Telling people it’s a placebo does not stop it from working After being given a placebo and viewing negative images, people felt less distress, even though they knew their treatment had no active ingredients.

February 9, 2021 by Erica Curles Read More

Horseshoe crabs are critical to the biotech industry A new technique in aquaculture has demonstrated a promising ability to improve survival rates, health, and performance of horseshoe crabs harvested for the biomedical industry.

January 24, 2021 by Cathryn Sephus Read More

Deliberately infecting volunteers with COVID-19 to speed up vaccine development? Human challenge trials, a process whereby healthy volunteers are given potential vaccines and then infected with COVID-19, could be a way to speed up vaccine development and reduce the global burden of coronavirus.

November 24, 2020 by Caroline Vrana-Diaz Read More

The simple lab technique that changed everything How the discovery and validation of a simple lab technique called PCR by Kary Mullis and his team in the 1980’s helped science take a leap forward in understanding genetics and improved our society.

November 19, 2020 by Justin Dingman Read More

Laboratory methods behind the polio vaccine discovery In 1949, Harvard scientists established a few tissue culture tricks that not only allowed Jonas Salk to develop the polio vaccine, but also became standard practice when growing polio in the lab. His team was awarded a Nobel Prize.

September 24, 2020 by Gina Misra Read More

Can a Chinese medicinal herb Psoralea fructus build healthy bones? Corylin, a flavonoid molecule derived from a Chinese medicinal herb, is effective in stimulating the body to make osteoblasts, which are cells that form new bones.

September 9, 2020 by Marco Fang Read More