Life Sciences
‘Brainbow,’ version 2.0
Led by Joshua Sanes and Jeff Lichtman, a group of Harvard researchers has made a host of technical improvements in the “Brainbow” imaging technique.
Tags: Brain, brain imaging, Brainbow, Center for Brain Science, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, FAS, Fluorescent protein, Harvard, HarvardScience, Imaging, Jeff Lichtman, Joshua Sanes, Life Sciences, molecular and cellular biology, Nature Methods, nervous system, Neural imaging, Neuron, Peter Reuell
Posted in Brain, brain imaging, Brainbow, Center for Brain Science, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, FAS, Fluorescent protein, Harvard, HarvardScience, Imaging, Jeff Lichtman, Joshua Sanes, Life Sciences, molecular and cellular biology, Nature Methods, nervous system, Neural imaging, Neuron, Peter Reuell | Comments Off
Building on Einstein
A team at Tel Aviv University in Israel and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has just discovered an exoplanet using a new method that relies on Einstein’s special theory of relativity.
Tags: Avi Loeb, Beaming, David Latham, Einstein, Exoplanets, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, HarvardScience, Kepler, Life Sciences, Scott Gaudi, SOPHIE, Tel Aviv University, theory of relativity, Tsevi Mazeh
Posted in Avi Loeb, Beaming, David Latham, Einstein, Exoplanets, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, HarvardScience, Kepler, Life Sciences, Scott Gaudi, SOPHIE, Tel Aviv University, theory of relativity, Tsevi Mazeh | Comments Off
Melding the Web and the tactile
An organismic and evolutionary biology course this semester has formed a virtual classroom with other universities to examine the holdings of museum collections and the vast amount of data they contain and integrate them into the classroom.
Tags: AIM-UP, Alessa Moscoso, Alvin Powell, Collections, Genomics, HarvardScience, Life Sciences, Mark Liu, Mike Seward, Museum collections, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Scott Edwards
Posted in AIM-UP, Alessa Moscoso, Alvin Powell, Collections, Genomics, HarvardScience, Life Sciences, Mark Liu, Mike Seward, Museum collections, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Scott Edwards | Comments Off
$50M gift from the Blavatnik Family Foundation
The Blavatnik Family Foundation, headed by Len Blavatnik, M.B.A. ’89, has donated $50 million to Harvard University. The gift will launch a major initiative to expedite the development of basic science discoveries into new breakthrough therapies for patients and cures for disease. The gift underpins Harvard’s growing commitment to creating an entrepreneurial culture in the life sciences.
Tags: Biomedical Accelerator Fund, Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator, Blavatnik Family Foundation, Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship Program, Campus & Community, Early-stage Research, Entrepreneurial culture, Harvard Business School, HBS’s Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Isaac T. Kohlberg, Len Blavatnik, Life Sciences, On Campus, Science
Posted in Biomedical Accelerator Fund, Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator, Blavatnik Family Foundation, Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship Program, Campus & Community, Early-stage Research, Entrepreneurial culture, Harvard Business School, HBS’s Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Isaac T. Kohlberg, Len Blavatnik, Life Sciences, On Campus, Science | Comments Off
The motivation to move
Using an unusual decision-making study, Harvard researchers exploring the question of motivation found that rats will perform a task faster or slower depending on the size of the benefit they receive, suggesting they maintain a long-term estimate of whether it’s worthwhile for them to invest the energy.
Tags: Brain, Decision making, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, FAS, Harvard, HarvardScience, Life Sciences, Motivation, Naoshige Uchida, Nature Neuroscience, Neuroscience, Parkinson's disease, Peter Reuell
Posted in Brain, Decision making, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, FAS, Harvard, HarvardScience, Life Sciences, Motivation, Naoshige Uchida, Nature Neuroscience, Neuroscience, Parkinson's disease, Peter Reuell | Comments Off
Coelacanth genome surfaces
An international team of researchers has decoded the genome of a creature whose evolutionary history is both enigmatic and illuminating: the African coelacanth
Tags: African coelacanth, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, coelacanth genome, Evolution, Fish, Genome, HarvardScience, Jessica Alföldi, Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, Life Sciences
Posted in African coelacanth, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, coelacanth genome, Evolution, Fish, Genome, HarvardScience, Jessica Alföldi, Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, Life Sciences | Comments Off
Not as evolved as we think
Lest you think you’re at the top of the evolutionary heap, looking down your highly evolved nose at the earth’s lesser creatures, Marlene Zuk has a message for you: When it comes to evolution, there is no high or low, no better or worse.
Tags: Alvin Powell, Caveman, Evolution, Evolution Matters, Exercise, Harvard Museum of Natural History, Harvard Museums of Science and Culture, HarvardScience, Jane Pickering, Life Sciences, Marlene Zuk, Obesity, Paleo Diet, Paleolithic
Posted in Alvin Powell, Caveman, Evolution, Evolution Matters, Exercise, Harvard Museum of Natural History, Harvard Museums of Science and Culture, HarvardScience, Jane Pickering, Life Sciences, Marlene Zuk, Obesity, Paleo Diet, Paleolithic | Comments Off
When timing is everything
In a new paper, Christopher Marx, associate professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, says that beneficial mutations may occur more often than first thought, but many never emerge as “winners” because they don’t fall within the narrow set of circumstances required for them to dominate a population.
Tags: Bacteria, Beneficial mutation, Christopher Marx, Chromosome, Evolution, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, FAS, Genetics, Harvard, HarvardScience, Life Sciences, Methylobacterium extorquens, Mutation, natural selection, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Peter Reuell
Posted in Bacteria, Beneficial mutation, Christopher Marx, Chromosome, Evolution, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, FAS, Genetics, Harvard, HarvardScience, Life Sciences, Methylobacterium extorquens, Mutation, natural selection, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Peter Reuell | Comments Off
One gene, many mutations
In a new paper, Harvard researchers show that changes in coat color in mice are the result not of a single mutation, but of many mutations, all in a single gene. The results start to answer one of the fundamental questions about evolution: Does it proceed by huge leaps — single mutations that result in dramatic changes in an organism — or is it the result of many smaller changes over time?
Tags: Agouti, Camouflage, Catherine Linnen, Deer Mice, DNA, Evolution, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, FAS, Gene, Harvard, HarvardScience, Hopi Hoekstra, Life Sciences, Mice, molecular and cellular biology, Mutation, natural selection, Nebraska Sandhills, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Peter Reuell, Pigmentation, Sandhills, Science
Posted in Agouti, Camouflage, Catherine Linnen, Deer Mice, DNA, Evolution, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, FAS, Gene, Harvard, HarvardScience, Hopi Hoekstra, Life Sciences, Mice, molecular and cellular biology, Mutation, natural selection, Nebraska Sandhills, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Peter Reuell, Pigmentation, Sandhills, Science | Comments Off
Dying stars source of life?
Researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have found that even dying stars could host planets with life — and if such life exists, they believe we might be able to detect it within the next decade.
Tags: Astronomy, Avi Loeb, Habitable Earth, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, HarvardScience, James Webb Space Telescope, Life Sciences, Stars, White dwarf stars
Posted in Astronomy, Avi Loeb, Habitable Earth, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, HarvardScience, James Webb Space Telescope, Life Sciences, Stars, White dwarf stars | Comments Off