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Arts & Culture
Rehding finds ‘monumental’ works key to German political history
In December 1989, a few weeks after the reunification of Germany, Leonard Bernstein ’39 raised his baton above the ruins of the Berlin Wall and conducted a special arrangement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The central statement of the work — “all men will be brothers” — captured the sentiment of those who saw a brighter…
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Arts & Culture
Taxonomist Carl Linnaeus on show at HMNH
Carl Linnaeus believed that the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was not an apple but a banana. He came to this conclusion in 1737, while studying plant specimens at Hartecamp, the estate of George Clifford, a wealthy Dutch banker and director of the Dutch East India Company. Clifford collected exotic plants from around the…
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Arts & Culture
Tale of John Harvard’s surviving book
This November, Harvard University will mark the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Harvard, not the institution’s founder as he is sometimes credited, but rather its first major benefactor. Such a noteworthy anniversary warrants reflection, although, unfortunately, a great many details about both the history of John Harvard and the legacy of his library…
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Arts & Culture
Darnton looks at the ‘art and politics of libel’ in 18th century France
Government censors in pre-Revolutionary France were so hypervigilant that under their watchful eyes no one with anything significant to say dared publish their works in their own country. The solution was to publish abroad and smuggle the contraband books into France where they were soon snapped up by eager readers.
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Campus & Community
This month in Harvard history
Nov. 6, 1770 — Rumblings of Revolution: Joseph Avery, Class of 1771, orates on “Oppression and Tyranny” before the Speaking Club.
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Campus & Community
Police reports
Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Oct. 24. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.
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Campus & Community
In brief
Community Gifts kicks off season of giving Vendor fair to explore the ease of being green HILR’s new Green Committee spotlights transportation Upcoming Goethe-Institut concert to feature Harvard composer Safra Foundation seeks fellowship applicants Holyoke group art show seeks submissions Arboretum seeks T-shirt designs for Lilac Sunday
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Campus & Community
Newsmakers
The Lindbergh Foundation recently named Assistant Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Peter Girguis one its 14 Lindbergh Grant recipients for 2007. ProCor, a global communication program promoting heart health founded by Harvard School of Public Health Professor of Cardiology Emeritus Bernard Lown, has granted its first Louise Lown Heart Hero Award to the Heart…
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Campus & Community
President’s office hours 2007-08
President Drew Faust will hold office hours for students and staff in her Massachusetts Hall office on the following dates:
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Campus & Community
Hay memorial set for Nov. 18
A memorial service for Elizabeth Dexter Hay, embryologist and educator at Harvard Medical School (HMS), will be held Nov. 18 at 2 p.m. in the rotunda of HMS’s New Research Building at 77 Ave. Louis Pasteur.
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Campus & Community
Luncheon honors Weissmans, interns
Rafael Buerba ’08 worked as an operating room assistant in Barcelona, Spain. Christina Xu ’09 helped set up a record label and radio network in the prisons of Kingston, Jamaica. And Robert Ross ’09 tracked children in displaced person camps in Uganda.
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Campus & Community
Harvard University Health Services offers flu vaccination clinics
Harvard University Health Services (HUHS) is offering free flu shots to members of the Harvard community.
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Campus & Community
Blood drive in Holyoke Center
The Office for Sponsored Programs is holding a blood drive Nov. 6 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Holyoke Center (conference room 704) for the benefit of Mount Auburn Hospital.
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Campus & Community
Berkman named director of Center for Population and Development Studies
Social epidemiologist Lisa Berkman has been appointed director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard Provost Steven E. Hyman announced today (Oct. 26).
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Campus & Community
Field hockey stays in Ivy hunt
Forward Kayla Romanelli ’09 tallied a pair of goals to lead Harvard field hockey to a crucial 3-1 win against Dartmouth Saturday (Oct. 27). With the win, the Crimson (8-8, 4-2 Ivy) can lock up a winning regular season and secure at least a second-place league finish by defeating host Columbia on Friday (Nov. 2)…
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Arts & Culture
It takes 200 (or more) to tango
Barefoot and dressed with thrift-shop elegance in a floor-length, taffeta gown with fingerless gloves and a discus-shaped hat, Marta Elena Savigliano read from her paper “Wallflowers and Femmes Fatales: Dancing Gender and Politics at the Milongas” with a tinkling Argentine accent and an air of fey imperturbability.
