Harvard Science Review

by Jackson Allen If not controlled within sixty days, the United Nations warned recently, the current Ebola outbreak will lead to an unprecedented and unplanned situation (1). Over the past year, the epidemic has been building in three countries in West Africa: Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. Outside of public health circles, the outbreak remained […]

by Caitlin Andrews Each year, on the last day of October, people in Mexico honor their ancestors and deceased loved ones during the holiday of Day of the Dead. Over three days of celebration, they march in parades wearing colorful masks and costumes, build ornate altars, and decorate gravestones with orange marigolds—gifts to the departed. […]

by Serena Blacklow “I was visited by a mother, Tibangwa Sarah, whose daughter had a severe fever. The malaria rapid diagnostic test was negative, so I wrote her a referral to the health centre for more tests. Instead, because she didn’t trust me, she went to the drug shop, bought the wrong drugs and the […]

by Eleni Apostolatos Science classes introduce us to the rather abstract concept of energy—a system’s ability to do work. The world’s current energy dependency proves the basis of this physical fact; from charging our phones to powering our hospitals, energy drives humans’ daily activities. Regardless of where in the globe we stand, we all need […]

by Caitlin Andrews When we think of field biologists, most of us imagine scientists trekking through uncharted rainforests or across endless savannas, armed with only a notebook and a pair of binoculars. These intrepid heroes, such as Jane Goodall, have shown us how much there is to be learned when we leave behind the comforts […]

by Jennifer Walsh Every human grows from a single-celled embryo that contains an entire genome of determinants for what this embryo will become. For each one of us, this single cell became two, then four, and its genome became the genome of every cell in our body. However, over a lifetime of cell divisions and […]

by Jackson Allen For roughly the last 60 years, the focus of molecular biology and genetics has been to better understand the microscopic machinery that regulates the genome of every organism. Such scientists as Matthew Meselson, Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, and Francis Crick helped pave the way for contemporary understanding of molecular genetics. These scientists […]

by Tristan Wang Hollywood movies and horror novels have painted extraterrestrial life as green monsters, scouring the barren grounds of Mars and shooting any intruder with photon lasers. These disturbing imaginations, while far-fetched, do hold some truth about frightening outer space life forms, but not in the ways we imagine. During its orbit as the […]

by Ryan Chow Earlier this year, President Obama announced the Precision Medicine Initiative. Proclaiming that the initiative would “lay the foundation for a new generation of lifesaving discoveries,” the President proposed setting aside $215 million to expedite the clinical translation of personalized genetics research.1 The initiative specifically highlights the development of patient-specific cancer therapies as […]

by Christine Zhang Stepping out the front door of my dorm, I am frequently greeted by a sharp gust of wind that convinces me to turn back and grab a coat. The reaction is almost instantaneous. But in that split-second, the action of turning around requires 100 billion action potentials and the signal transmits over […]