Year: 2007

  • Nation & World

    Researchers in Japan and Wisconsin report major advance in stem cell research

       “The field is moving at lightning speed,” said Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) Co-Director Doug Melton in response to just-published papers by Japanese researchers and researchers at the University…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Cerebral cortex thicker in people with migraines

    People who suffer from migraine headaches have differences in an area of the brain that helps process sensory information, including pain, according to a study published in the November 20,…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Era ending at School of Public Health

    Barry R. Bloom, dean of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), yesterday announced that he will be stepping down from his position as the School’s leader at the end…

    10 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Flavonoid-rich diet helps women decrease risk of ovarian cancer

    New research out of the Channing Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) reports that frequent consumption of foods containing the flavonoid kaempferol, including nonherbal tea and broccoli, was associated with a reduced risk of ovarian cancer. The researchers also found a decreased risk in women who consumed large amounts of the flavonoid luteolin, which…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    HMS’s Dohlman receives AAO’s highest honor

    Claes H. Dohlman, Harvard Medical School (HMS) professor of ophthalmology emeritus and cornea surgeon at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI), received the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s most prestigious award, the Laureate Recognition Award, at the academy’s annual meeting Nov. 10-13 in New Orleans. In addition, a new HMS professorship named in his honor…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Africans, ‘Africanness,’ and the Soviets

    It’s no secret that a century and a half after the Civil War, the United States still struggles to come to terms with the legacy of African slavery.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A.R.T. announces ‘Family Friday’ for ‘No Child …’ premiere

    The American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) is offering a special discounted ticket price for its Nov. 23 premiere of “No Child … ” — the Obie Award-winning one-woman show by Nilaja Sun. Tickets for the “Family Friday” performance are $25 for each member of a family with a young adult under 21 years of age. (“No…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Houghton exhibit features ‘luminous’ historian

    While Edward Gibbon was publishing his six-volume opus, “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” a large portion of Britain’s empire was declaring its independence and fighting to break free of the mother country.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Sanders Theatre features talk on building schools for peaceful world

    In the remote and mountainous Baltistan region of Pakistan, the beverage of choice is paiyu cha, a mixture of green tea, salt, baking soda, goat’s milk, and a rancid yak butter called mar.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Scholar looks at abiding interest in the ‘Great American Novel’

    Literary critics tend to discredit the concept of a “Great American Novel” as nothing more than media hype — an arbitrary appellation that has more to do with pipe dreams than merit. And yet, what would-be author hasn’t imagined, when putting pen to paper, what it would feel like to be hailed as the greatest…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    This month in Harvard history

    November 1791 — A writer in the Boston press accuses Harvard of poisoning students’ minds with Edward Gibbon’s monumental “History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” (1776-88). President Joseph Willard replies that far from even considering Gibbon, the College uses a text by French historian Abbé Millot. Nathaniel Ames, who left Harvard…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Police reports

    Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Nov. 12. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online athttp://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    In brief

    HUHS flu vaccination clinics Harvard University Health Services (HUHS) is offering free flu shots to members of the Harvard community.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Newsmakers

    Bloom receives honorary doctorate from Erasmus University Rotterdam Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) Dean Barry R. Bloom received an honorary doctorate from Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands at a Nov. 8 ceremony. The university annually awards one or more honorary doctorates to mark its founding, a celebration called “Dies Natalis.” Bloom delivered a…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Hermes C. Grillo

    Hermes C. Grillo, M.D., world renowned Thoracic Surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital, died Saturday, October 14, 2006 near Ravenna, Italy in an automobile accident. He and his wife, Sue, were traveling in their beloved Italy visiting family and planned to attend the Italian Association for Thoracic Surgery, at which he was to be an…

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Charles Frederick Mosteller

    At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on October 16, 2007, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Charles Frederick Mosteller, Professor of Mathematical Statistics, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Mosteller made indelible contributions to statistics, to education and educational policy, and to health research.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Hay memorial set for Nov. 18

    A memorial service for Elizabeth Dexter Hay, embryologist and educator at Harvard Medical School (HMS), will be held Sunday (Nov. 18) at 2 p.m. in the rotunda of HMS’s New Research Building at 77 Ave. Louis Pasteur. Hay died in August at the age of 80.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Harvard Foundation honors ASHA president

    Noma Anderson, president of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), will be honored today (Nov. 15) by the Harvard Foundation for her outstanding leadership and contributions to American education and health services. At a reception in her honor, Anderson will be presented with the Harvard Foundation Medallion.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    GSD Alumni Council creates fund in honor of Altshuler

    Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) Alumni Council Chair Michaele Pride announced at the council’s meeting in October that an endowment has been established in the name of GSD Dean Alan Altshuler. The Alumni Council–Alan Altshuler Fund for Financial Aid recognizes Altshuler’s strong commitment to increasing student financial aid during his tenure at the…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    HMS’s Dohlman receives AAO’s highest honor

    Claes H. Dohlman, Harvard Medical School (HMS) professor of ophthalmology emeritus and cornea surgeon at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI), received the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s most prestigious award, the Laureate Recognition Award, at the academy’s annual meeting Nov. 10-13 in New Orleans. In addition, a new HMS professorship named in his honor…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Homely win, pretty ending

    Harvard football coach Tim Murphy managed to find a silver lining in all those yellow flags his team earned on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 10). Of course, in dispensing the visiting Penn Quakers, 23-7, to keep the Crimson unbeaten at home and in league play, 6-0 (7-2 overall), those 10 penalties for 95 lost yards tend…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Finding shelter: Community Gifts supports Just-A-Start

    This is the second in a series of Gazette articles highlighting some of the many initiatives and charities that Harvard affiliates can support through this month’s Community Gifts Through Harvard campaign. The Community Gifts campaign allows you to donate to a charity of your choice through cash, a check, or a payroll deduction.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Somber, joyful service marks 75th birthday

    Over a thousand people crowded into the Memorial Church Sunday (Nov. 11) for a special birthday. Seventy-five years earlier, almost to the minute, the Colonial-style structure was dedicated on Armistice Day 1932.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Publications recognize three CfA astronomers

    Three astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) were recently recognized for their innovative work by three leading national magazines. The trio was selected from hundreds of scientists across the country for their leadership and achievements in their respective research fields.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Politics of pain — from Percodan to Kevorkian

    On a rainy Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 6), physicians, historians of science, and members of the general public gathered in the gymnasium at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study to hear about pain.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Obesity linked to higher prostate cancer mortality

    Men who are overweight or obese when diagnosed with prostate cancer are at greater risk of death after treatment, according to a new study in the Dec. 15 issue of Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Symposium addresses American Indian health

    Sunshine Dwojak, a fourth-year Harvard Medical School student, was 26 when her mother died of heart disease, leaving behind three children. Dwojak’s mother was 48.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Digging history in Harvard Yard

    It was crowded in the hole in Harvard Yard, with sophomore Reyzl Geselowitz and freshman Alison Liewen crouching in the square pit, elbow to elbow and more than a yard deep in Harvard’s dark earth.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Study: Single muscle far more complex than previously believed

    New research from Harvard’s Concord Field Station has shown that the common perception of a muscle as a single functional unit is incorrect and that different sections within an individual muscle actually do different work.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Beta-carotene reduces dementia risk in men

    Researchers affiliated with the Channing Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) report in the Nov. 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine evidence that men who take beta-carotene supplements for 15 years or longer may have less cognitive decline and better verbal memory than those who do not.

    2 minutes