Month: February 2008

  • Nation & World

    J. Craig Venter named visiting scholar

    J. Craig Venter, the visionary biologist and intellectual entrepreneur who was a leading figure in the decoding of the human genome, will join Harvard University as a visiting scholar at…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    HMS, Broad Institute team works to better understand mitochondria

    Why do nearly 1 million people taking cholesterol-lowering statins often experience muscle cramps? Why is it that in the rare case when a diabetic takes medication for intestinal worms, his glucose levels improve? Is there any scientific basis for the purported health effects of green tea?

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The three green ‘r’s: Reduce, reuse, recycle

    On a snowy Friday morning last week (Feb. 22), a truck pulled up in front of 90 Windom St., a two-story brick building on the site of Harvard’s new Allston Science Complex. The former commercial space is the last of the structures to be cleared before construction begins.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Jazz great Herbie Hancock takes home Artist of the Year

    Music legend Herbie Hancock received the 2008 Cultural Artist of the Year Award from the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations at the organization’s 23rd annual Cultural Rhythms celebration, an afternoon and evening of performances from a diverse cultural mix of 29 student groups. Hancock was feted at the first of two shows (March…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The first civil rights movement

    Most of us think of the Civil Rights movement as something that took place in the transitional 1950s and the tumultuous 1960s. It’s seen as a cultural artifact squeezed between the defiance of Rosa Parks (1955) and the demise of Martin Luther King Jr. (1968).

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Goodfellow Liotta visits University

    Film actor Ray Liotta recently (Feb. 25) visited the Harvard Foundation as a special guest. He met with representatives of several student cultural organizations, including the Harvard Italian-American Cultural Society.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    New Ph.D. film program launched

    The study of moving images has always been viewed through a wide lens at Harvard. Since the beginning, film studies at the University has sought to incorporate a broad range of disciplines in order to appreciate and understand the visual experience. The rich fields of philosophy, psychology, and the fine arts were all mined early…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Hollywood writer wins kudos at Rosovsky Hall

    Irreverence was the theme of the evening (Feb. 21) as one of the sharp satirical minds behind the nation’s quirkiest cartoon family addressed a rapt audience at Harvard Hillel’s Rosovsky Hall. Mike Reiss ’81, a founding writer of the animated series “The Simpsons,” gave the crowd what they came for with an hourlong stand-up routine…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Playwright Tony Kushner to deliver Tanner Lectures

    Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner will deliver this year’s Tanner Lectures on Human Values, sponsored by the Office of the President and the Department of English at Harvard University. Kushner will speak on the topic “Fiction That’s True! Historical Fiction and Anxiety” on April 9 and 10 at 4:30 p.m. in Lowell Lecture Hall. On…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Exploring the shadows

    “If you wouldn’t tell Stalin, don’t tell anyone else!” In the early years of the Cold War, a billboard near an atomic bomb testing site in New Mexico urged passersby to keep research developments close to the vest. Secrecy was of the utmost importance in that era — and not just in scientific circles —…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    This month in Harvard history

    Ca. February 1960 — As Harvard and Radcliffe expand their joint activities, Radcliffe students achieve several firsts for women: — Sarah Fuller ’61 becomes President of the Organ Society and the first woman to head a Harvard-Radcliffe organization. — Linda Greenberg ’62 defeats David Hemmendinger ’62 for the presidency of the Liberal Union.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Police reports

    Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Feb. 25. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online athttp://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    In Brief

    SCHLESINGER LIBRARY TO SPONSOR SUMMER SEMINAR ON GENDER HISTORY GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS AVAILABLE TO HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL MEMBERS

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Portion of encyclopedic ‘macroscope’ unveiled

    The first 30,000 pages of a massive online Encyclopedia of Life were unveiled last week at the Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) conference in Monterey, Calif. The project was congratulated by E.O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor Emeritus, who articulated the need for a dynamic modern portrait of biodiversity in a widely read essay in 2003.…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Commencement Exercises ’08

    To accommodate the increasing number of those wishing to attend Harvard’s Commencement Exercises, the following guidelines are proposed to facilitate admission into Tercentenary Theatre on Commencement Morning:

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Sports briefs

    Squash capture fifth at Howe Cup; Two Harvard icers score Kazmaier consideration; ECAC honors sophomore

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    New York, New York, New York

    A steadfast New York University men’s volleyball team withstood a 2-1 deficit to serve up a 3-2 victory over Harvard this past Friday (Feb. 22), handing the Crimson its only five-game setback of the season thus far. With the loss, Harvard also suffered its first three-match skid of the 2008 campaign, while falling to 4-5…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Flu shots still available at HUHS

    With the flu season currently at its peak (and the season often lasting through April), there is still plenty of time and good reason to get immunized if you have not already. Following immunization, it takes approximately 10 days to develop antibodies and be protected.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Spring auction to benefit local nonprofits

    The Memorial Church will hold its third annual charity auction to benefit the grants committee on April 17. The event will be held at the Sheraton Commander Hotel (across from the Cambridge Common) beginning at 6:30 p.m.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Research in brief

    GROWING U.S. DISPARITIES IN HEALTH NOT INEVITABLE NEW WAY TO GROW BLOOD VESSELS

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    History of Women in Medicine fellowship material due March 1

    The Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine (FHWIM) is offering two fellowships to support research conducted at the Center for the History of Medicine and its Archives for Women in Medicine, located at Harvard Medical School’s Countway Library.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Pilot program offers grants to defray child care costs

    The Research Enabling Grants program (REG) — a pilot program administered through the Office of Faculty Development and Diversity — offers tenure-track faculty and benefits-eligible postdoctoral fellows financial support to enable research that would otherwise suffer due to significant child care or adult dependent care obligations.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    University, students unite for mental health

    If a student is struggling, stressed-out, or having trouble coping with pressure, the University is here to listen and help. That’s the theme behind this year’s “Speak Out, Mental Health at Harvard,” a weeklong series of events to engage the student body in active campus dialogues about mental health.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A doctor without borders

    Oleksiy Skrynnyk was just a carefree 9-year-old, his fishing rod slung over his shoulder as he walked home from his favorite pond. He never saw the low-hanging power line. Twenty-two hundred volts shot through his body, entering his right shoulder and exiting out his left foot. The electrocution burns were extensive. His right arm was…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Charles William Dunn

    At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on February 12, 2008, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Charles William Dunn, Margaret Brooks Robinson Professor of Celtic Languages and Literatures, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Dunn had an impeccable sense of dramatic timing and an inimitable laugh.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    ‘Dirty Work’

    As reports of the subprime mortgage meltdown continue, an exhibition on view through March 16 in Gund Hall Gallery highlights a real estate crisis of an altogether different sort. A third of the world’s city dwellers — 1 billion people — live in shantytowns.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Fieldwork, community service key in study abroad

    Long lines at the airport customs desk? Blame those Harvard undergraduates — in the 2006-07 academic year alone, 1,458 students had an international experience of some kind. While summer travel has historically been the most popular option, increasing numbers of undergraduates are choosing to spend a full semester abroad.

    11 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Restricting insulin doses increases mortality risk

    A new study led by researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center has found that women with type 1 diabetes who reported taking less insulin than prescribed had a three-fold increased…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Giurini named President of American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons

    John M. Giurini, Chief of the Division of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an Associate Professor in Surgery at Harvard Medical School was installed…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Growing U.S. disparities in health not inevitable

    In the public health field, there is an ongoing debate as to whether improvement in the overall health of the population is linked to increases or decreases in social inequities…

    3 minutes