The Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal

It has been more than 55 years since Einstein’s death, and yet, he still manages to aid science in his own way. How does he manage to do so, you might ask? The answer lies with a rogue scientist, Thomas Harvey, and how he made away with Einstein’s brain. He believed that he had an obligation to preserve this brain and allow neuroanatomists to use Einstein’s brain to find the secret to his genius.
One such scientist who requested the sample was Marian Diamond, who received chunks of Einstein’s brain via mail in a mayonnaise jar (makes you think twice when you’re eating your sandwich now!).

Instead of examining Einstein’s brain for extra neurons, which many scientists in the 1980s had been focusing on, Diamond was investigated the neural glial cells. To her surprise, she found that in areas of high complex thinking, Einstein had more glial cells (astrocytes and oligodendrocytes).

With the help of Stephen Smith’s 1990 discovery that astrocytes had the ability to communicate and rebroadcast chemical conservation of neurons to other parts of the brain, a “revolution of sorts in the world of neuroscience” was born. Professor Fields describes in his new book The Other Brain how the discovery has changed the emphasis from the typical emphasis on neural gray matter to an emphasis on the glial cells and opened up increased understanding in certain diseases.

One such disease is chronic pain. The typical treatment is to give powerful pain-killers, as it was previously assumed that pain had to do with just nerves. Now that there is an understanding of the importance of glial cells, it is noted that glial cells respond to pain by releasing substances that are importance for healing but also intensify the pain due to neuron excitation. If these glia do not stop releasing the substances that excites the pain neurons, then this is why the pain continues even after the injury is healed. So new treatments can be based on impeding the signal between neuron to glia.

So whether Thomas Harvey was ethical or not in “stealing” (he states that Einstein’s son gave him permission) the brain, it is apparent that Einstein has once again revolutionized a scientific field.  That, and brain slices are still viable when transported via mayonnaise jar!

For more information, check out this NPR article, and Smiths’ original Science article.

“If your research does not generate papers, it might just as well not have been done.”
- George Whitesides

Professor Whitesides has a point. He’s also said: “Interesting and unpublished” is equivalent to “non-existent.”

Well, if you’re going to publish, might as well be the best, at least for Adam Daoud ’10, who published in Nature this January. (here’s a link to his article for HUID holders). THURJ got in touch with Adam to ask him a few questions about publishing in one of the world’s most prestigious journals. For all aspiring researchers, get your figures ready: it’s about to go down.

Adam's research is featured in a January issue of Nature

THURJ: When did you start working in the lab and on the Nature project?
Adam: I was first intrigued by the running biomechanics research being conducted in the lab and it’s connections to the study of human evolution my freshmen year during a freshman seminar on Human Locomotion with Professor Lieberman. At this time I had no plans to pursue research in the lab and was had not yet switched concentrations from Biochemistry to Human Evolutionary Biology. I remained interested in the research from the side-lines and as my science interests converged on anatomy, physiology, biomechanics and human evolution, I approached Daniel Lieberman my junior year to pursue research opportunities. I started research that spring through a course called OEB 121a – Research in Comparative Biomechanics. This semester long independent research project gave me an opportunity to jump into the research; plan an experiment, carry out trials, analyze data and put together a paper. This allowed me to quickly acquire the full range of skills necessary to conduct research in the Skeletal Biology Lab through personal experience and missteps. With this experience I developed a thesis project with Professor Lieberman. The findings of my thesis and the data collected are the core of the Nature paper with the important additional of data from barefoot and shod runners in Kenya and a good deal of additional analyses.

T: What sort of time-commitment did you make to your project?
A: Nothing out of the ordinary. My junior spring OEB 121a project was a standard course load, maybe a bit more. The time commitment for my senior thesis was the standard for a science thesis.

T: Looking back, what sort of actions did you take or habits did you acquire, either required by mentor or self-initiated, that were very helpful in retrospect?
A: I followed my interests and committed to research that I was passionate about and found intellectually engaging and meaningful. This is part of what drove me to succeed with this research. I think that the mistake that many of my peers made was to decide to do research without putting enough thought into the type of research that they would be passionate about and find meaningful. Rather than seek out a lab, try to pursue your interests and allow the lab to come to you.
I found that taking ownership of a project within the lab is helpful. Having a sense of responsibility and control allowed me to be fully involved with the way that the project was designed and carried out. Obviously you cannot do it alone, it is vital that you utilize the resources of experienced lab members and your PI as well.

Congratulations to Adam on his extraordinary success!

To learn more about Adam’s work, check out his website: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~skeleton/daoud.html. The quotes from Professor Whitesides can be found in Whitesides, G. M. (2004). “Whitesides’ Group: Writing a Paper” (free copy). Advanced Materials 16: 1375.

When we were toddlers at the playground, we ran around the sandbox, shoveling up sand in one corner and then dumping it on to the castle we were building in the other corner—our creativity had no boundaries. But as we grew up and went to college, we often found ourselves forced to choose between “art” or “science”, not able to move freely between fields. In an effort to create sandboxes at Harvard, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Professor David Edwards, author of “Artscience: Creativity in the Post-Google Generation” unveiled The Laboratory at Harvard last November, as an innovative workspace for creative ideas located in Level B1 of Northwest Labs, below the skeletons of whales and amid the sea of red couches. Sponsored by a wide range of art and science groups—including SEAS, FAS, the GSD, the ART, the Provost’s Office, the Idea Translation Lab, and Le Laboratoire, an art and design center in Paris, The Laboratory will host student idea night and exhibitions of works-in-progress, including a soccer ball designed to store energy for electricity and a new way to easily transport water in countries like Namibia. Outside the lab, SEAS Professors are also finding ways to connect art and science in the classroom – for example, next fall will see the unveiling of a much-touted Gen Ed class about the science of food featuring world-famous chefs like Jose Andrés and Ferran Adriá: “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter.”

On February 23, Noam Chomsky, the great American linguist, cognitive scientist, and philosopher came to Harvard Hall 202 to give a talk on his work in linguistics. It was packed, and many people weren’t able to get a listen. Good news: Megumi, one of the many non-undergraduates at this lecture, was able to record the lecture, and we provide this recording below for those who had to miss the lecture for space reasons or just want to hear it again! Thanks to Megumi and thanks to Dr. Chomsky who gave us a fascinating lecture on his work.

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For over two years, here at the Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal, we’ve provided the Harvard community with the latest in undergraduate-related science. Every semester, we publish research in the broadest possible interpretation of quantitative science and we feature Harvard-related events, programs, and general happenings. We’re very lucky to be able to expose our readers to such a wide slice of the scientific world in one publication: we get to communicate the cutting-edge work of our peers to the scientific and undergraduate community, and we also can spread the word on the influential research-relevant activities happening all around us at Harvard.
The scientific world, though, moves fast, and to keep up, THURJ intends to publish short, fun articles on some of the interesting things that are going on in science right now, which will affect our lives in the present or the future. We hope you enjoy these articles and that it sparks that scientist inside of you to get more involved in the undergraduate research community! At THURJ we have an unbridled love for science and we hope it becomes infectious through these blog posts.

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