Should GMOs be labeled? By Gwen Schanker Whether organisms should be genetically modified has been a subject of debate since the 1970s, when scientists Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer created the first recombinant DNA organism and transgenic plants emerged as the newest breakthrough in biotechnology. Genetic modification of crops allows for greater yields at a lower […]

STAP in the Name of Love — The Dangers of Scientific Overreach By Gwen Schanker, Journalism and Biology, 2017 Science is constantly evolving. Every day, new phenomena, techniques and ideas are discovered and explored. Scientists live and work in a continually shifting environment, where with the right amount of resources, research and testing, they can investigate any

When Governments Disagree about Pharmaceuticals By Pooja Nagarajan, Drug Regulatory Affairs Graduate Student, 2015 The clashes between several federal agencies involved in the regulation of food and drugs has time and again proven to be a matter of concern, raising questions about the need for a more unanimous system of regulation and jurisdiction. This has

Cosmic Inflation in Question By Joshua Timmons, Biology, 2016 Revived after 34 years of collecting dust, the theory of cosmic inflation has been put on life support amid scrutiny by fellow scientists. Raphael Flauger, a theoretical physicist at NYU, has come forth arguing researchers underestimated the contribution of galactic dust to the polarization used as evidence

Everything You Need to Know About the Upcoming Lunar Eclipses By Gwen Schanker, Journalism, 2017 On April 15, a total lunar eclipse took place and set off a tetrad of eclipses for 2014–2015. Whether you’re an aspiring astronomer or a student who’ll probably be up late anyway, here’s what you may have seen on Tuesday night,

Detecting Ripples from the Birth of our Universe By Claudia Geib, Journalism & Environmental Science, 2015 It’s not often that physicists make headlines. Thursday, March 27 was the exception. At a seemingly out-of-the-blue press conference at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, researchers from the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP) experiment set the media abuzz

The Dark Side of Renewable Energy By Cayman Somerville, Environmental Science, 2017 Environmentalists struggle to deliver world-class solutions to complex environmental problems without further harming Earth’s natural systems. This well-known dilemma stems from unknown or ambiguous environmental impacts. Countries around the world are exploring alternatives to non-renewable energy resources like fossil fuels or nuclear energy.

Northeastern Breaks Ground on New Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex On February 21, 2014, students, faculty, staff, and members of the local community gathered at Northeastern’s Columbus parking lot to view the groundbreaking ceremony for Northeastern’s new Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex (ISEC). This $225 million investment will consist of 220,000 square feet of research

The Colors of Sea Monsters Revealed By Megan Pinaire The age of the dinosaurs is famous for the Tyrannosaurus Rex, king of all land dwelling dinosaurs. Yet the ocean, at the same time, was ruled by terrifyingly large sea monsters like mosasaurs and ichthyosaurs. Around 245–90 million years ago, Ichthyosaurs controlled the oceans, averaging six to