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Yum! Recommendations Suggest Feeding Most Babies Peanuts to Help Prevent Allergies

Peanut allergies have the potential to seriously impact a child’s life. In some cases, the mere presence of a peanut-product can create a life threatening situation. Over the years, doctors have released a variety of recommendations designed to limit the number of children who ever develop an allergy. In 2000, it was recommended that infants avoid peanuts altogether. Since then, peanuts in the first year … Continue reading Yum! Recommendations Suggest Feeding Most Babies Peanuts to Help Prevent Allergies

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Getting all your ducklings in a row: a look inside the animal mind

by Rebecca Senft figures by Michael Gerhardt and Rebecca Senft If you’ve ever seen a long line of ducklings waddling across a road, you know that they follow their mother dutifully, even in the face of oncoming traffic. Ducklings, like many species of birds whose young leave the nest early, are able to identify their own mother and siblings based on sight and won’t follow … Continue reading Getting all your ducklings in a row: a look inside the animal mind

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Why are hurricanes weakening? Possible reasons and the long term pattern

In 2012, Hurricane Sandy, the second costliest hurricane in United States history, caused the loss of 233 lives and assessed damage of 75 billion dollars. With Sandy still on the minds of many, it may surprise you that America’s Atlantic coast may actually be in the middle of a decades long lull in hurricane activity. Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published this surprising … Continue reading Why are hurricanes weakening? Possible reasons and the long term pattern

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Sit'N Listen

Episode 10: Sports, Sex, and Gender

By Dana Boebinger, Rachel Hanebutt, Brittany Mayweather, and Michael Ruiz Produced by Michelle Frank Dana: Hello, and welcome to Sit’N Listen: a production of Science in the News. We’re a graduate-student run organization at Harvard University that catalyzes discussion between scientists and other experts and enthusiasts. I’m Dana Boebinger, and I’m a third year graduate student in auditory neuroscience at Harvard, studying how the brain … Continue reading Episode 10: Sports, Sex, and Gender

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Scientists observe light from antimatter for the first time

Physicists at CERN have observed the light emitted from antimatter for the first time, bringing us one step closer to unraveling one of the longest-standing problems in physics today – why is it that regular matter is so much more abundant than antimatter in the Universe? Standard models suggest that for every particle of matter created in the Big Bang, an antiparticle was also created. … Continue reading Scientists observe light from antimatter for the first time

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Parental weight and its impact on early childhood development

According to the CDC, 70.7% of the US population is overweight or obese (BMI>30), with 37.9% being obese. Obesity related health expenses accounted for an estimated $147 billion in healthcare spending in 2008 alone. The dire health consequences for obese individuals include higher incidence of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease to name a few on top of overall decrease in … Continue reading Parental weight and its impact on early childhood development

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Say Goodbye to Antibacterial Soaps: Why the FDA is banning a household item

by Gabriel W. Rangel figures by Michael Gerhardt How many times per day do you wash your hands? Do you ever think about the type of soap you use? We all know handwashing with soap is an impactful way to maintain health by decreasing the risk of becoming infected with one germ or another. Therefore, using soap with antibacterial compounds added is a no-brainer, right? … Continue reading Say Goodbye to Antibacterial Soaps: Why the FDA is banning a household item

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January 9 – Science Journalism by the Pint with STAT

Are you interested in learning more about what the field of science journalism looks like from the inside? Check out our next Science by the Pint event: The (Sometimes Messy) Science of Communicating Science. Coming this Monday (Jan. 9), 6:30pm, to The Burren in Davis Square, free and open to the public! Panelists from the Boston-based publication STAT will discuss what led them to a … Continue reading January 9 – Science Journalism by the Pint with STAT

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New Physics from the AMS Experiment – Particle Physics on the International Space Station

In 2011 the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or AMS, was launched into space. AMS, housed by the International Space Station and led by a Nobel Prize winning principle investigator, is commonly referred to as the most sophisticated particle physics experiment in space. The experiment was designed to study cosmic rays, a variety of high energy particles produced in space. In five years of operation, AMS has collected … Continue reading New Physics from the AMS Experiment – Particle Physics on the International Space Station

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The Tricky Business of Targeting Cancers’ “Master Regulators”

Over the past few decades, cancer therapies have become increasingly targeted, with protein and antibody drugs targeting specific proteins with exquisite selectivity. Often, however, the utility of targeted therapies is limited; there are many different paths to outwardly similar cancers, and targeted therapies are often only effective against very specific cancer subtypes. An alternative strategy, championed by cancer researchers at Columbia University, is to target … Continue reading The Tricky Business of Targeting Cancers’ “Master Regulators”

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