Year: 2011

  • Nation & World

    The defense of Ebenezer

    A Winthrop House tradition retakes the airwaves, as WHRB rebroadcasts professor’s defense of Christmas anti-hero Ebenezer Scrooge.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Shareholder report available Dec. 22

    The 2011 Annual Report of the Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (CCSR), a subcommittee of the President and Fellows, will be available upon request on Dec. 22.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    A possible aid for navigators

    John Huth, the creator of the popular “Primitive Navigation” course, spent most of last summer investigating a mysterious phenomenon called “underwater lightning,” which some say can be used as a navigational tool.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Prayers for the season

    The final Morning Prayers of the year at Appleton Chapel involve a message of concern and hope.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Alien worlds, just like home

    Harvard astronomers, working as part of NASA’s Kepler mission, have detected the first Earth-sized planets orbiting a distant star, a milestone in the hunt for alien worlds that brings scientists one step closer to their ultimate goal of finding a twin Earth.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    An echo of Harvard in New Mexico

    The purpose of the trip was to generate interest for Harvard among Native American students, as well as to host a Harvard booth at the National Indian Education Association conference in Albuquerque. For many of the high school students we visited, the Harvard name was simply an abstraction.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Use, abuse of Internet pharmacies

    Efforts to halt the growing abuse of prescription drugs must include addressing the availability of these drugs on the Internet and increasing physician awareness of the dangers posed by Internet pharmacies.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard grad and HMS student are Rhodes Scholars

    Matthews Mmopi, a recent Harvard graduate from South Africa, and David Obert, a second-year Harvard Medical School (HMS) student, have been selected as 2012 Rhodes Scholars, and will join the University’s four U.S. Rhodes winners at the University of Oxford next fall.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Health reform in the crosshairs

    With health care costs set to gobble up more of the federal budget, analysts say that additional reforms are inevitable, though national indecision over what they should look like could mean a rocky path ahead.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    In January, a learning smorgasbord

    Graduate students and others will be able to take part in January @ GSAS, a series of more than 80 workshops, seminars, and classes on topics that range from how to write fellowship proposals, to using online citation tools when conducting research, to social events such as film screenings and tours of Harvard museums.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A humanitarian comes home

    Harvard Medical School Instructor Stephanie Kayden’s educational life came full circle this semester, when she taught a humanitarian studies course in Emerson Hall, where, as an undergraduate philosophy concentrator she honed her own reasoning skills years ago.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Lights, Camera, Reaction

    Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) students learn to master the art of a live television interview in the On-Camera Interview Basics workshop, one of many hosted by the HKS Communications Program.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Slowing neurodegeneration in Huntington’s

    Harvard researchers have found a treatment that increases brain levels of an important regulatory enzyme may slow the loss of brain cells that characterizes Huntington’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    When art advanced science

    More than a masterful artist, Albrecht Dürer strongly influenced 16th-century science with cartographic and anatomical work that gets little attention from art historians.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Dealing with data

    A computer program developed by brothers David and Yakir Reshef, together with Professors Michael Mitzenmacher and Pardis Sabeti, enables researchers to scour massive data sets for meaningful relationships that might otherwise have been missed.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Donald Ingber wins 2011 Holst Medal

    Donald Ingber, the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and founding director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, has been awarded the 2011 Holst Medal.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Why some TB cells resist antibiotics

    A new study led by Harvard School of Public Health researchers provides a novel explanation as to why some tuberculosis cells are inherently more difficult to treat with antibiotics.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard encourages ‘shop local’

    Harvard University is encouraging staff, faculty, and students to “shop local” this holiday season and support locally owned, small businesses near work and in their home communities.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard poll predicts Obama loss

    A new national poll of America’s 18- to 29-year-olds by the Institute of Politics (IOP) at the Harvard Kennedy School finds more millennials predict President Barack Obama will lose his bid for re-election (36 percent) than win (30 percent).

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Young minds well matched

    The work of 100 Allston-Brighton children was on display during the eighth installment of the Harvard Allston Education Portal’s Student Showcase and Open House.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Memorial service for Bernie Wolfman

    Harvard Law School will host a memorial Service in honor of Bernie Wolfman on Feb. 3.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Rethinking work, beyond the paycheck

    Eighty years ago, the idea that workers were purely rational beings motivated solely by money dominated American business. But a famous study known as the Hawthorne Experiments, led by two men at Harvard Business School, helped to found the human relations movement.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Baking in the details

    A long-term Semitic Museum project labors to conserve thousands of 3,500-year-old clay tablets that detail everyday life in an ancient city.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Helping women help themselves

    Victoria Budson always wanted to aid the cause of gender equality. As executive director of the Kennedy School’s Women and Public Policy Program, she helps to develop leaders, too.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Dateline: Classroom

    Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a Nieman Fellow, explains the dangers of his craft, and why he can’t return to Pakistan.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    ‘E Pluribus Domus’

    The Eliot House Grille — affectionately named the “Inferno” for, among other reasons, its basement location — has never been hotter. Thanks to recent enhancements, which include comfy leather couches and chairs, a boss sound system, and improved lighting, the beloved social space is welcoming more students and serving up more fun and snacks.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Relief for the weary

    Ninety instructors and junior faculty members at Harvard Medical School have received fellowships from the Eleanor and Miles Shore 50th Anniversary Fellowship Program for Scholars in Medicine. The program provides grants for recipients to hire lab help or to gain protected time by easing clinical duties.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A quarter-century, and still going strong

    Annual ceremony honors 142 longtime employees, the keepers of Harvard’s institutional identity. But they’re more than just the guardians of a legacy — sometimes they’re guardian angels, too.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Creating the digital humanities

    Jeffrey Schnapp, professor of Romance languages and literatures, is using his academic passions to explore and experiment with the emerging field of digital scholarship.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Using the bully pulpit

    In his new memoir, former Harvard Medical School Dean Joseph Martin recalls a small-town childhood, an attraction to medicine, and the ups and downs of leadership.

    4 minutes