Science

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

Illustration of diverse healthcare professionals around a central medical cross symbol.

AI Outperforms Doctors in Emergency Room Tasks, New Harvard Study Shows

Researchers say the technology could help physicians with triage, diagnosis.

by Jonathan Shaw

In This Mass Extinction, the Enemy Is Us

The New Yorker magazine quotes Fisher professor of natural history Andrew Knoll on the current mass extinction. The enemy is us.

Part of the Perseus molecular cloud, as seen through the Smithsonian’s MMT telescope in Arizona. Self-gravitating structures—dense areas where stars are forming—appear as dark spots. The L1448 region is located in the upper-right quadrant of the image.

Perseus in 3-D

New three-dimensional PDF technology allows Harvard astronomers—and you—to explore worlds hundreds of light-years away.

by Elizabeth Gudrais

Particulate matter that is 2.5 microns or less in diameter (PM2.5), the kind emitted from smokestacks and tailpipes, is known to be especially harmful. Reductions in such pollution lead to increased life expectancy. In Boston between 1980 and 2000, for example, as PM2.5 concentrations dropped from 18 to 11 micrograms per cubic meter, local average life expectancy climbed four years. Of that increase, four-tenths of a year—or 10 percent of the total gain—was attributable to improved air quality.

Clean Air, Longer Life

Controls on fine particle pollution extended average lifespan in the United States by five months between 1980 and 2000.

by Jonathan Shaw

A scanning electron microscope image reveals the porous nature of a bioengineered disk where immune cells can reside and be programmed for vaccination.

Fighting Disease in Situ

A new technique aims to boost the body’s ability to seek out and destroy cancer cells.

"Dissing Evolution"

Energy is the key to understanding human evolution—and to saving ourselves and our planet, says Daniel Lieberman.

by Elizabeth Gudrais

A human fibroblast—part of the body’s connective tissue—sits on a bed of vertical nanowires in this image from a scanning electron microscope. Hongkun Park and his colleagues hope that the nanowires, which penetrate the cell without harming it, can be a way to introduce genes into cells without the use of an engineered virus or invasive delivery method. One application could be adding a set of genes to fibroblasts that “reprogram” them to act like stem cells.

Untangling the Brain

Three Harvard scholars trained in chemistry and physics pursue innovative approaches and tools that address problems in neuroscience.

by Courtney Humphries

Our Psychotropic Lives

History professor Daniel Lord Smail explores the role of psychotropic mechanisms in human evolution and history.

by Elizabeth Gudrais

Celebrated chef Ferran Adrià mingles cooking and science at elBulli, his restaurant near Barcelona.

The Harvard Center for Gastrophysics?

Harvard science labs and master chef Ferran Adrià confect a mutually beneficial partnership.

by Elizabeth Gudrais

Decisionmaking, Measured

A new interdisciplinary decision-science lab will host experiments from psychology, economics, and beyond.

Ralph Mitchell

Rx for the Books

McKay professor of applied biology Ralph Mitchell and postdoctoral fellow Nick Konkol work with preservation librarians to develop a test that can detect damaging mold in books before it becomes visible.

by Paul Gleason