Building on research reported last year, Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have succeeded in identifying the neurons that secrete the substance responsible for the plaques that build up in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients.

The idea that the wave of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer breaking over the world is largely the result of wealth and inactivity is not only wrong, it’s counterproductive, says a Harvard research fellow who recently founded a nonprofit organization to fight disease.

In the past, such noncommunicable diseases have been attributed to lifestyle because of their links to high-calorie diets in wealthy, increasingly sedentary industrialized nations. But...

Ludwig Cancer Research, on behalf of its founder, Daniel K. Ludwig, has given Harvard Medical School (HMS) $90 million to spur innovative scientific inquiry and discovery. This grant reflects a portion of a $540 million gift divided equally among Ludwig Centers at six academic institutions throughout the United States. According to the Ludwig announcement, this new financial support is among the largest private gifts ever for cancer research.

Massachusetts is the only state to have two Ludwig...

The whalers, buccaneers, and other seafarers who plied the Pacific in centuries past brought rats, goats, and pigs along with them, seeding the islands they came across — intentionally and unintentionally — to establish food supplies for future voyages.

While much of the destruction of Pacific island flora and fauna can be traced to those too-successful invaders, recent studies of Galapagos tortoise genetics shows that, perhaps in one case, the mariners’ resupply practices...