Year: 2015

  • Nation & World

    Study of African trees goes public

    A postdoctoral fellow has launched a citizen-science project that aims to digitize thousands of pages of detailed observations on the life cycles of African trees.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Long hours for big dreams

    Learning how to connect with your audience, young or old, is a key tenet at the A.R.T. Institute, where careers in acting, dramaturgy, and voice training take shape.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Professors recognized for exceptional teaching in science

    Jene Golovchenko and John Johnson are the 2015 winners of the Fannie Cox Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The best stories of 2015

    A look back at some of the Gazette’s best stories of 2015.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Time to turn the page

    A look at notable work by Harvard authors in 2015 wouldn’t be complete without their own best reads of the year.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Soccer under siege

    Matt Andrews, an associate professor of public policy at the Center for International Development at Harvard University, discusses the ongoing corruption scandal under now-disgraced FIFA President Sepp Blatter, and how to begin to clean up the sport.

    11 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Muslims wonder what’s ahead

    As rhetoric against Muslims rises across the nation, members of the Harvard community increasingly are pondering how to safeguard and support the rights of all.

    8 minutes
  • Nation & World

    COPD, asthma now can be studied outside the body

    A multicomponent, microfluidic small airway-on-a-chip model provides new opportunities to study human lung inflammatory disorders such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma, and to test preclinical drug candidates outside the human body.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    When the ‘sharing economy’ doesn’t

    Some Airbnb hosts discriminate on the basis of race, suggests a study by researchers at Harvard Business School.

    10 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Researchers help cells forget who they are

    Scientists identify a molecular key that helps cells maintain identity and prevents the conversion of adult cells into induced pluripotent stem cells — a process that would require a cell to “forget” its identity before assuming a new one.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Paris deal a step toward better health, experts say

    Panelists in a Harvard Chan School forum examined how the Paris climate agreement might affect human health.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Happy to be puzzled

    For the English Department’s Gwen Urdang-Brown, crossword puzzles have always been a family affair. The first crossword puzzle appeared in the New York World newspaper on Dec. 21, 1913. (Dec. 21 is now recognized as Crossword Puzzle Day.)

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard professor brought first Christmas tree to New England

    Charles Follen (1796-1840), 10-year Harvard professor, is remembered for bringing holiday tradition from Germany

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Through a glass, brightly

    The constellations of stained-glass windows that grace Memorial Hall create a magical feeling above the building’s halls as they transform the space into a veritable museum of American stained glass, with a variety of designers, manufacturers, and techniques on display.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    An Rx for the T

    Ash Center senior research fellow Charles Chieppo weighs in on how to begin to fix the troubled MBTA, and assesses the reforms thus far.

    11 minutes
  • Nation & World

    An enduring Christmas groove

    Vince Guaraldi’s quintessential holiday soundtrack, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” made an indelible mark on many, including Harvard Law School faculty assistant Brad Conner.

    2 minutes
    Brad Connor at the piano.
  • Nation & World

    How to be your best in 5 minutes

    Harvard Business School social psychologist Amy Cuddy explains how tapping into our inner strength can help us make the most of life’s big challenges.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A brain link to autism

    Using a visual test that is known to prompt different reactions in autistic and normal brains, Harvard researchers have shown that those differences were associated with a breakdown in the signaling pathway used by one of the brain’s chief inhibitory neurotransmitters.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    England beckons for trio of scholars

    Harvard Quincy House residents Rebecca Panovka and Bianca Mulaney were recently selected to receive Marshall Scholarships. They will be joined in the United Kingdom by Yen Pham ’15-’16, who recently received a Rhodes Scholarship in her native Australia.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Metastasis study illuminates how cancer will ‘hijack’ healthy cells

    A study from Brigham and Women’s Hospital offers a new view of how cancer cells extend their reach, co-opting and transforming normal cells through “metastatic hijacking.” The researchers also found that in preclinical models, pharmacological intervention can prevent this from occurring.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Human-gut-on-a-chip model offers hope for IBD sufferers

    In a new study, the Wyss Institute’s human-gut-on-a-chip technology is used to co-culture gut microbiome and human intestinal cells, which could spur innovation of novel therapies for inflammatory bowel diseases.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Disclosures on fracking lacking, study finds

    Harvard researchers examined the nation’s registry, where oil and gas production companies disclose the chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing, and found that they do it less than in the past.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Building calm into the day

    The Center for Wellness at Harvard University Health Services sponsors a range of meditation options for students.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    3 named to National Academy of Inventors

    Three Harvard professors and scientists have been named fellows of the National Academy of Inventors.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    At last, global fretting on climate change

    The Paris agreement to fight climate change greatly expands the international commitment to the cause, Harvard Professor Stavins says.

    11 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Renowned scholar joins Kennedy School and Radcliffe Institute

    Khalil Gibran Muhammad has been named professor of history, race, and public policy at Harvard Kennedy School and appointed the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. He will begin at Harvard on July 1.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Mapping the road ahead for climate research

    The need for continuous rigorous and relevant climate science will be more important than ever. With that framing, a group of scholars on Wednesday shared their ideas for improving the process by which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) carries out its research agenda, at a side panel at the U.N. Climate Change Conference…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    How climate agreement impacts business

    The private sector — from large corporations to small businesses — will undoubtedly be impacted by whatever international agreement emerges from the U.N. Climate Change Conference taking place in Paris, but opinions vary as to how burdensome and costly those impacts will be.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Bent toward violence

    Harvard psychiatrist Ronald Schouten answers questions on the San Bernardino attack and the psychology behind both terrorism and the fear it spreads.

    10 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Unraveling Mexican secrets

    Mexican journalist Jacinto Rodriguez spent more than a decade examining documents at the National Archive of Mexico. Now he’s reviewing documents at the Houghton Library, looking for clues to the relationship between intellectuals and power in Mexico in the 1960s and ’70s.

    5 minutes