Month: July 2011

  • Nation & World

    Gauging forest changes

    Harvard scientists are leading an international collaboration that aims to coordinate research, data collection, scientist training, and analysis of information gleaned from two networks of forest plots, one through the Harvard-affiliated Center for Tropical Forest Science and the second created by Chinese scientists.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    IOP announces fall fellows

    The Institute of Politics, located at the Harvard Kennedy School, announced the selection of an experienced group of individuals for resident and visiting fellowships this fall.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Harvard Farmers’ Market

    From lettuce to lobsters and everything in between, Harvard Farmers’ Market vendors dish on the fruits of their labor.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Plans in motion

    Boston’s new bike-sharing program, Hubway, launches today (July 28), and University officials, in collaboration with the city of Cambridge, are planning to bring the program to Harvard’s main campus, possibly as early as this fall.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    How young students think

    “Mind in the Making” explores links among social, emotional, and intellectual learning. It was part of a weeklong seminar called “Mind in the Making,” developed by the Harvard Achievement Support Initiative (HASI) as part of the University’s commitment to public service.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    HSPH receives $14.1M grant

    Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has been awarded a $14.1 million, four-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to test the effectiveness of an innovative checklist-based childbirth safety program in reducing deaths and improving outcomes of mothers and infants in 120 hospitals in India.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Tanzania-HSPH AIDS clinic opens

    U.S. and Tanzanian government officials opened a new research and treatment center for Tanzania’s sickest AIDS patients Friday (July 22), to be operated by Tanzanian health officials in partnership with the Harvard School of Public Health.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A cuisine reigns supreme

    Harvard Summer School students sharpened their knives, fired up the hibachis, and went to work for this year’s sixth annual Iron Chef Competition, a showcase of local ingredients and budding culinary talent.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Caring voices

    The Harvard Graduate School of Education on July 26 released a powerful video in support of the It Gets Better Project. The four-minute video features faculty, staff, and students sharing personal accounts of their childhood experiences and providing support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Borjas co-wins prestigious economics prize

    The Institute for the Study of Labor has announced that this year’s IZA Prize in Labor Economics will be awarded to George J. Borjas of Harvard University and Barry R. Chiswick of George Washington University for their fundamental contributions to the economic analysis of migration and integration.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Hard fight ahead

    Experts participating in an HSPH event expressed hope for rapid progress against Alzheimer’s disease even as they acknowledged that there’s little medical science can do today to help patients.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    New approach to traumatic brain injuries

    Bioengineers at Harvard have, for the first time, explained how the blast of an exploding bomb can translate into subtly disastrous injuries in the nerve cells and blood vessels of the brain.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A plan for better banking

    A team of researchers at Harvard and in London has created a model of bank failure aimed at helping economies avoid crashes. Their work highlights a fundamental dilemma for regulators: Improving the safety of individual banks may make the financial system as a whole more dangerous.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Light fantastic

    New research shows that aurorae on distant “hot Jupiters” could be 100 to 1,000 times brighter than Earth’s aurorae. “I’d love to get a reservation on a tour to see these aurorae,” said lead author Ofer Cohen, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Garden party

    The Harvard Farmers’ Market is back and its offerings are fresher, better than ever.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    New territory

    A consortium led by scientists at the University of Oxford and Harvard Medical School has constructed the world’s most detailed genetic map, built from data from 30,000 African-Americans. The researchers assert that this is the most accurate and highest resolution genetic map yet.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Library Park opens in Allston

    Harvard and Boston celebrated the opening of Library Park in Allston, a new community space on Harvard-donated land. Complete with fountains, footpaths, and 150 new trees, the 1.74-acre green space is located behind the Honan-Allston Branch of the Boston Public Library. A hallmark of sustainability, lifelong residents remembered its industrial past, while praising it transformation…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Parking Office moves to Holyoke on July 20

    Harvard’s Parking Office will take up residency at the new Campus Services Center, located in Holyoke Center.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Predicting cancer’s spread

    Harvard researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) have identified a number of cancer genes that endow melanoma tumors with the ability to metastasize, making it possible to predict whether the tumors are likely to spread.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Of the bean I sing

    A Radcliffe Fellow is working on an opera about the world’s love affair with coffee and how it grew from the bean that made goats jittery to the potion we all get jittery for.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Voices of frustration

    In an afternoon discussion at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, investigative journalists from around the world discussed the challenges of reaching a wider audience.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Editing the genome

    Treating the chromosome as both an editable and an evolvable template, researchers have demonstrated methods to rewrite a cell’s genome through powerful new tools for biotechnology, energy, and agriculture.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Manchester United visits Harvard University

    English soccer champions Manchester United made a brief stop at Harvard University as part of their U.S. pre-season tour, during which they’ll face several Major League Soccer teams including the Massachusetts-based New England Revolution. Sir Alex Ferguson led the star-studded squad through Harvard Yard, stopping at the statue of John Harvard for a photograph. Wayne…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    The Red Devils go Crimson

    Members of Manchester United Football Club visited Harvard to conduct a soccer clinic with local youth from the Boston neighborhoods of Allston and Brighton, and to play tourist in Harvard Yard with Harvard President Drew Faust.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    When to alter cancer screenings

    Not only is it important for physicians to be fully informed about any cancer in their patients’ family histories, but a massive new study led by a Harvard researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and a University of California scientist indicates that it is important to update that history whenever there are contemporaneous changes in…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Finding ovarian cancer’s vulnerabilities

    In their largest and most comprehensive effort to date, researchers from the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a Harvard affiliate, examined cells from more than 100 tumors, including 25 ovarian cancer tumors, to unearth the genes upon which cancers depend. They call it Project Achilles.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    When estrogen isn’t the culprit

    Although it sounds like a case of gender confusion on a molecular scale, the male hormone androgen spurs the growth of some breast tumors in women. In a new study, Harvard scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute provide the first details of the cancer cell machinery that carries out the hormone’s relentless growth orders.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Under the gold and crimson dome

    Located on the banks of the Charles River next to the Weeks Footbridge, Dunster House is distinguished by its gold and crimson dome, which was modeled after the tower of Christ Church at Oxford.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Sackstein granted $17M for research

    Dermatologist Robert Sackstein has been awarded a prestigious $17 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Three researchers named Runyon Fellows

    The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on supporting innovative early career researchers, has named 18 new Damon Runyon Fellows, including three from Harvard.

    2 minutes