WordDisk

Aging chimps show social selectivity

Understanding why older chimps tend to favor small circles of meaningful, established friendships rather than seek new ones may help scientists gain a better picture of what healthy human aging should look like and what triggers this social change.

Juan Siliezar • harvard
Oct. 22, 2020 • ~7 min

Tags: science-technology faculty-of-arts-and-sciences fas science juan-siliezar aging chimpanzees department-of-human-evolutionary-biology alexandra-rosati kibale-chimpanzee-project lindsey-hagberg martin-n-muller melissa-emery-thompson richard-w-wrangham zarin-machanda

Research shows lullabies in any language relax babies

Researchers at Harvard’s Music Lab have determined that American infants relaxed when played lullabies that were unfamiliar and in a foreign language.

Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite • harvard
Oct. 19, 2020 • ~6 min

Tags: science-technology psychology fas music-lab samuel-mehr connie-bainbridge mila-bertolo nature-human-behaviour

Harvard researchers make sense of ancient fossils using 3D

Harvard and Chinese scientists study Cambrian fossils using micro-CT and 3D models.

Juan Siliezar • harvard
Sept. 14, 2020 • ~11 min

Tags: science-technology fas harvard department-of-organismic-and-evolutionary-biology museum-of-comparative-zoology yu-liu arthropods bmc-evolutionary-biology cambrian chengjiang-biota harvard-china-fund javier-ortega-hernandez joanna-m-wolfe micro-computed-tomography micro-ct xiaocaris-luoi yunnan-university

GenderSci Lab finds more than biology influences COVID risk

The GenderSci Lab at Harvard finds that more men than women are dying of COVID-19.

Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite • harvard
Aug. 18, 2020 • ~6 min

Tags: coronavirus gender fas and-sexuality studies-of-women health-medicine history-of-science manisha-aggarwal-schifellite gendersci-lab mimi-tarrant sarah-richardson

Emily Balskus wins Waterman Award with $1M in research funding

Emily Balskus has won the Alan T. Waterman Award, the National Science Foundation's most prestigious prize for scientists under 40 in the United States.

Caitlin McDermott-Murphy • harvard
Aug. 5, 2020 • ~6 min

Tags: science-technology chemistry cancer bacteria parkinsons-disease fas emily-balskus chemistry-and-chemical-biology colon-cancer caitlin-mcdermott-murphy microbiome microbes gut l-dopa microbiology therapeutics disease national-science-foundation cholesterol metagenomics award catherine-drennan human-health nsf sethuraman-panchanathan

Treating children for worms yields health and financial gains

A 20-year study of Kenyan schoolchildren who receive sustained treatment against common parasitic infections grow up to achieve a higher standard of living, with long-lasting health and economic benefits that extend to their communities.

Harvard Gazette • harvard
Aug. 3, 2020 • ~9 min

Tags: economics fas health-medicine national-bureau-of-economic-research uc-berkeley kenya deworming edward-miguel michael-kremer

Violence and trauma in childhood accelerate puberty

Childhood violence and trauma has a direct effect on a person’s mental and physical health as they grow, with certain kinds of trauma also affecting the pace of aging.

Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite • harvard
Aug. 3, 2020 • ~7 min

Tags: psychology fas health-medicine manisha-aggarwal-schifellite katie-mclaughlin natalie-colich