Month: February 2013

  • Nation & World

    Busting the budget

    With the sequester closing in, the Gazette asked Harvard analysts to weigh in on how the dramatic spending cuts might affect the economy, politics, and the funding of research universities.

    15 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Of art and the Civil War

    Harvard joins with three other universities and five theaters in the National Civil War Project, a multiyear collaboration that will use the arts to re-imagine America’s transformative conflict of 150 years ago.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A deadly foe

    By the end of the conference, “Governance of Tobacco in the 21st Century,” a few recommendations for international controls stood out: Consider public health a basic human right, and tobacco promotion a violation of that right.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The ‘last Renaissance man’

    In the second of three lectures on founding father Thomas Jefferson, historian William J. Moses probed the stark contrasts that the third president showed in his writings and behavior, in his character and his intellect.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    When water causes sickness

    A team of students with the Harvard College Engineers Without Borders is working with residents in a tiny town to improve both access to water and its quality.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A learner’s guide to the universe

    Harvard’s Avi Loeb is helping prepare the next generation of astronomers with a new textbook, “The First Galaxies in the Universe.”

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Hope ahead, hell behind

    An Institute of Politics panel at the Harvard Kennedy School — including a politician, a soldier, and an activist actor — praised the resilience of post-earthquake Haiti but acknowledged the country’s long road ahead for recovery and stability.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A league of her own

    Harvard freshman Christina Gao is also a top-ranked figure skater, and is doing so well in competitions that she’s taking a leaving from school to train for the Olympics.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Peering into our blind spots

    Harvard psychologist Mahzarin Banaji and longtime collaborator Anthony Greenwald condense three decades of work on the unconscious mind in “Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People.”

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Linking insulin to learning

    Work led by Yun Zhang, associate professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, shows how the pathway of insulin and insulinlike peptides plays a critical role in helping to regulate learning and memory.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Dying stars source of life?

    Researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have found that even dying stars could host planets with life — and if such life exists, they believe we might be able to detect it within the next decade.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    100 years of Harvard University Press

    This year marks the 100th anniversary of Harvard University Press (HUP), and as part of a yearlong celebration Houghton Library is hosting an exhibition of HUP publications, correspondence, and other materials.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Lung-on-a-Chip wins prize

    Wyss Institute Founding Director Donald Ingber received the NC3Rs 3Rs Prize from the U.K.’s National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction of Animals in Research for his innovative Lung-on-a-Chip.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Lessig remembers Swartz

    In remarks at Harvard Law School, Professor Lawrence Lessig eulogized Internet pioneer Aaron Swartz and proposed a closer examination of minor versus major cyberspace crimes and what he called “extremism in prosecuting computer laws.”

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Warren E.C. Wacker dies

    Warren E.C. Wacker, former Henry K. Oliver Professor of Hygiene Emeritus, died on Dec. 29, 2012.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    The Hong Kong model

    Anson Chan, the former chief secretary for administration for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, outlined her hopes for a more democratic China when she delivered the Rama S. Mehta Lecture at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Scherzinger honored for advocacy

    Nicole Scherzinger, an advocate for people with special needs and breast cancer research, and a classically trained opera singer, was awarded the Harvard Foundation’s most prestigious medal Feb. 23 at the 28th annual Cultural Rhythms festival.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    In the Pink Zone

    Harvard’s Lavietes Pavilion was bedecked in a paler shade of crimson on Saturday for the Harvard-Yale women’s basketball game in honor of the Pink Zone, an event to raise awareness and support in the fight against breast cancer.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Weight and mortality

    In January, when the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a meta-analysis of 100 studies that probed the relationship between body mass index and mortality — studies that found slightly overweight people have lower all-cause mortality than normal weight and underweight people — media around the globe trumpeted the news.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Among millions, a blank slate

    The Kumbh Mela, the world’s largest religious gathering, spawns a city of millions virtually overnight — and with it, a thriving ecosystem of commerce large-scale and small. Harvard Business School researchers traveled to India to search for the festival’s unlikely lessons in infrastructure, governance, and informal networks.

    9 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Faith not in God, but in humanity

    Comedian, actor, and (perhaps) politician Eddie Izzard ruminated on infallibility and the Golden Rule as he accepted the sixth annual Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The power of penguins

    A student spends an unforgettable summer working with African penguins.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Aid fuels record applications

    Driven by historic levels of financial aid, the number of applications to Harvard College remained high this year. Applications reached a record 35,022, the third consecutive year with numbers near 35,000. Last year 34,303 applied, and two years ago 34,950 did.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Nicole Scherzinger Artist of the Year

    Talented recording artist, television personality, and philanthropist Nicole Scherzinger has been named the Harvard Foundation’s 2013 Artist of the Year.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Shifting perspectives in gun debate

    NRA President David Keene and Jonathan E. Lowy presented their views on gun policy during visits to Harvard.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    New leader in teaching, learning

    Robert A. Lue has been named the Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, placing him at the forefront of efforts to rethink teaching and learning, both on campus and off.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Frank Aguilar of HBS dies at 80

    Harvard Business School (HBS) Professor Emeritus Francis J. Aguilar, an authority on strategic planning and general management who also made his mark on generations of students as a gifted and caring teacher, died on Feb. 17.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Birth of an actor

    Tommy Lee Jones discusses his first glimpse of the foreign turf of New England, and a hard choice he had to make on arriving: Should he focus on football or acting?

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Money, marriage, kids

    There may be a formula for happiness after all, says Daniel Gilbert, Harvard professor of psychology and best-selling author of “Stumbling on Happiness,” who presented an impressive array of scientific research from the disciplines of economics, psychology, and neuroscience to assess his mother’s recipe for happiness.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A teaching treasure trove

    As plans for renovating the Harvard Art Museums progress, officials offer a look at what the refurbished facility will hold.

    6 minutes