Ancient prophecies of worlds destroyed by fire are becoming realities. How will we respond?
New discoveries demystify the bizarre force that binds atomic nuclei together
HARVARD MAGAZINE May/June2024 :
How long will the world’s forests impound carbon below ground?
by Jonathan Shaw
MARYVILLE, Tennessee, lies near the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, a range home to more tree species than exist in all of Europe. Benton Taylor grew up amidst this abundance, but as a boy, he barely noticed the plants. In the nearby national park, a family friend was raising—together with a menagerie of other mammals—a pair of bears orphaned as cubs. Taylor dreamed of studying these apex denizens of the forest, who forage at the top of the food chain. But as his education and understanding grew, his curiosity shifted to seed-dispersing animals, plants, and the soil and nutrients that sustain them: a trip down the trophic pyramid, driven by an appreciation of forests as ecological systems in which plants are primary producers. “Now I’ve half moved into the basement,” jokes the assistant professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, whose research encompasses the strategies plants use to obtain essential nutrients such as nitrogen, and how that, in turn, affects their ability to store another vital element with a global climate impact: carbon.
by Nina Pasquini
DIVERSIFYING one’s assets is useful not only in finance but also in diet, according to an October study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH). Though not many people have heard of the “portfolio diet”—consisting of plant-based foods proven to lower unhealthy cholesterol, such as nuts, oats, berries, and avocados—it is one of the easiest ways to improve long-term cardiovascular health. “The idea was that each of these foods lowers cholesterol quite minimally, but if you make a whole diet based on these different foods, you will see large reductions in [unhealthy] cholesterol,” said Andrea Glenn, an HSPH postdoctoral research fellow in nutrition and the lead author of the study. The more of these foods one eats, the higher the protection—but one need not include them all to reap the diet’s benefits, she said. “Like a business portfolio, you can choose the ones you want.”
Mina Cikara explores how political tribalism feeds the American bipartisan divide.
by Max J. Krupnick
Was Lucy the mother of us all? Fifty years after her discovery, the 3.2-million-year-old skeleton has rivals
Flexible fiber electronics couple with the human body for wireless tactile sensing
Plans for Perseverance to explore past crater rim may be in jeopardy
A false “equity versus excellence” debate over mathematics curricula has long disrupted education in the United States
A gene for mate preference has been shared between hybridizing butterfly species
Clustering organic cropland can reduce pesticide use on nearby conventional farms
Blood tests can detect the disease process early, avoiding complications and aiding treatment
Inspectors faulted analyses of clinical trial samples by Hoau-Yan Wang for drug developer Cassava Sciences
“Smart cables” will detect earthquakes, tsunamis, and global warming
Jeanne Marrazzo, an HIV prevention researcher, sees need for more “holistic” approach to community health problems
Even after 15 years of research in Chile, scientist Tobias Sauter says that for him, many questions remain unanswered. To clarify them, he decides to venture into areas that are difficult to access. The mountaineers Robert Jasper and Jörn Heller agree to help – and put themselves in great danger in the process. The two icefields in the Patagonian Andes, which stretch across the borders of Chile and Argentina, represent the largest ice mass outside the polar ice caps.
However, as a result of climate change, the ice here is losing mass. In some areas, the icefields are losing up to 20 meters in height per year. Little is known about these dramatic developments and their specific causes. The ice field to the north in particular has so far mainly been studied using satellite-based data. The area’s extreme weather conditions and great remoteness make field research on site a challenge. Tobias Sauter from Humboldt University in Berlin is one of the few researchers to take on this challenge.
and Bo Xia
Two RNA-editing therapies for genetic diseases have in the past few months gained approval for clinical trials, raising hopes for safer treatments.
Some palaeontologists want more rigorous guidelines for naming species, along with action to address problematic historical practices.
A system that edits RNA rather than DNA can give new life to exhausted CAR T cells.
Long Covid provides an opportunity to understand how acute infections cause chronic disease
Boomers Daily 