Science & Tech

Harvard Engineering Professor Woodward Yang discusses Apple’s decision to get rid of the headphone jack.

New findings on seagrass reinforce the need to direct research where biodiversity is most at risk, says Harvard Herbaria fellow Barnabas Daru.

A group of researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has found a way for schools, professors, textbook publishers, and educational researchers to check the quality of their test questions that turns out to be both fast and cheap. It invokes the power of crowdsourcing.

“Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030” is the first product of the One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100).

At 7:05 p.m. (EDT) today, NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu. Among that spacecraft’s five instruments is a student experiment that will use X-rays to help determine Bennu’s surface composition.

Researchers analyzed archival X-ray observations from the XMM-Newton spacecraft and found that the missing mass from the Milky Way is in the form of a million-degree gaseous fog permeating our galaxy.

Developed by a team of Harvard researchers, the first autonomous, entirely soft robot is powered by a chemical reaction controlled by microfluidics. The 3-D-printed “octobot” has no electronics.

Researchers believe they may for the first time detect oxygen on a rocky planet outside the solar system.

Wildfires threaten more than land and homes. The smoke they produce contains fine particles (PM2.5) that can poison the air for hundreds of miles. Air pollution from the 2016 Fort…

Harvard researchers have designed more than 1,000 new blue-light-emitting molecules for organic light-emitting diodes that could dramatically improve displays for televisions, phones, tablets, and more.

Using videos of four sports in 44 countries, researchers found that men are far more likely to engage in friendly physical contact — handshakes, back pats and even hugs — following competition than women are.

The universe is 13.8 billion years old, but our planet formed just 4.5 billion years ago. Some scientists think this time gap means that life on other planets could be…

GSD architecture graduate Lauren Friedrich, M.Arch. ’16, looks at how architecture can better support health by providing unexpected physical challenges and minor obstacles rather than always prioritizing ease and comfort.

Scientists from Harvard and Google have demonstrated for the first time that a quantum computer could be used to model the electron interactions in a complex molecule.

Historian Leida Fernandez-Prieto came to Cambridge to research a Cuban botanical garden with Harvard roots.

New findings advance insight on formation of supermassive black holes in the early epochs of the universe.

A new study sheds light on important differences between intentional and unintentional mind wandering.

Harvard researchers have developed a new class of battery electrolyte material based on vitamin B2 that could enable large-scale, inexpensive electricity storage for renewable power sources.

Experts discuss findings from a new Harvard T.H. Chan School survey about how workers say their jobs affect their health, and what companies can and should be doing to help.

Martin Elvis of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics warns that a loophole in the Outer Space Treaty leaves open the possibility of a race for resources on the moon.

With a super-resolution microscopy, a team of researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute has leveraged the power of programmable DNA.

Harvard neurosurgeon Ann-Christine Duhaime thinks a better understanding of the brain’s reward system might help encourage greener living.

Babies need conversational stimulation for their intellectual development, and a piece published in JAMA Pediatrics hopes to advise parents and pediatricians on how and when to best nurture that development.

In less than a week, the spacecraft Juno will reach Jupiter, culminating a five-year, billion-dollar journey. Its mission: to orbit and peer deep inside the gas giant and unravel its origin and evolution. One of the biggest mysteries surrounding Jupiter is how it generates its powerful magnetic field, the strongest in the solar system.

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study’s new program “Next in Science” brought together early career scientists to present their research to Harvard and the public. The event, which included speakers from the University of Glasgow and the Sea Education Association, offered a preview of Radcliffe’s October ocean symposium, “From Sea to Changing Sea.”

A Beijing symposium co-sponsored by the Harvard China Project and the Harvard Global Institute explored the possibility of China adopting a carbon tax as a way to reduce climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions. The Gazette spoke with economist Dale Jorgenson, the Samuel W. Morris University Professor, and Chris Nielsen, the executive director of the China Project, about the symposium and the broader issues involved.

Joshua Meier ’18, a computer science and chemistry concentrator at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, launched TaxiLater, an iPhone app that lets users arrange an Uber pickup hours, days, or even months in advance.

Harvard initiates patent infringement suits to protect inventors’ rights in computer-chip technology.

Declining fish catches around the world have set off concerns about malnutrition, especially among the poor.

A study by Professor Gary King and two former graduate students points to an effort by the Chinese government to use social media to discourage anti-government action.