Woman works at large piece of scientific equipment

Weeks later, potentially harmful chemicals lingered in homes affected by Marshall Fire

July 6, 2023

In the wake of the devastating Marshall Fire, a team of chemists and engineers from ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú´«Ã½ÎÄ»¯×÷Æ· undertook a first-of-its-kind study to explore homes that survived the blaze. Their results reveal the potential health hazards that wildfires can leave behind in buildings.

Plastic bottles and other trash on a beach

The future of recycling could one day mean dissolving plastic with electricity

July 5, 2023

Every year, consumers in the United States produce millions of tons of plastic waste, and most of it winds up in landfills. New research from chemists at ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú´«Ã½ÎÄ»¯×÷Æ· takes a first step toward making all that trash vanish.

Buildings and people on the Harvard campus

What the SCOTUS ruling on affirmative action means for American higher ed

June 29, 2023

Kevin Welner, a lawyer and professor of education at ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú´«Ã½ÎÄ»¯×÷Æ·, explained that individual college applicants can still mention how their race or ethnicity has shaped their lives in essays and interviews.

Matter swirls around a central black hole as it emits a bright jet

Weighing the mysterious black holes lurking at the hearts of galaxies

June 20, 2023

At the center of nearly all large galaxies in the cosmos sits a supermassive black hole. In new research, a ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú´«Ã½ÎÄ»¯×÷Æ· astrophysicist explores what might happen if you put these giants one-by-one on a massive scale.

rendering of small satellite in orbit around Earth

New keen-sighted satellite will view distant stars, assist Webb telescope

June 8, 2023

The new mini-satellite, called MANTIS, will be designed and built by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. It borrows its name from the mantis shrimp, an undersea creature with famously powerful eyesight.

Man wearing a lab coat and gloves makes adjustments inside a large metal chamber

Space tractor beams may not be the stuff of sci-fi for long

June 1, 2023

One day, small spacecraft could fly around Earth, using devices called electron beams to remove hulking, derelict spacecraft from orbit without ever having to touch. It may sound like science fiction, but aerospace engineers from ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú´«Ã½ÎÄ»¯×÷Æ· say they could be ready to test the idea in space in just five to 10 years.

asteroid covered in shadows with sun in the background

Avoiding Armageddon: Researchers narrow down list of potentially hazardous asteroids

May 31, 2023

The asteroid 7482 (1994 PC1) measures about two-thirds of a mile across. It will also remain in Earth's vicinity for much of the next 1,000 years. ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú´«Ã½ÎÄ»¯×÷Æ· aerospace engineer Oscar Fuentes-Muñoz says its important to study objects like this one to make sure they don't pose a risk to life on our planet.

Man moves a piece on a wooden board, while several other people watch sitting at school desks

Collective property rights spark spirit of cooperation that extends beyond managing land

May 25, 2023

Since the 1990s, Indigenous groups and other communities around the world have increasingly fought for, and secured, collective property rights to the land they live on. New research suggests that these arrangements can have impacts not just on ecosystems like forests but on the psychology of people.

Jennifer Doudna stands on stage at a podium

Forum on gene editing draws hundreds, some with tough questions

May 25, 2023

A revolutionary technique for editing genomes, called CRISPR-Cas9, has already helped cure sickle cell disease in dozens of people. But it also raises ethical concerns, which a panel of preeminent scientists grappled with at an event on the ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú´«Ã½ÎÄ»¯×÷Æ· campus.

Several microrobots, with three fins, seen under the microscope

These tiny, medical robots could one day travel through your body

May 24, 2023

ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú´«Ã½ÎÄ»¯×÷Æ· engineers have designed a new class of "microrobots" several times smaller than the width of a human hair that may be able to treat human illnesses like interstitial cystitis—a painful bladder disease that affects millions of Americans.

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