Featured series 
Tag: Work in Progress
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Health
Genetic link discovered for late onset Alzheimer’s
Although they have not yet identified the actual gene, researchers have evidence that a gene located on human chromosome 10 could be more potent than previous risk factors for late onset Alzheimer’s disease. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this turns out to be a bigger Alzheimer gene than APOE4,” said Rudolph Tanzi, Harvard Medical School…
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Science & Tech
One in three Massachusetts workers ill-equipped to meet demands
The most startling finding of a new report is that 667,000 of 1.1 million at-risk workers in Massachusetts have earned a high school credential but still lack basic math, reading, writing, language, and analytic skills at the level considered acceptable for the typical 21st century workplace. This one group represents 20 percent of the state’s…
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Health
Lowering iron levels does not cut heart attack risk for men
Men who give blood reduce the amount of iron in their bodies, but that does not result in a reduction in their risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and heart attack. Iron levels in the body had once been thought to explain the difference in CHD rates among men and women. “The results of this…
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Health
Study quantifies children’s mouthing of objects
A study asked parents to observe and record their children’s mouthing behavior over five non-consecutive days. Approximately 300 children showed a wide range of mouthing behaviors, from essentially none at all to a relatively large amount. “Concerned parents should be reassured by these results, which show that children tend to mouth objects less than previously…
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Science & Tech
How we talk can change the way we work
If we want a better understanding of the prospect of change, we first need a better way of seeing into our own powerful inclination NOT to change. Considering every workplace as a language community, psychologists Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey show us how our aspirations for change are undermined by the ordinary language forms…
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Health
Researchers see better treatments for cancer
“Before the development of insulin, diabetes was as deadly as many cancers are today,” says Harvard researcher Joseph Paul Eder, who is testing Endostatin on patients with advanced cancers. “In a couple of decades, people may be able to live 30 to 40 years, or more, after being diagnosed with breast, prostate, or other cancers.”…
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Health
Researchers find brain damage linked to child abuse and neglect
Abuse can damage the developing brain. Harvard researchers working at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., have identified four types of brain abnormalities identified with abuse and neglect experienced in childhood. The researchers further believe that early damage to the developing brain may lead to disorders such as anxiety and depression in adulthood. “A child’s interactions…
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Science & Tech
Assessing globalization’s true impact
Joseph S. Nye Jr. and John D. Donahue of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government have examined all aspects of the globalization phenomenon in order to separate the facts from the hype. Among their findings: • Globalization is helping to increase real incomes throughout the world, with new jobs being created in poorer countries…
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Health
A new reason to sleep on it
In findings published in the December 2000 issue of Nature Neuroscience, a team of Harvard Medical School scientists found that people who stay up all night after learning and practicing a new task show little improvement in their performance. That means that school kids who are cutting back on sleep to finish ever mounting piles…
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Science & Tech
What will it take to attract, and keep, new teachers?
In today’s expansive job market, with its escalating definition of a competitive salary, teaching is underpaid. Graduates are actively recruited to work in investment banking, consulting, and technology, where beginning salaries average twice those of first-year teachers. Who will become the next generation of teachers? And what will it take to recruit talented people and…
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Health
Researchers identify symptoms of marijuana withdrawal
Irritability, anxiety and physical tension, plus decreases in appetite and mood, were experienced by regular marijuana users who quit the drug for four weeks during a study conducted at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. Sixty percent of those in the study experienced “significant symptoms” of withdrawal, said the researchers, Elena M. Kouri and Harrison Pope.…
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Science & Tech
Workers in buildings with less fresh air more likely to call in sick
Donald Milton, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, hypothesized that the nature of the air that employees breathe affects how often they call in sick. In 1994, Milton and two colleagues measured ventilation rates in 40 buildings owned by Polaroid in Massachusetts with 115 independently ventilated…
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Health
First indications that aging may be regulated by brain
A little worm called Caenorhabditis elegans was the first creature to have all its genes sequenced, more than 19,000 of them. When the human genome was sequenced, researchers found that C. elegans shares about 40 percent of its genes with human beings. Two such genes — with potentially important consequences for humans — were recently…
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Health
Tiny creatures offer clues to human aging
When its aging gene is not working right, a worm named C. elegans lives three times longer than normal, according to Harvard researcher Gary Ruvkun. The development gene keeps an animal forever youthful in the sense that it never develops into a reproducing adult. There is a corresponding human gene, opening up fascinating possibilities. Worms…
