Year: 2007

  • Nation & World

    Researchers track down rheumatoid arthritis gene

    Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have discovered a gene involved in rheumatoid arthritis, a painful autoimmune disease that affects 2.1…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Percentage of Katrina survivors with mental disorders increasing

    According to the most comprehensive survey yet conducted of people affected by Hurricane Katrina, the percentage of pre-hurricane residents of the affected areas in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi who have…

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Changes in diet and lifestyle may help prevent infertility

    Women who followed a combination of five or more lifestyle factors, including changing specific aspects of their diets, experienced more than 80 percent less relative risk of infertility due to ovulatory disorders compared to women who engaged in none of the factors.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Statistics captures unpredictability of real world

    Harvard’s small but active statistics department celebrated its 50th anniversary last week. There were two days of lectures and panels Oct. 26-27 at the Gutman Conference Center, and a noisy, social, and musical banquet at the Harvard Club of Boston.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Scientists image vivid ‘brainbows’

    By activating multiple fluorescent proteins in neurons, neuroscientists at Harvard University are imaging the brain and nervous system as never before, rendering these cells in a riotous spray of colors dubbed a “Brainbow.”

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    AAAS selects four faculty members as fellows

    The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) recently awarded the distinction of fellow to four Harvard faculty members. In all, 471 new members were named for their efforts toward advancing science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Sovereignty vs. global responsibility

    As part of Harvard Business School’s International Week, an annual event to highlight the cultural diversity at the School, Srgjan Kerim, president of the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, delivered the keynote address at the Spangler Auditorium on Oct. 25.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    1.8 million veterans lack health coverage

    Of the 47 million uninsured Americans, one in every eight (12.2 percent) is a veteran or member of a veteran’s household, according to a study by physicians from Cambridge Health Alliance who are also Harvard Medical School researchers. The study is published in the December issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Approximately 1.8…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Med students don’t study war, ethics

    A new survey of U.S. medical students shows they receive little training about what they should or should not do in wartime, despite ethical questions over physician involvement in prisoner interrogation and a legal framework making a “doctor draft” possible.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Faust, Pilbeam greet freshman parents

    To an assemblage of 1,000 freshman parents on Oct. 26 in Sanders Theatre, Dean of Harvard College David R. Pilbeam offered a welcome. “Your freshman is already a member of the extended Harvard family.”

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    KSG panel: Early campaigning takes voter toll

    The intense media coverage of a small group of presidential hopefuls is prematurely narrowing the field of worthy nominees, many political experts claim.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Dowd works the crowd at White Lecture

    Journalism, the saying goes, is the first draft of history.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Vermont and New Hampshire, geographic twins, cultural aliens

    Ever wonder about Vermont and New Hampshire?

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Looking at China’s role in Africa

    China’s increasing influence in Africa is a double-edged sword that wields the potential for prosperity and despair.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Rehding finds ‘monumental’ works key to German political history

    In December 1989, a few weeks after the reunification of Germany, Leonard Bernstein ’39 raised his baton above the ruins of the Berlin Wall and conducted a special arrangement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The central statement of the work — “all men will be brothers” — captured the sentiment of those who saw a brighter…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A vision of collaboration, mutual respect

    Harvard and South Asia go way back.

    11 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Taxonomist Carl Linnaeus on show at HMNH

    Carl Linnaeus believed that the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was not an apple but a banana. He came to this conclusion in 1737, while studying plant specimens at Hartecamp, the estate of George Clifford, a wealthy Dutch banker and director of the Dutch East India Company. Clifford collected exotic plants from around the…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Tale of John Harvard’s surviving book

    This November, Harvard University will mark the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Harvard, not the institution’s founder as he is sometimes credited, but rather its first major benefactor. Such a noteworthy anniversary warrants reflection, although, unfortunately, a great many details about both the history of John Harvard and the legacy of his library…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Darnton looks at the ‘art and politics of libel’ in 18th century France

    Government censors in pre-Revolutionary France were so hypervigilant that under their watchful eyes no one with anything significant to say dared publish their works in their own country. The solution was to publish abroad and smuggle the contraband books into France where they were soon snapped up by eager readers.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    This month in Harvard history

    Nov. 6, 1770 — Rumblings of Revolution: Joseph Avery, Class of 1771, orates on “Oppression and Tyranny” before the Speaking Club.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Police reports

    Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Oct. 24. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    In brief

    Community Gifts kicks off season of giving Vendor fair to explore the ease of being green HILR’s new Green Committee spotlights transportation Upcoming Goethe-Institut concert to feature Harvard composer Safra Foundation seeks fellowship applicants Holyoke group art show seeks submissions Arboretum seeks T-shirt designs for Lilac Sunday

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Newsmakers

    The Lindbergh Foundation recently named Assistant Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Peter Girguis one its 14 Lindbergh Grant recipients for 2007. ProCor, a global communication program promoting heart health founded by Harvard School of Public Health Professor of Cardiology Emeritus Bernard Lown, has granted its first Louise Lown Heart Hero Award to the Heart…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    President’s office hours 2007-08

    President Drew Faust will hold office hours for students and staff in her Massachusetts Hall office on the following dates:

    1 minute
  • 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 Nov. 18 at 2 p.m. in the rotunda of HMS’s New Research Building at 77 Ave. Louis Pasteur.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Luncheon honors Weissmans, interns

    Rafael Buerba ’08 worked as an operating room assistant in Barcelona, Spain. Christina Xu ’09 helped set up a record label and radio network in the prisons of Kingston, Jamaica. And Robert Ross ’09 tracked children in displaced person camps in Uganda.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard University Health Services offers flu vaccination clinics

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

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Blood drive in Holyoke Center

    The Office for Sponsored Programs is holding a blood drive Nov. 6 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Holyoke Center (conference room 704) for the benefit of Mount Auburn Hospital.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Berkman named director of Center for Population and Development Studies

    Social epidemiologist Lisa Berkman has been appointed director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard Provost Steven E. Hyman announced today (Oct. 26).

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Field hockey stays in Ivy hunt

    Forward Kayla Romanelli ’09 tallied a pair of goals to lead Harvard field hockey to a crucial 3-1 win against Dartmouth Saturday (Oct. 27). With the win, the Crimson (8-8, 4-2 Ivy) can lock up a winning regular season and secure at least a second-place league finish by defeating host Columbia on Friday (Nov. 2)…

    1 minute