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Health
‘Stealing’ life’s building blocks
Researchers have found that a parasitic flower takes large portions of its genetic code from its host, and that some genes borrowed by the flowers may even be functional. The surprising finding suggests that the process may convey some evolutionary advantage to the flowers.
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Campus & Community
Born to run, and run
Nearly 80 runners gathered at the Malkin Athletic Center for a celebratory jog along the Charles River with authors and fitness authorities Scott Jurek and Christopher McDougall.
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Campus & Community
Applications for Winter Break grants
Harvard University President Drew Faust today announced the opening of the 2013 Winter Break grant cycle for the President’s January Innovation Fund for Faculty. Proposals may be submitted online until Sept. 21.
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Campus & Community
A boost to international learning
Eight faculty led programs designed to give students international experience have received grants from the President’s Innovation Fund for International Experiences.
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Campus & Community
Extraordinary performers
A juggling janitor, an inspirational minister, all-star fundraisers, and a dining hall checker were among 49 University employees feted at Sanders Theatre June 5 as Harvard Heroes, a longstanding tradition at the University that returned this spring after a three-year hiatus.
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Science & Tech
Touch, drag, learn
Research by computer scientists, biologists, and cognitive psychologists at Harvard, Northwestern, Wellesley, and Tufts suggests that collaborative touch-screen games have value beyond play.
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Nation & World
A meeting of ministerial minds
At a moment of global opportunity for improving maternal and child health, the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Kennedy School’s Ministerial Leadership Program for Health launched the inaugural Ministerial Health Leaders’ Forum this week, inviting 16 officials from around the world to campus to share experiences and solutions and to create a network…
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Science & Tech
A Milky Way cooling its jets
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics’ astronomers have detected for the first time jets of gamma rays extending thousands of light years from the Milky Way’s core, confirming expectations based on observations of other galaxies.
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Health
Exercise reduces psoriasis risk
A study by researchers at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital adds to the list of medical problems that exercise eases, showing that vigorous activity reduces a woman’s risk of developing the skin condition psoriasis by 25 to 30 percent over the study subject who exercised the least.
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Science & Tech
Exploring edX 1.0
MIT’s Anant Agarwal, who is the first president of edX, shared early results from the new online education venture’s first pilot course at the second annual Harvard IT Summit.
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Campus & Community
Changes at Gutman Library
The Harvard Graduate School of Education’s (HGSE) Gutman Library has been partially refashioned into a thriving community space with areas dedicated to studying and socializing.
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Science & Tech
Harvard Athletics sports solar panels
On the roof of the Gordon Indoor Track and Tennis building, workers installed rooftop solar panels as part of what has become Harvard’s largest solar energy project. It is part of Harvard’s commitment to sustainability and its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2016 (from a 2006 baseline).
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Science & Tech
President’s Challenge
A business idea born in a Harvard classroom to improve the delivery of vaccines in developing countries has been selected as the grand prize winner of the Harvard University President’s Challenge for social entrepreneurship.
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Campus & Community
Harvard entrepreneurs weave silk with science
Harvard University President’s Challenge for social entrepreneurship has selected Vaxess Technologies, a company founded by Harvard students, to receive its grand prize. Vaxess Technologies will share the $100,000 to advance social ventures with SPOUTS of Water, Revolving Fund Pharmacy, and School Yourself.
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Health
Probing the sparrow’s beastly past
A new study led by Harvard scientists shows that birds are, essentially, living dinosaurs, with skulls that are remarkably similar to those of their juvenile ancestors.
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Science & Tech
Safer cataract surgery at hand
A new, highly innovative, computer-based simulation tool, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (Mass. Eye and Ear) Cataract Master, bridges the learning gap that residents and ophthalmologists new to phaco must navigate prior to performing actual surgery.
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Health
Fish in depth
The renovated fish gallery at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, open as of June 2, includes displays that explain both fish biology and the science being conducted on the topic at Harvard.
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Health
Life lessons from an old worm
Research is uncovering the genetic roots of aging, peeling back the once common understanding that creatures simply “wore out” as they aged, and slowly revealing the mechanisms that control a process determined by our genes and that proceeds at different speeds for different species.
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Campus & Community
Into local libraries, and into lives
The John Harvard Book Celebration program included the donation of more than 400 books to libraries, 17 lectures by Harvard faculty and members of Harvard’s Board of Overseers at local libraries, and 18 programs for children and youth. The programming reached more than 200 children and youth in the Greater Boston area this spring, concluding…
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Campus & Community
Former Finland prime minister headed to Harvard
Esko Aho, former prime minister of Finland, has been appointed a senior fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government.
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Campus & Community
HLS dean elected to MacArthur board
Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow has been elected to serve on the MacArthur Foundation board of directors.
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Science & Tech
A new master’s program
Harvard will offer a master’s degree in computational science and engineering.
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Science & Tech
Straight to the source
As described in an April 23 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), graduate students Eric Morrow and Carling Hay demonstrate the use of a statistical tool called a Kalman smoother to identify “sea level fingerprints” — telltale variations in sea level rise — in a synthetic data set. Using those…
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Health
Signs of progress against PTSD
A decade after the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, studies have shown that the incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among troops is surprisingly low, and a Harvard researcher credits the drop, in part, to new efforts by the Army to prevent PTSD, and to ensure that those who develop the disorder…
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Science & Tech
Meticulous design
A recent SEAS workshop emphasized comprehensive planning, cultural awareness, and a holistic approach to design in developing solutions to global problems.
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Science & Tech
Using DNA as bricks and mortar
Researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have figured out how to use short lengths of DNA as physical, rather than genetic, building blocks, creating letters and other shapes from the molecules in a proof of design that could one day lead to the creation of structures that, among other things, deliver drugs…
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Campus & Community
Fletcher Awards announced
The Committee on Regional Studies — East Asia (RSEA) announced the recipients of the 2012 Joseph Fletcher Memorial Awards.
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Campus & Community
High drama
In a talk at the Boston Public Library’s Honan-Allston Branch, the final event in the John Harvard Book Celebration, Linda Greenhouse ’68 said President Obama’s health care law is constitutional and should stand.
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Science & Tech
The last dance between Venus and the sun
Before 2004, the most recent Venus transit occurred more than a century ago, in 1882, and was used to compute the distance from the Earth to the sun. On June 5, 2012, another Venus transit will occur. Scientists with NASA’s Kepler mission hope to discover Earth-like planets outside our solar system by searching for transits…
