Welcome To Science in the News a Graduate Student Group at Harvard GSAS.
Deep Dives into Topics that Matter
Our contributing authors present well researched articles on scientific topics that matter. From recent advancements to science that’s becoming buzzworthy, these deep dives help explain, simplify, and inform.
Take a Deep Breath: How stress reduction may influence cancer risk
Stressful situations trigger a response in the body that equips us to deal with threats. However, this same response has been linked to cancer. Luckily, stress-reducing medications and meditative practices can mediate these effects.
Flipping the Switch: Towards hair graying or skin cancer?
Gray hair is accepted—or dreaded—as a universal fate. When hair turns gray, it reflects changes in our biology, such as a particularly stressful period of time or the natural result of aging. Recently, however, scientists have found an unexpected link…
Saving the Bees: How a new type of biopesticide could transform pest control
Honeybees are an essential part of ecosystems and the agricultural industry. Recently, threats including parasites and pesticides have devastated the population. A newly-approved biopesticide technology, RNA interference, offers hope in saving the bees.
Space: The final frontier
We have mapped nearly every square inch of our planet. But Mars is an entirely new world. What do we need to make living in space possible? Synthetic biology could be the answer.
Reclaiming Lost Frequencies: Integrating the sense of vibration into neuroprosthetics
Scientists continue to work towards restoring the sense of touch for individuals with limb loss via state-of-the-art prosthetics, which are predominantly designed to re-establish sensations of pressure, pain, and position. However, the ability to feel…
From FDA Approval to Global Impact: Why many breakthrough drugs struggle to reach patients
Headlines often make promises of “revolutionizing cancer treatment,” yet many drugs seem to vanish as quickly as they were discovered. Why does it take a decade to bring a single drug from discovery to patients?
Beyond Vaccines: How mRNA could help restore aging immune systems
As we get older, our immune system loses some of its flexibility and firepower, which helps explain why vaccines may not work as well and why it can become harder for the body to keep cancer in check. Imagine if we could reboot an aging immune system the…
Capsaicin and Cancer: What spicy food can teach us about pancreatic cancer
Ever notice how spicy food makes your eyes water, face flush, and heart speed up? That signature heat you feel is not just taste. It’s your nerves, and the compound that causes this sensation can teach us a lot about pancreatic cancer.
Ancient DNA Adds Another Chapter to the Earliest Pandemic Story
Scientists and historians are slowly solving mysteries about the health issues of our human past. Recently, a new tool, ancient DNA sequencing, has unmasked the origins of several ancient diseases, including the bacterium that led to two pandemic plagues.
Quick Dives into Recent News
Our wonderful short-form writers dive into recent news articles, scientific reports, and more in these quick-to-read explainers!
Lab-grown muscle patches could help mice age like athletes
Scientists grew tiny patches of living muscle in a dish and tucked them under mice’s skin, finding that these “myografts” could fight aging, obesity, and even deliver hormones like a living drug pump.
Facing your problems with a smile: investigating the neural infrastructure of human emotion
Effective emotion management is associated with increased brain activity in regions associated with complex thought.
Promising advancements in personalized medicine from Moderna’s “cancer vaccine”
The pharmaceutical company Moderna has developed a personalized cancer vaccine that prevents relapse in severe melanoma.
Hunger-promoting neurons unexpectedly drive GLP-1-induced weight loss
New research reveals a surprising role of hunger-inducing neurons in promoting sustained weight loss in mice on GLP-1s.
Building life’s blueprint, one SpudCell at a time
A new “synthetic cell” is capable of eating and dividing, but is it fully alive?
AI lends a hand in matters of the heart
By analyzing ECGs with deep learning, researchers uncovered a new way to spot patients at risk for sudden cardiac death.
Why gravity keeps your mitochondria working
A new study reveals why astronauts’ mitochondria slow down in space — and traces the signal all the way from the cell’s surface to its powerhouse.
An expanding hydrogel to make proteins one billion times bigger
A group of researchers developed a hydrogel that allows for expansion of atoms in every direction, enabling more broadly accessible imaging techniques.
Therapies against aging cells offer new hope for treating fatty liver disease
Using an innovative approach, researchers discovered that eliminating harmful aging cells can improve age-related fatty liver disease in mice.
Rewriting the genetic instructions to reverse deafness
Newly FDA-approved gene therapy cures deafness in children with rare, inherited genetic condition
Ribosomal DNA as the hidden blueprint of growth
Variation in the genetic material that instructs our protein-making machinery (ribosomes) has been linked to body size traits in humans
Exploring the uterus in miniature
New research models human menstruation with organoids derived from human tissues
Why cancer fears the beating heart
Researchers discover that the mechanical force of a beating heart alters cancer cell DNA, offering a surprising new explanation for why cardiac tumors are so rare.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless AI: Mitigating memorization in LLMs
The same data that makes AI models powerful could also make them a privacy risk, and erasing what they’ve learned is harder than you’d think.
Crises don’t occur in a microcosm: reframing how antimicrobial resistance arises in the clinic
Scientists use microbial ecology, evolutionary biology, and epidemiology to contextualize a major health crisis in the impact of global warming on nature.
Calcium in the brain controls anxious behavior in mice
A group of researchers revealed calcium signaling in microglia as a cause of anxious behaviors in mice
New advances in energy storage take inspiration from DNA
Scientists leverage the structural reversibility of pyrimidone to reach new limits in heat storage from sunlight.
Turning foes into friends: using viruses to help fight brain cancer
Oncolytic (cancer-killing) viruses can activate the body’s immune system to fight off one of the most devastating forms of brain cancer, assisted by T-cells.
Self replicating genetic material: how the “RNA World” might be life’s origin story
A group of researchers engineered a system where RNA can replicate itself, giving evidence to the “RNA World” theory of the origins of life.
Can evolutionary medicine alleviate age-related disparities in disease outcomes?
Scientists use evolutionary biology to explain age-dependent vulnerability to disease.
