Broad research

Last year during the holiday season, we invited Broad researchers to submit scientific images with a seasonal flair. We thought it would be fun to revisit those images, resembling holiday lights, cracked ice, and tinsel. Enjoy this slideshow of festive imagery from the world of science as we count down to the new year!

Broadies are pros at sharing. They share ideas, data, equipment, and even bikes. So it may be no surprise to learn that behind the scenes of the Broad’s fast-paced research computing network for data collection and analysis, servers have been quietly getting in the sharing game, too, going “virtual” to save the Broad money, energy, and space and to keep pace with the growing demand for efficient computing by large and diverse research projects throughout the institute.

In the tiny, pinhead-sized wells of a microplate, cultured muscle cells begin to twitch. These mouse cells can grow into long, hearty strands in culture. But when these tendril-like cells are exposed to statins – a drug taken by millions of people to lower cholesterol levels –they start to wither away, mirroring what may be happening in the muscles of some patients.

About 340 million years ago, a diminutive vertebrate did something unprecedented: she laid her eggs on dry land. Today, not having to rely on the water to produce offspring may not seem like such a big deal – mammals carry their embryos to term and birds and other reptiles lay their eggs on land – but before organisms evolved the amniote egg, four-legged life was water-bound. Laying eggs on terra firma has allowed reptiles and mammals to thrive in new environments across the world.