A theoretical study finds that restructuring the US electricity power grid to rely solely on renewable energy sources will improve the grid’s resilience to local disruptions. Continue reading Improving the Power Grid’s Resilience with Renewable Energy Resources
by Isabella Grabskifigures by Allie Elchert There are many ways in which our brains track, process, and use time to help us function. One mechanism by which they do so is motor timing. Motor timing relates to our ability to carry out any physical task where time estimation, often done unconsciously, is needed to successfully coordinate our movements. Take, for instance, the task of playing a … Continue reading How Our Brains Estimate Time
A new type of ultrawhite paint could help keep buildings cooler and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Continue reading Ultrawhite Rooftops Could Help Cool the Planet
An international team of researchers sequenced the microbes from dental scrapings of Neanderthals to understand more about their diet. Continue reading Understanding Our Evolution through our Mouth Microbes
The DNA from children of Chernobyl survivors has been sequenced and does not show higher levels of mutations than other children. Continue reading Children of Chernobyl Survivors Don’t Show Excess DNA Damage from Disaster
Jasmin Joseph-Chazan is a second-year PhD student in the Immunology department at Harvard University. You can find her on Twitter as @chazanjasmin. Isabella Fraschilla is a Ph.D. student in the Immunology Program at Harvard Medical School. She is studying how immune cells regulate commensal gut bacteria. Cover image by Arek Socha from Pixabay. This biography is part of our “Picture a Scientist” initiative. To learn … Continue reading Gertrude Elion: Forging the path towards a cure for cancer
by Isabella Fraschilla Despite never receiving a PhD, Gertrude Elion was awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Medicine. She shared this prize with Sir James Black and her mentor George Hitchings for revolutionizing pharmacology by rejecting the standard trial-and-error approach for rational drug design. Their critical work in understanding drug metabolism and physiological processes resulted in the rare Nobel Prize awarded to employees of a … Continue reading Gertrude Elion: Forging the path towards a cure for cancer
Transplantation of symbiotic bacteria to heat-sensitive corals helps protect them against bleaching, but many questions remain. Continue reading Are Beneficial Bacteria the Answer to Coral Bleaching?
by Hannah Smithfigures by Xiaomeng Han If you ask any aging researcher, “What is the easiest way to make an animal in the lab live longer,” they will likely say “change what, or how much, they eat.” However, new research shows that it’s not just the food we eat that changes how we age, but that aging is also affected by the food we smell. … Continue reading The Surprising Influence of Smell on Aging
by Edward Chenfigures by Jovana Andrejevic On a sunny, nondescript Hawaiian day, a Vibrio fischeri bacterium arises the same as on most other nondescript days: homeless. It hurries along on a ride to work. No, not by car. Not onboard a trolley either. Yes! The great, dynamic Pacific Ocean current. Currency-free and open to all, it’s the road to opportunity and fortune for aquatic hard … Continue reading Lights. Camera. Action! How the Hawaiian bobtail squid brings a creative vision to its maritime world of small big screens