Science

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

A bioengineered virtual human heart overlaid with jellyfish-like structures, symbolizing cardiac designs inspired by jellyfish motion

From Jellyfish to Digital Hearts

How Harvard researchers are helping to build a virtual model of the human heart

by Olivia Farrar

Excerpt from Green Metropolis, by David Owen

An excerpt from Green Metropolis, by David Owen ’78

Cherry A. Murray

SEAS dean Cherry Murray fosters strategic planning

The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences develops a 10-year strategic plan.

James Katz (left) and Bob Nadelberg with an indoor bicycle at their offices

Harvard-trained docs practice “age-management” medicine

Two Harvard-trained doctors launch a practice in the emerging field of age-management medicine.

by Craig Lambert

Nancy Cyr conscientiously weighs her holiday options.

tips for healthy holiday eating

Eating well and feeling good through the holidays

by Nell Porter-Brown

Nobel Prize Chemistry Steitz

Three scientists, including a 1966 Harvard Ph.D., are recognized for fundamental work on the ribosome.

Great Mammal Hall at Harvard Museum of Natural History reopens

The Great Mammal Hall in the Harvard Museum of Natural History is restored and reopened.

James Watson and Edward O. Wilson: An Intellectual Entente

James D. Watson and Edward O. Wilson, two major exponents of modern biology, reflect on the convergence of the evolutionary and molecular approaches in their field.

Gas jets punch out of the collapsing star and blast into space, producing gamma rays that can be detected billions of light years away.

Gamma-ray bursts reveal the oldest star yet discovered

A star more than 13 billion years old

by Jonathan Shaw

Robert Patterson’s letter to Thomas Jefferson included a worked example of his cipher. He began by writing his message in lower-case letters and in columns, running top to bottom like Chinese. This example begins with the words “Buonaparte has at last given peace to Europe,” legible in the first two columns.

Jefferson's Conundrum

Mathematician Lawren Smithline ’94 has decrypted an encoded message sent to Thomas Jefferson in 1801.

by Craig Lambert

Traditional light-microscopy, such as this image of human brain-tumor cells in culture, still has a place in cancer research.

Virtual Tumors

Modeling tumors may help scientists beat cancer.

by Mike Martin