Science & Tech

Researchers at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have developed the world’s first untethered soft robot — a quadruped that can stand up and walk away from its designers.

A new research paper co-authored by HBS Professor Michael I. Norton finds that calibrating the decision-making process helps drive our appeal and influence over others.

Harvard scientists have developed a system for using magnetic levitation technology to manipulate nonmagnetic materials, potentially enabling manufacturing with materials that are too fragile for traditional methods.

Harvard School of Public Health Associate Professor of Environmental Exposure Biology Chengsheng (Alex) Lu outlines the danger posed to our food supply — and possibly to us — by the collapse of honeybee colonies.

A new study by Harvard scientists suggests that, from a young age, children are biased in favor of their own social groups when they intervene in what they believe are unfair situations. But as they get older, they can learn to become more impartial.

Harvard researchers create a swarm of 1,000 tiny robots that, upon command, can autonomously combine to form requested shapes — a significant advance in artificial intelligence.

Harvard engineers demonstrated a novel engineering process by creating a self-assembling robot that folds up from a flat sheet of composite material and then walks away. The Gazette spoke with engineering Professor Robert Wood about the project.

A team of engineers used little more than paper and a classic children’s toy to build a robot that assembles itself into a complex shape in four minutes, and crawls away without human intervention.

Harvard researchers have devised an inexpensive medical detector that costs a fraction of the price of existing devices, and can be used in poor settings around the world.

Researchers used Google Street View to conduct a study of gentrification in Chicago.

The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University announced on Monday that its human organs-on-chips technology will be commercialized by a newly formed private company to accelerate the development of pharmaceutical, chemical, cosmetic, and personalized medicine products.

A novella co-authored by Professor Naomi Oreskes imagines the long-term consequences of inaction on climate change.

New research by theorists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) shows that we could spot the fingerprints of certain pollutants under ideal conditions. This would offer a new approach in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).

Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard, a free and open portal for the University’s peer-reviewed literature, is drawing more worldwide downloads than ever.

A new report says many Americans are feeling high levels of stress, and a forum addressed how they might deal with it.

Heat is a byproduct of nearly all electronic devices, yet most of it goes wasted. In an effort to recapture some of that energy and transform it into electricity, a team of Harvard and University of Sannio researchers have developed computer simulations to control the flow of heat and electrical current independently.

A study by Harvard researchers and colleagues tested ways to encourage decisions mindful of future generations.

Harvard Professor David Edwards and a former engineering student, Rachel Field, added another sense to digital communications, sending a smell across the Atlantic, where a scent generator called an oPhone reproduced it.

Forest growth is starting to show the effects of climate change, new research finds.

Harvard physicists have suggested that a disk of dark matter may lie along the center line of the galaxy.

A conference co-hosted by Harvard looked at the future of sustainability efforts at universities and other large institutions.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s release of draft regulations that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 will have a significant impact on human health, Harvard analysts say.

Astronomers announced Monday that they have discovered a new type of planet — a rocky world weighing 17 times as much as Earth. This planet is all solids and much bigger than previously discovered “super-Earths,” making it a “mega-Earth.”

The Graduate School of Design’s Natalia Gaerlan, a world-class athlete who has earned a master’s in urban planning, studies how green infrastructure can protect coastal cities.

Researchers face steep challenges in trying to pinpoint the long-term effects of pesticides in the food supply, said panelists at HSPH.

Beginning this fall, Harvard undergraduates will be able to select a secondary field of study in energy and environment, which will allow students in an array of concentrations to gain exposure to issues such as climate change.

The Arnold Arboretum celebrates a successful collaboration with the U.S. government to prevent tree destruction by the invasive Asian longhorned beetle.

A Dutch water expert with a federal role in rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy brought his wisdom to Harvard this semester.

Astronomers have created the first realistic virtual universe using a computer simulation called Illustris. Illustris can re-create 13 billion years of cosmic evolution in a cube 350 million light-years on a side with unprecedented resolution.

Two widely used neonicotinoids — a class of insecticide — appear to significantly harm honeybee colonies over the winter, particularly during colder winters, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health.