How to build an evolutionary trap for viruses
Two Harvard scientists describe a way to engineer the evolutionary landscape that viruses experience, pushing them away from dangerous variants and into evolutionary dead ends.
Physical Sciences
Mapping source of volcanic activity deep within the Earth
Upon moving to Cambridge, geophysicist Xiyuan Bao often relied on navigation software to find his way through the unfamiliar network of roads. He realized the same technology could help him find something else: a solution to a mystery deep within the Earth.
How blazars, ‘among the most luminous objects in the sky,’ caused an illusion
Blazars, or galaxies powered by supermassive black holes, act as anchor points in the sky. They shine brightly in telescope observations, but because they are so far away, they appear almost perfectly fixed.
Harvard awarded $37M National Science Foundation grant for fault-tolerant quantum computing
The institute will bring together 39 researchers across fields including mathematics, computer science, engineering, physics, and chemistry.
Harvard scientists develop new method to map RNA variants
The technology, described in a new paper in Cell, could reshape how scientists investigate tissue function and disease.
How your cells make a molecule you can buy as a supplement
Researchers in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology combined biophysics, structural biology, and simulation to solve a manufacturing question.
For a closer look at the sun, scientists ready 5,000-pound device for balloon launch
Forget about the ancient Greek myth of Icarus. For the last 10 years, Jenna Samra, Ph.D. ’18, and her colleagues have been pushing technology to fly closer to the hottest part of the sun.
Chemist’s fix for a stubborn biomanufacturing problem? Engineer the liquid, not the machine
FluxBio’s near-term focus is to help biomanufacturers get more out of the reactors they already own.
At minus 421 degrees, scientists capture structure of elusive chemical compound
A team from The Rowland Institute at Harvard has uncovered complex nanoscale orders in a chemical compound that has long mystified researchers when exposed to extreme cold.
Harvard scientists detect atmosphere on distant ‘Earth-like’ planet
The first-of-its-kind discovery is expected to set off a search for signs of life.
The smartphone system that detected seismic activity and saved lives in Venezuela
An earthquake alert system mines data from billions of Android phones, the most common smartphone in the world, and easily the most popular in less wealthy nations.