WordDisk

Malnourished bugs: Higher CO2 levels make plants less nutritious, hurting insect populations

Insect populations are falling as what they eat becomes more like iceberg lettuce and less like kale.

Ellen Welti, Postdoctoral Researcher of Biology, University of Oklahoma
March 9, 2020 | conversation

~5 mins

Tags: climate-change carbon-dioxide-co2 carbon biology nutrients insects plants entomology kansas bugs grasshoppers food-webs prairies research-brief

NIH-funded i3 Center formed to advance cancer immunotherapy

Harvard’s Wyss Institute will collaborate with other institutions to form the i3 Center where cancer immunologists and biological engineers will develop new biomaterials-based approaches to enable anti-cancer immune-therapies for therapy-resistant cancers.

Benjamin Boettner
March 6, 2020 | harvard

~9 mins

Tags: science-technology basic-research engineering harvard-john-a-paulson-school-of-engineering-and-applied-sciences-dana-farber-cancer-institute harvards-department-of-stem-cell-and-regenerative-biology i3-center immune-therapies immuno-engineering-to-improve-immunotherapy-i3-center therapy-resistant-cancers wyss-institute-of-biologically-inspired-engineering-at-harvard-university

It's OK to feed wild birds – here are some tips for doing it the right way

Millions of Americans feed wild birds, especially in winter and spring. Studies show that this can influence birds' health and behavior in surprising ways.

Julian Avery, Assistant Research Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Pennsylvania State University
March 2, 2020 | conversation

~8 mins

Tags: biodiversity wildlife birds ornithology ecology competition wildlife-conservation citizen-science bird-feeding wildlife-biology

Mirrored chip could enable handheld dark-field microscopes

Simple chip powered by quantum dots allows standard microscopes to visualize difficult-to-image biological organisms.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office
Feb. 24, 2020 | mit

~9 mins

Tags: imaging microscopy materials-science-and-engineering mechanical-engineering quantum-dots bacteria biology microbes photonics nanoscience-and-nanotechnology research dmse school-of-engineering national-science-foundation-nsf national-institutes-of-nih

AI researchers share data on how we sort options, make decisions

Artificial intelligence researchers and neurobiologists share data on how options are sorted in decision-making.

Clea Simon
Feb. 19, 2020 | harvard

~5 mins

Tags: science-technology ai basic-research brain cellular-and-molecular-biology clara-starkweather deepmind dopamine google harvardmit-health-sciences-technology-program hms matthew-botvinick naoshige-uchida nature neurobiology

New class of enzymes could lead to bespoke diets, therapeutics

Professor Emily Balskus and her team have identified an entirely new class of enzymes that degrade chemicals essential for neurological health, but also help digest foods like nuts, berries, and tea, releasing nutrients that may impact human health.

Caitlin McDermott-Murphy
Feb. 18, 2020 | harvard