Featured series 
Tag: Reuell
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Nation & World
Mining Facebook data for science
An organization co-created by Harvard scientists is set to release a massive trove of Facebook data, strictly for research purposes.
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Nation & World
Game-changing game changes
Games that can change based on players’ actions help Harvard’s Martin Nowak and his fellow researchers to understand the evolution of cooperation.
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Nation & World
How to feel the heat
A team of researchers was able to show how sensory neurons in the face detect temperature, and how this information is later passed on to the hindbrain of zebrafish, where it is processed to produce behavior.
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Nation & World
When wandering minds are just fine
While most of the psychological literature calls mind wandering a detrimental “failure of executive control” or a “dysfunctional cognitive state,” a new study led by Paul Seli, a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow working in the lab of Dan Schacter, suggests that in some cases there’s no harm in it.
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Nation & World
Leveling the playing field
Often, getting into college and paying for it are two very different challenges. That’s where Harvard’s Financial Aid Initiative comes in. By opening the doors to exceptional students regardless of their family income, the initiative has brought more diversity — both racially and economically — to Harvard College.
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Nation & World
Moving beyond the scientific nudge
In a study published in Nature Human Behavior, Harvard’s Michèle Lamont argues that if researchers want to capture a fuller picture of human behavior, they need a new approach that bridges the gap between sociology and cognitive psychology.
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Nation & World
Enzyme interference
Researchers discovered that Eggerthella lenta — a bacterium found in the guts of more than 30 percent of the population — can metabolize the cardiac drug digoxin in high enough quantities to render it ineffective. Now, a team of researchers has identified the culprit gene that produces the digoxin-metabolizing enzyme.
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Nation & World
Choosing partners or rivals
A new study shows that in repeated interactions winning strategies involve either partners or rivals, but only partnership allows for cooperation.
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Nation & World
Research sheds light on how parents operate
In a new study, Harvard researchers describe how separate pools of neurons control individual aspects of parenting behavior in mice.
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Nation & World
Developing micron-sized magnetic resonance
Harvard scientists have developed a system that uses nitrogen-vacancy centers — atomic-scale impurities in diamonds — to read the nuclear magnetic resonance signals produced by samples as small as a single cell — and they did it on a shoestring budget using a 53-year-old, donated electromagnet.
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Nation & World
FAS stars honored with Dean’s Distinction Awards
Four teams and 61 employees from across FAS were honored at the annual Dean’s Distinction Awards ceremony.
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Nation & World
A role for cyanide in recipe for life
New Harvard findings show that a mixture of cyanide and copper, when irradiated with UV light, could have helped form the building blocks of life on early Earth.
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Nation & World
Learning to find ‘quiet’ earthquakes
Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences Marine Denolle is one of several co-authors of a study that used computer-learning algorithms to identify small earthquakes buried in seismic noise.
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Nation & World
A new view of the moon
Harvard grad student Simon Lock is the lead author of a study that challenges conventional wisdom on how the moon formed.
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Nation & World
For this flower, it’s ready, set, launch
Harvard researchers used high-speed video to not only quantify how fast the filaments in mountain laurel flowers move, but how they target likely pollinators.
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Nation & World
Songs in the key of humanity
A new Harvard study suggests that people around the globe can identify lullabies, dancing songs, and healing songs — regardless of the songs’ cultural origin — after hearing just a 14-second clip.
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Nation & World
Picture-perfect approach to science
After creating a 3-D language called quon, which could be used to understand concepts related to quantum information theory, Harvard mathematicians now say the language offers tantalizing hints that it could offer insight into a host of other areas in mathematics, from algebra to Fourier analysis, and in theoretical physics from statistical physics to string…
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Nation & World
A volume control for the brain
The brain is awash in sights, sounds, smells, and other stimuli every moment. How can it sort through the flood of information to decide what is important and what can be relegated to the background? Harvard researchers found evidence that oxytocin, popularly known as the “love hormone,” plays a crucial role in helping the brain…
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Nation & World
As climate changes, so will wine grapes
Though vineyards might be able to counteract some effects of climate change by planting lesser-known grape varieties, scientists and vintners need a better understanding of the wide diversity of grapes and their adaptions.
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Nation & World
Study uncovers botanical bias
Climate change studies that rely on herbarium collections need to account for biases in the data, new research says.
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Nation & World
Study identifies hundreds of genetic ‘switches’ that affect height
Researchers discovered hundreds of genetic “switches” that influence height, then performed tests that demonstrated how one such switch altered the function of a key gene involved in height difference.
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Nation & World
Researchers create quantum calculator
Researchers have developed a special type of quantum computer, known as a quantum simulator, that is programmed by capturing super-cooled rubidium atoms with lasers and arranging them in a specific order, then allowing quantum mechanics to do the necessary calculations.
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Nation & World
Study explores whole-body immunity
New research on the immune system suggests that the molecule interferon plays an important role in activating antiviral genes across many tissues, helping against infection.
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Nation & World
Small media, big payback
Researchers found that if just three outlets write about a particular major national policy topic, discussion of that topic across social media rises by more than 62 percent.
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Nation & World
A step forward in DNA base editing
Scientists at Harvard University and the Broad Institute have developed a new class of DNA base editor that can repair the type of mutations that account for half of human disease-associated point mutations. These single-letter mutations are associated with disorders ranging from genetic blindness to sickle-cell anemia to metabolic disorders to cystic fibrosis.
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Nation & World
How to defend against your own mind
Harvard psychology chair Mahzarin Banaji is working with a research fellow to launch a new project called “Outsmarting Human Minds.”
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Nation & World
Welcome renewal at Winthrop
After more than a year of renovations at Winthrop House, returning students have discovered a residence that combines neo-Georgian character with 21st-century amenities.
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Nation & World
Making eight legs look like six
Using high-speed cameras, Harvard researchers have shown that ant-mimicking jumping spiders don’t walk on six legs in an attempt to appear more ant-like, but instead walk with all eight and take tiny, 100-millisecond pauses to lift their front legs to make them resemble ant antennae.
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Nation & World
Voting-roll vulnerability
Online attackers may be able to purchase enough personal information to alter voter registration information in as many as 35 states and the District of Columbia, a new study says.
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Nation & World
Inequality’s influence
A new study has found that, following momentary exposure to inequality, support for a “millionaire’s tax” dropped by more than 50 percent.
