CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The must-have gift for young female chimpanzees this holiday season might be in the Christmas tree, not under it.
That’s the finding of scientists at Harvard University and Bates College, who say female chimpanzees appear to tr…
In the world-wide race to develop energy sources that are seen as “green” because they are renewable and less greenhouse gas-intensive, sometimes the most basic questions remain unanswered.
In a paper released today by the School of Public Policy …
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 21, 2010 — For centuries, hunters have imitated their avian prey by whistling through their fingers or by carving wooden bird calls. Now a team of physicists at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has reproduce…
Cambridge, Mass. – September 9, 2010 – In a paper published as the cover story of the September 9, 2010 Nature, researchers from Harvard University and MIT have demonstrated that graphene, a surprisingly robust planar sheet of carbon just one-at…
Milan, 9 September, 2010 — In our dynamic 3D world, we can encounter a familiar face from any angle and still recognize that face with ease, even if the person has, for example, changed his hair style. This is because our brain has used the 2D sna…
PASADENA, Calif. — Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have devised a new technique — using a sheet of carbon just one atom thick — to visualize the structure of molecules. The technique, which was used to obtain the…
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Scientists at Harvard University have found that humans can make difficult moral decisions using the same brain circuits as those used in more mundane choices related to money and food.
These circuits, also found in other anim…
Pathogens make themselves feel at home in the human body, invading cells and living off the plentiful amenities on offer. However, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, together with colleagues at Harvard Unive…
Under the right economic conditions, a growing demand for forest products that accompanies development may lead to an increase ? not a decline ? in forest cover, according to a new study by researchers at Brown University and Harvard University. Policies that focus on reducing paper demand may not necessarily increase forestation.
Researchers at Harvard say they have overcome a preliminary, yet critical, hurdle in the push to develop antibiotics against drug-resistant bacterial strains. Most attempts have been plagued by a lack of molecular tools for manipulating–and ultimately improving — the structure of naturally occurring antibiotics. The researchers report that they harnessed two enzymes, which work by adding sugars to a central molecular core, and used them to create new versions of two potent antibiotics, vancomycin and teicoplanin.
The Supreme Court decision that a genetically modified mouse cannot be patented in Canada may have severe consequences for biotechnology researchers in this country, say U of T experts. In a 5-4 ruling Dec. 5, the court determined that the so-called Harvard Mouse could not be patented as an invention according to current Canadian law. The mouse, developed at Harvard University during the 1980s to have a genetic predisposition to cancer, is already patented in several other countries. The majority decision, written by Justice Michel Bastarache, said that the current Patent Act provides no guidance for the patenting of “higher life forms.”
A protein found in the eye and involved in its “immune privilege” has prevented and halted autoimmune eye disease in animal models and promises to aid in preventing and treating other autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis and diabetes, according to scientists at the Schepens Eye Research Institute at Harvard University. Immune privilege is a special property of the eye that allows the eye to protect itself without the inflammation caused by the body’s conventional immune response to injury and infection.