Month: October 2015

  • Nation & World

    Football, food, and friends

    Guests from Allston-Brighton and Cambridge attended a Harvard football game and festivities as part of Community Football Day.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Microbiomes could hold keys to improving life

    A group of 48 scientists from 50 institutions in the U.S. has formed the Unified Microbiome Initiative Consortium (UMIC). The UMIC’s goal is to drive cutting-edge microbiome research, enabling breakthrough advances in medicine, ecosystem management, sustainable energy, and production of commodities.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    School testing a mixed bag, study says

    HGSE researcher finds mixed results among students in Texas schools in the 1990s: Some did better, and others were worse off.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Lessons of the brain: The Phineas Gage story

    During a construction explosion in 1848, an iron bar pierced the brain of foreman Phineas Gage. He survived, and his experiences opened a window into trauma and recovery.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard’s efforts to feed the hungry recognized

    Harvard University Dining Services’ Crista Martin was named a Cambridge Food Hero at City Hall last week. She shared the award with Food for Free’s Executive Director Sasha Purpura.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    ‘Free the Law’ will provide open access to all

    A collaboration between Harvard Law School and Ravel Law has created a program called “Free the Law,” which will make American law open and publicly available to anyone with Internet access for the first time in history.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Experts share ideas on the future university

    A conference on future universities suggested that building them successfully will require meeting campus needs, online connections, and community concerns.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    In annual report, a slight surplus

    A slight surplus atop a strengthening financial foundation marked the 2015 fiscal year, according to Harvard financial leaders, who spoke with the Gazette as the University released its annual financial report.

    13 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Faculty Council meeting held Oct. 28

    On Oct. 28 the members of the Faculty Council heard an update on new systems and information security.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Amid the Old Burying Ground

    Cambridge’s Old Burying Ground is the final resting place of Harvard presidents and paupers alike, and has centuries of tales to tell.

    20 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Blood clot breakthrough uses drug-device combo

    Harvard-affiliated researchers are working on a procedure that will allow fully obstructed blood clots in the brain to be cleared using a device that opens a small channel through the blockage, which combines with a clot-busting drug to target the obstructed site.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Returning to Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy

    Students in a new Graduate School of Design course use what they’ve learned to help restore the urban legacy of slain Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Pinpointing punishment

    It’s a question most attorneys wish they could answer: How and why do judges and juries arrive at their decisions? The answer, according to Joshua Buckholtz, may lie in the…

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Age-old enchantments

    During an afternoon demonstration and evening concert and reception, “Ancient Near East 103: Ancient Lives” students assembled, tuned, and played replicas of the world’s oldest known instruments, and sampled food based on 4,000-year-old recipes.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Fresh angle on Parents Weekend

    Sophomore Matthew DeShaw’s memories don’t overshadow this year’s Freshman Parents Weekend. Families share their stories as DeShaw remembers his.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Environmental awareness grows from peer-to-peer

    Students stay involved with sustainability on campus through REP — the Undergraduate Resource Efficiency Program — and its affiliates. REP helps students “educate their peers on issues such as energy, waste, water, food, and more through fun, personal, community-building events, competitions, and campaigns.”

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    ‘The Trouble with Jellyfish’

    A video showcases “The Trouble with Jellyfish,” a new exhibition at Le Laboratoire Cambridge that spotlights a growing crisis beneath the sea.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Dramatic chain of events

    Harvard physicist Lisa Randall discusses the research behind her new book, “Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs.”

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Medication errors found in 1 out of 2 surgeries

    The first study to measure the incidence of medication errors and adverse drug events during the perioperative period has found that some sort of mistake or adverse event occurred in every second operation and in 5 percent of observed drug administrations, according to information gathered from 275 operations at Massachusetts General Hospital.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Drug story

    Americans often have no idea whether they’re getting value for their prescription drug dollars, something that has to change if costs are to be reigned in in this country, according to a panel at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Torture through a viewfinder

    A new photo exhibit at Harvard Law School depicts the Syrian government’s brutality toward civilians, organizers say, and raises calls for legal and political remedies.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Independent mind

    A former justice in Guatemala, now a Scholar at Risk, says that a lack of judicial independence creates fertile ground for corruption.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Wanted: Climate change solutions

    Harvard will again fund grants of up to $150,000 for promising ideas to combat climate change.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Kennedy assails prison shortcomings

    During an appearance at Harvard Law School, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy criticized the shortcomings of the American prison system, citing its “ongoing injustice.”

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Taking the stairs

    Stairways inhabit the spaces where we live and work. Whether they’re tucked into cavities in the wall or suspended in grand ceremonial style for all to see, we travel along their treads.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    George Ledlie Prize awarded to Joanna Aizenberg

    Professor Joanna Aizenberg has won the George Ledlie Prize, which is awarded once every two years.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Red blood cell production increases, but cost goes down

    New research suggests a way to cost-effectively manufacture red blood cells from stem cells; the patients who could potentially benefit include those who cannot use blood currently available in blood banks.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Cosmic ‘Death Star’ destroys a planet

    Astronomers announced today that they have spotted a large, rocky object disintegrating in its death spiral around a distant white dwarf star. “We’re watching a solar system get destroyed,” noted a Harvard researcher.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The tiny flying submarine

    Harvard lab develops first insect-size robots capable of flight and swimming.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Faust: Step up on climate change

    At a State Department forum, Harvard President Drew Faust says that universities have a responsibility to play a key role in developing solutions to climate-change issues.

    3 minutes