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Jan 21, 2025 | 
magazine.hms.harvard.edu | Molly McDonough
Each human body is home to trillions of microbes, whose combined cells may outnumber human cells. There’s no question that these microbiomes — the ecosystems of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes residing on and inside us — shape our health. But how, exactly, do they do it? It’s a question that captivated Sloan Devlin when she was a young researcher fresh out of a PhD program in organic chemistry.
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Oct 16, 2024 | 
magazine.hms.harvard.edu | Molly McDonough
It started with a slab of sperm whale meat. It was the early 1950s, and two British molecular biologists were trying to achieve a feat that had thus far eluded scientists: creating a three-dimensional model of a protein molecule. Like other biologists at the time, John Kendrew and Max Perutz knew that proteins are essential building blocks of life, responsible for catalyzing every kind of reaction in the body.
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Oct 9, 2024 | 
flipboard.com | Molly McDonough
2 days agoWell, well, well. In his new job as president of global affairs at Meta, former leader of the Liberal Democrats and staunch Remainer Nick Clegg has announced a widespread roll-out of Meta AI across countries including Brazil and the UK. Yet, rather interestingly, the Brexit-opposed businessman …
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Aug 20, 2024 | 
magazine.hms.harvard.edu | Molly McDonough
When Vardit Ravitsky was pregnant at age forty, a routine screening test revealed a 1-in-40 chance her child could be born with Down syndrome. Suddenly Ravitsky, senior lecturer on global health and social medicine, part-time, at HMS, faced a dilemma: Was it worth undergoing further invasive testing, risking miscarriage, to find out for certain? A bioethicist who focuses on reproductive technologies, Ravitsky already understood the nuances of genetic testing.
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Aug 20, 2024 | 
magazine.hms.harvard.edu | Molly McDonough
As a cardiologist, Pradeep Natarajan, MMSc ’15, knows that high blood pressure, smoking, and high cholesterol raise a patient’s risk of developing coronary artery disease. But Natarajan, an HMS associate professor of medicine and the director of preventive cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, also knows that there are many people at risk who don’t have such obvious indications — young, seemingly healthy people oblivious to the plaque accumulating in their arteries.
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Jun 25, 2024 | 
indianewengland.com | Molly McDonough
By Molly McDonoughThe Harvard GazetteEven when the world around us seems quiet, our insides are bustling. Much of the time we’re unaware of the tumult within — of cells shifting shapes, organs releasing chemicals, or blood vessels dilating. But sometimes a signal breaks through, and we feel a pang of hunger, a fullness of the bladder, or a racing heartbeat. It’s a call from the body to the mind that something’s off, a plea for a return to balance.
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Jun 17, 2024 | 
magazine.hms.harvard.edu | Molly McDonough
Even when the world around us seems quiet, our insides are bustling. Much of the time we’re unaware of the tumult within — of cells shifting shapes, organs releasing chemicals, or blood vessels dilating. But sometimes a signal breaks through, and we feel a pang of hunger, a fullness of the bladder, or a racing heartbeat. It’s a call from the body to the mind that something’s off, a plea for a return to balance.
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Mar 21, 2024 | 
magazine.hms.harvard.edu | Molly McDonough
As a child, Roberto Olivardia didn’t enjoy reading. Processing the words on a page fatigued him. But Olivardia — now a psychologist at McLean Hospital and a lecturer at Harvard Medical School — never considered that he might have dyslexia. He remembers watching an episode of the ABC Afterschool Specials series about a boy with dyslexia who wrote words backwards.
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Nov 6, 2023 | 
thecut.com | Molly McDonough
It may be about as far from Hollywood as you can get without leaving the country, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have A-list experiences in Boston. This epicenter of academia, tech, and innovation caters to residents and visitors seeking a luxurious lifestyle. From tea rooms and Colonial mansions that harken back to elite old-world roots, to fancy restaurants plating world-class seafood, the city offers plenty of options for when you want to treat yourself or just feel a little fancy.
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Oct 25, 2023 | 
magazine.hms.harvard.edu | Molly McDonough
From where in the bodymight kindness flow? Folklore and belief systems far and wide point to the heart. Ancient Egyptian mythology, for example, maintained that the leap to the afterlife required a test. Before the deceased could enter, their heart had to be weighed, placed on a balance under the watchful eyes of the gods. The dead person’s heart wasn’t beating, but it wasn’t considered dead weight; it held proof of virtue.
