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Science & Tech
Can iPads help students learn science? Yes
A new study by researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics shows that students grasp the unimaginable emptiness of space more effectively when they use iPads to explore 3-D simulations of the universe, compared with traditional classroom instruction.

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Science & Tech
Probing how the past behaved
Harvard faculty and graduate students lectured, organized, and moderated in big ways throughout a four-day annual meeting in Boston of the History of Science Society.

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Science & Tech
U.S. methane emissions exceed government estimates
Emissions of methane from fossil fuel extraction and refining activities in the United States are nearly five times higher than previous estimates, according to researchers at Harvard University and seven other institutions.

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Science & Tech
‘Deep pragmatism’ as a moral engine
Professor Joshua Greene talks about his new book, “Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them.” What makes an issue like abortion or Israeli-Palestinian relations seem insurmountable, he said, can be chalked up, in part, to brain wiring.

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Nation & World
Core objectives
Harvard Graduate School of Education Professor Paul Reville talks about the new national standards for K-12 education, known as the Common Core State Standards, and the recent controversy surrounding their implementation.

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Health
Malaria in 3-D
Using an imaging technique known as high-speed holographic microscopy, Laurence Wilson, a fellow at Harvard’s Rowland Institute, worked with colleagues to produce detailed 3-D images of malaria sperm — the cells that reproduce inside infected mosquitoes — that shed new light on how the cells move.

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Health
Broad launches next decade with $100M gift
American philanthropists and entrepreneurs Eli and Edythe Broad announced on Thursday they are investing an additional $100 million into the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT to launch a new decade of transformative work to harness recent biomedical discoveries to benefit patients.

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Arts & Culture
Haunted by the siege
A Davis Center photo exhibit — wrenching and frank — brings back the 872-day Siege of Leningrad through the eyes of women who survived it.

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Arts & Culture
Change is on the runway
A Harvard conference will emphasize the rising influence of landscape architects in airport design and decommissioning.

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Health
Three days, three wild finds
Tim Laman, an associate of Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology and an award-winning wildlife photographer, was part of a two-man team that helicoptered into a remote Australian rainforest earlier this year, coming out with three new species: two lizards and a frog.

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Health
Stages of bloom
Harvard researchers have solved the nearly 200-year-old mystery of how Rafflesia, the largest flowering plants in the world, develop.

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Health
Online, on site, in the field
Harvard School of Public Health Dean Julio Frenk outlined a new vision for public health education Friday (Nov. 1), outlining courses that blend online, in-person, and in-the-field experiences and that take different forms throughout a professional’s life.

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Arts & Culture
The digital Dickinson
Houghton Library and Harvard University Press are two of the leading partners in the new Emily Dickinson Archive, a joint venture with other institutions that brings together most of her poem manuscripts.

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Health
New insight on wild nights
New research suggests that, despite moonlight’s apparent hunting advantage, large predators such as lions are actually less active on the brightest nights, while many prey animals — despite the risk of being eaten — become more active.

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Science & Tech
The teaching launch
A new study found that middle school teachers can have a real impact not only on students’ short-term educations, but on whether they attend college and on the size of their future paychecks.

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Science & Tech
National parks face dangerous foe
Thirty-eight of the United States’ national parks are experiencing “accidental fertilization” at or above a critical threshold for ecological damage, according to a study led by Harvard University researchers and published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

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Health
Improving cord blood transplants
They began with a discovery in zebrafish in 2007, and now researchers at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) have published initial results of a Phase Ib human clinical trial of a therapeutic that could improve the success of blood stem cell transplantation. This marks the first time that HSCI has carried a discovery from…