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Science & Tech
Before- and after-school hours key to the nurturing of children
How to keep children occupied and engaged in worthwhile after-school pursuits is becoming a major focus of study at the Harvard Family Research Project at the Graduate School of Education. The project is analyzing existing research while constructing a database that will be useful for policy-makers, public and private funders, and those who run after-school…
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Science & Tech
How family leave policies fail working families
In her book, “The Widening Gap: Why American Working Families are in Jeopardy and What Can be Done About It,” S. Jody Heymann of the Harvard School of Public Health analyzed survey data to describe the “national caregiving burden.” She has exposed the growing gap between demands on parents and resources provided by government and…
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Health
Treating ills with music
The Web site of the American Music Therapy Association lists 57 pages of research articles published in its Journal of Music Therapy and other publications. The articles chronicle successful use of music, in combination with other therapies, to treat Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, depression, anxiety, chronic pain, pain of childbirth, autism, and other physical and…
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Science & Tech
Protecting nature religiously
“Our religious institutions are the only institutions that are not completely implicated in the culture of materialism and growth,” said Bill McKibben, an environmental activist and a fellow at Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of Values in Public Life. “The church can posit some other reason for human existence than the accumulation of…
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Science & Tech
Researchers publish HIV study results despite efforts to block
Researchers refused to suppress publication of data that indicates an experimental drug did not slow the progression of HIV infection, even though the drug company that sponsored their research tried to block the publication in court. Stephen Lagakos, chair of the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health, and a colleague from…
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Health
New cancer vaccine being tested
In studies at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, tumors were eliminated in 25 percent of patients with widespread kidney and lethal skin cancers who received a new cancer vaccine. Another 25 percent showed encouraging shrinkage of large and small tumors. Some of the 75 people who have received the…
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Science & Tech
Does the Internet make markets more competitive?
According to Jeffrey Brown of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, the Internet’s power to allow consumers to engage in low-cost price comparisons online has affected the market for life insurance. Looking at data on individual life insurance policies, Brown found that a 10 percent increase in the share of individuals in a group…
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Health
Researchers learn to control dreams
For years, scientists have been stymied in their quest to understand dreams because they are unique events that cannot be replicated.
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Science & Tech
Business professor works to unlock the mysteries of television viewing habits
Media consultants have spent years studying what convinces viewers to watch certain programs. While there are no purely empirical answers why certain programs are more popular than others, a new study led by a researcher at the Harvard Business School (HBS) provides some strong clues — and a surprising conclusion. “What we found is that…
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Health
Arts-to-smarts link overblown, researchers say
“Arts advocates need to stop making sweeping claims about the arts as a magic pill for turning students around academically,” says Lois Hetland, project manager of the largest, most comprehensive study ever conducted on the effects of arts on education. “Arts teachers should not be held responsible for better test scores in math or history.”…
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Health
Researchers identify genes that control development of fat tissues
Until now, no one knew the specific trigger that controls the extent to which cells called preadipocytes turn into fat cells. Harvard researchers have identified the genes GATA-2 and GATA-3 as the molecular gatekeepers of that transition. When the genes are defective or missing, preadipocytes change into fat cells and, conversely, when the genes are…
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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
Brain found to play unexpected role in Type II diabetes
Until now, the brain was assumed to be a side player in diabetes. “For the most part, diabetes researchers have not been looking at the brain,” said C. Ronald Kahn, the Mary K. Iacocca professor of medicine and president of Joslin Diabetes Center. But a report appearing in the Sept. 22, 2000, Science suggests that…
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Science & Tech
Astronomers resolve visible blast wave from gamma-ray burst
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are mysterious flashes of high-energy light that are detected about once a day somewhere in the sky. However, their origin remains unknown to astronomers, most of whom believe GRBs are enormous explosions that occur far across the Universe. Now for the first time, astronomers have resolved the visible blast wave produced by…
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Health
Sights set on partial corneal transplants
“We don’t have any way of curing these problems,” says Nancy Joyce, a Harvard researcher who is working on saving people’s sight when their corneas deteriorate. “The only way right now is full corneal transplantation, healthy tissue and all. In our work, we’re trying to facilitate replacement of the diseased tissue only.” To do that,…