Archive: Oct 2017

Bacteria May Help Protect Cancer Cells
Developing cancer drugs is challenging. Often, scientists will find a drug that kills cancer cells in a petri dish but fails to act on an actual tumor. Ravid Straussman from the Weizmann Institute of Science and Todd Golub from Harvard Medical School…

Harvard and MIT are making tattoos to monitor your health
Tattoos are often whimsical, traditional, beautiful—but can they also be medical? The Dermal Abyss project, a collaboration of researchers at Harvard and MIT, is trying to develop a tattoo that can monitor an individual’s health. They have already…

Password guessing using artificial intelligence
The recent Equifax hack is one of the largest exposures of highly sensitive information in US history. The breached information includes social security numbers, home street addresses, credit card numbers and other personal details. Breaches of this…

Big Brother
In a clutch of eggs, some zebrafish are the runts of the litter and may appear younger because of their diminutive size. This is the case for the two zebrafish above. The two are in fact 5-day old siblings. At this stage of development, the zebrafish…

From Microwaves to Microbreweries: The Science Behind Our Food
Time: 7-9 p.m., Wednesday, October 18th Location: Armenise Amphitheater at Harvard Medical School, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston (link to directions) Speakers: Renee Geck and Chiara Ricci-Tam What, exactly, is cooking? We heat food up with a stove or…

Can We Erase Painful Memories with Electroconvulsive Therapy?
by Xiaomeng Han figures by Abigail Burrus What comes to mind when you hear the term electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)? A cruel torture method for disobedient psychiatric patients portrayed in films like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? Or a…