Faculty & Research
Insights into groundbreaking faculty research, innovative projects, and academic thought leadership across Harvard’s schools and institutes.
This Astronomer is Sounding a Warning on 'Space Junk'
As debris accumulates in low Earth orbit, the danger of destructive collisions continues to rise.
by Olivia Farrar
Are Immigration Authorities' Efforts to Curb Gangs Backfiring?
Matthew Quirk ’03 explains how deportation of Latino gang members by U.S. immigration authorities may actually make the gangs stronger...
Antibiotics Feed These Bacteria, Instead of Killing Them
It sounds like science fiction, but it's not. A paper published today in the journal Science explains that some bacteria thrive on a diet of antibiotics, instead of dying as previous science predicts they should...
Dead or Alive? Seems Like a Simple Question, But...
The "Ideas" section in this week's Boston Sunday Globe had an article exploring how the advances of modern medicine have made "death" a subjective term...
"Born Digital"
Forty years ago they were “Born Free,” 20 years ago they were “Born in the U.S.A.,” but today kids are born digital, and...
by Paul Gleason
Life's Speed Limit
Mutation is the engine of evolution: organisms would not be able to evolve new characteristics if their DNA did not randomly acquire small...
by Courtney Humphries
When Minnie Turns Mickey
If males are from Mars and females from Venus, as self-help author John Gray memorably suggested, sex hormones usually get the blame for placing...
by Erin O’Donnell
"Tyrant Fever's" Trigger
When an infection assails the body, the response is predictable. Fever, loss of appetite, fatigue, that achy feeling—we never get just one...
by Elizabeth Gudrais
Saving Money, Oil, and the Climate
The United States is in urgent need of a comprehensive, rational, and—above all—honest policy to guide its energy future, a policy...
Trails of Tears, and Hope
The hamlet of Alkali Lake, about 100 miles north of Vancouver, is home to one of a handful of surviving Shuswap bands of Native Americans in...
by Craig Lambert
The Talking Cure
For decades, insurers and risk-management departments have told doctors that if they make a mistake, the last thing they should do is admit it...