all In the Field stories

After bloody revolution: Bringing science back to Liberian classrooms

705287540 — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:31:31 -0400

Adam Cohen and Ben Rapoport needed materials to conduct a science experiment, but supplies were hard to come by.

Peculiar, junior-sized supernova discovered by New York teen

50443248 — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:20:44 -0400

In November 2008, Caroline Moore, a 14-year-old student from upstate New York, discovered a supernova in a nearby galaxy, making her the youngest person ever to do so. Additional observations determined that the object, called SN 2008ha, is a new type of stellar explosion, 1,000 times more powerful than a nova but 1,000 times less powerful than a supernova. Astronomers say that it may be the weakest supernova ever seen.

Trading energy for safety, bees extend legs to stay stable in wind

50443248 — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:10:05 -0400

New research shows some bees brace themselves against wind and turbulence by extending their sturdy hind legs while flying. But this approach comes at a steep cost, increasing aerodynamic drag and the power required for flight by roughly 30 percent, and cutting into the bees’ flight performance.

The findings are detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Kepler starts search for other Earths

50443248 — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:04:05 -0400

As NASA’s Kepler space telescope this week begins scanning the Milky Way for planets that might harbor life, scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) are keeping their fingers crossed and waiting for the data to start flowing.

Nectar nurtures pitcher plant’s eating habits

50443248 — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:45:31 -0400

New research from the Harvard Forest shows that carnivorous pitcher plants use sweet nectar to attract ants and flies to their water-filled traps, not color, as earlier research had indicated.

The work, which was among the first to experimentally examine the role of nectar in attraction by pitcher plants in the field, not only served to advance understanding of insect-eating plants, it also helped to improve science education at local schools. It was conducted as part of a National Science Foundation-funded program to enrich science training of local schoolteachers.

Fijian girls succumb to Western dysmorphia

50443248 — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:55:00 -0400

In 1982, Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Anne E. Becker was still an undergraduate at Radcliffe when she traveled to Fiji for a summer of anthropology fieldwork.

Florida: The far side of paradise

50443248 — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:24:11 -0400

It was near midnight. Gnarly oak trees and sandy pines draped with Spanish moss encroached upon the narrow road. Warm air sweetened by the scent of orange blossoms wafted through the windows as the van lurched to a stop. The headlights illuminated a metal sign pinned to a gate that read “Archbold Research Station.” We had arrived.

Expedition: Blue Planet 2009 explores water

50443248 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:14:19 -0400

When environmental advocate Alexandra Cousteau left in February on a nonstop, 100-day expedition to critical water sites across five continents, she brought with her a writer, a photographer, an editor, and a support team of more than 60 researchers, all Harvard Extension School students. But the students needed no airline tickets. From their desktops in Cambridge and its environs, these intrepid virtual explorers provide critical support for the expedition team’s field activities.

Mexican program successful at reducing crippling health care costs

50443248 — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:00:55 -0400

Seguro Popular, a Mexican health care program instituted in 2003, has already reduced crippling health care costs among poorer households, according to an evaluation conducted by researchers at Harvard University in collaboration with researchers in Mexico.

Researchers study glaciers on Earth’s coldest desert

404132862 — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 08:46:18 -0500

It’s December, and undergraduate Jenny Middleton bundles up to face the cold. While all across campus, students, and faculty don their winter gear, Middleton is not preparing for the New England winter; she is preparing for an expedition through the Earth’s coldest desert: the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica.

Student diggers take Harvard’s roots from dirt to display case

404132862 — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:24:18 -0500

Emily Pierce ’10 was up to her hips in Harvard Yard, standing in a square hole in the ground, carefully scraping soil as she sought bits of archaeological treasure: a button here, a piece of bone there — clues that together could weave a tale of Harvard’s early years.

Seeing what they hear, to better understand ourselves

404132862 — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:09:26 -0400

It was a long drive from St. Louis to Florida, but Darlene Ketten had finally made it. Standing in the warm surf of St. George Island, she watched with delight as tiny, colorful bean clams popped out of the sand and then quickly reburied themselves as the waves foamed around her calves.

“It was gorgeous, with incredible soft, white sand,” Ketten recalled. “In the surf were minute clams — pink, blue, orange and gold — popping out of the sand and then disappearing…. I dipped my hand in the water and tasted it.”

Responding to Congo's epidemic of violence against women

404132862 — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 11:22:24 -0500

The rape itself was brutal enough, but the woman’s nearly severed hand shocked Susan Bartels.

It was early November and her first day working at Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, a provincial capital in the eastern Congo on the front lines of an epidemic of violence against women that — as it did in this case — starts with rape and goes on from there.

Foraging for forest frogs

404132862 — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:31:20 -0500

In the dark of the Sri Lankan cloud forest, the researchers’ only guides were the headlamps they used to light up the night, illuminating the cold, gray mist that drifted through the trees.

They looked carefully as they walked among the trunks, the beams from their headlamps casting left and right, up and down. They examined rocks and branches, leaf litter and shrubs, tree trunks, and leaves high in the canopy. By and by, they found one, then another — small tree frogs that froze in the light and went suddenly silent.

Forests, reefs, mountaintop illuminate tropical biology

404132862 — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:30:43 -0400

Morning came in the middle of the night in the hikers’ hut partway up the side of Borneo’s towering Mount Kinabalu.

At 2 a.m., after just a few hours’ sleep, the Harvard Summer School students slowly roused themselves, creating a chorus of rustling sleeping bags, zippers, and boots on the wooden floor.

They’d been on the go for weeks, traveling across the island to sample its natural wonders, and they’d be on the go for a few weeks more. But where they’d been and where they’d be didn’t matter that morning. It was time to hike. The sun was coming and the peak was still hours away.