Small stretches of seemingly useless DNA harbor a big secret. There’s one problem: We don’t know what it is. Although individual laboratory animals appear to live happily when these genetic ciphers are deleted, these snippets have been highly conserved throughout evolution, suggesting that they have some value.

Tagged: Bio-X, DNA, evolution, Health Research, Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowships

VIDEO: Graduate student Viviana Gradinaru is combining neuroscience and bioengineering to study the human body's circuits. Binyamin Blum, a student in history and law, is studying the transplantation of English common law into the Middle East between World Wars I & II. This work has potential to inform current policy debates about introducing the rule of law abroad.

Tagged: fellowships, Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowships, International Initiative, neuroscience, rule of law, Human Health, International Issues, Engineering, Humanities & Sciences, Law, Medicine