Science

Discover the scientific breakthroughs and engineering innovations being pioneered across Harvard’s labs and centers.

Smiling woman stands beside a large skull in a display cabinet.

Don’t Call Stephanie Pierce A Paleontologist

From competing in youth gymnastics to studying tetrapods, the Harvard curator has always chased her curiosity.

by Laurel M. Shugart

walking illustration

Years of life added by exercise is now quantified by research

New study reveals just how many years of life are added by varying levels of exercise.

by Erin O’Donnell

Grasping cucumber tendrils coil in two different directions. Close study led to the discovery of a new type of spring.

Harvard's L. Mahadevan Discovers a New Spring in the Tendrils of a Cucumber

In the plant's tendrils, L. Mahadevan and colleagues discover a new type of spring.

by Erin O’Donnell

The modified H5N1 virus could infect a billion people if it escaped a biocontainment lab like the Canadian facility shown above.

Marc Lipsitch warns against experimentation with modified H5N1 virus

Modified H5N1 could infect a billion people if it escapes the lab.

by David Levin

David Jones holds a vascular stent (from the Warren Anatomical Museum), designed circa 1995 by radiologist Morris Simon of Harvard Medical School.

The passion for procedures to fix ailing arteries and hearts may be misguided

How gaps in medical knowledge affect matters of the heart

by Alice Park

T. Berry Brazelton

Harvard pediatrician Brazelton honored for his commitment to public service

The Harvard pediatrician is honored for his commitment to public service.

An image from the cover of a book about AIDS treatment in Africa, edited by faculty members Phyllis Kanki and Richard Marlink, who spoke at the "PEPFAR in Africa" conference held at Harvard School of Public Health on January 10.

Fighting AIDS with Harvard's PEPFAR programs in Bostwana, Tanzania, and Nigeria

A symposium at Harvard School of Public Health reflects on the school's PEPFAR-funded programs in Tanzania, Botswana, and Nigeria.

Barry Mazur

White House awards Barry Mazur, Harvard mathematician, National Medal of Science

Gade University Professor, eminent mathematician, recognized by President Obama.

This disortion-free flat lens, less than a millimeter across, uses antennae etched from a layer of gold, rather than glass, to focus laser light.

Lightweight, distortion-free flat lens uses antennae, not glass, to focus light

Harvard scientists have developed a tiny, lightweight, distortion-free lens that focuses light without glass.

by Jonathan Shaw

The breeding habits of tropical cuckoos, whose unrelated adults cooperate to rear young, have raised questions about the limits of kin selection in evolution.

Unrelated tropical cuckoos find safety sharing a communal nest

The breeding behavior of tropical cuckoos, in which unrelated adults share a communal nest, proves an exception to the theory of kin selection.

by W. Barksdale Maynard

Ted Kaptchuk in his home office in Cambridge

Ted Kaptchuk of Harvard Medical School studies placebos

An ingenious researcher finds the real ingredients of “fake” medicine.

by Cara Feinberg