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Campus & Community
Cultural Survival to bring world’s wares, tastes to Cambridge
Nonprofit organization Cultural Survival will celebrate 28 years of bringing native art and crafts to the University community with an upcoming holiday bazaar Nov. 24 and 25 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Cambridge College, 1000 Massachusetts Ave. The bazaar, which is being co-sponsored by Harvard, will feature unique products by indigenous artisans from…
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Arts & Culture
Washington Allston, a name to remember
When you graduate from a University that counts dozens of U.S. presidents and Supreme Court justices — and hundreds of distinguished scholars, scientists, and Nobel Prize winners — among its alumni, it is easy, even for the most accomplished and talented, to slip through the cracks into obscurity. One such alumnus whose reputation has fallen…
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Campus & Community
John Harvard Book Project to provide books to local schools
Few names are as universally known as Harvard, yet little is known about John Harvard. What is known is that the donation of his personal library to a fledgling Colonial college helped lay the foundation for the largest academic library in the world. In honor of the 400th anniversary of the University’s original benefactor’s birth…
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Health
DNA reveals Neanderthal redheads
Ancient DNA retrieved from the bones of two Neanderthals suggests that at least some of them had red hair and pale skin, scientists report this week in the journal Science. The international team says that Neanderthals’ pigmentation may even have been as varied as that of modern humans, and that at least 1 percent of…
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Health
Lava provides window on early Earth
Researchers at Harvard and the University of Hawaii believe they’ve resolved a long-standing controversy over the roots of islands — volcanoes in the middle of tectonic plates — showing that the islands’ lava provides a window into the early Earth’s makeup.
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Science & Tech
New laser nanoantenna shows unprecedented detail
In a stunning feat of nanotechnology engineering, researchers from Harvard University have demonstrated a laser with a wide-range of potential applications in chemistry, biology, and medicine. Called a quantum cascade (QC) laser antenna, the device is capable of resolving the chemical composition of samples, such as the interior of a cell, with unprecedented detail.
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Science & Tech
Massive black hole smashes record for sizeMassive black hole smashes record for size
Using two NASA satellites, astronomers have discovered a black hole that obliterates a record announced just two weeks ago. The new black hole, with a mass 24 to 33 times that of our sun, is the heftiest known black hole to orbit another star.
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Arts & Culture
Taxonomist Carl Linnaeus on show at HMNH
Carl Linnaeus believed that the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was not an apple but a banana. He came to this conclusion in 1737, while studying plant specimens at Hartecamp, the estate of George Clifford, a wealthy Dutch banker and director of the Dutch East India Company. Clifford collected exotic plants from around the…
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Science & Tech
If not in atmosphere, where does carbon go?
A prominent atmospheric scientist Monday (Oct. 29) called for more research into natural carbon “sinks,” which today absorb almost half of man-made carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere and which will play a large role in determining the extent of future global warming.
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Campus & Community
Shell makes 5-year gift to fund Harvard energy policy research
Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (KSG) is the recipient of a five-year $3.75 million donation from the Shell Exploration & Production Co., KSG Dean David T. Ellwood recently announced. The funds will be used to enhance and expand University research efforts on critical issues of energy policy.
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Campus & Community
Harvard president announces task force on the arts
Harvard President Drew Faust announced today (Nov. 1) that she is creating a University-wide task force to examine the place of the arts at Harvard. Chaired by Cogan University Professor Stephen Greenblatt, the task force draws its membership from faculty, students, and others across the University who represent many fields and modes of engagement with…
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Science & Tech
White dwarf “sibling rivalry” explodes
The new find, supernova 2006gz, was classified as a Type Ia due to the lack of hydrogen and other characteristics. However, an analysis combining CfA data with measurements from The Ohio State University suggested that SN 2006gz was unusual and deserved a closer look.
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Health
Researchers create colorful “Brainbow” images of the nervous system
By activating multiple fluorescent proteins in neurons, neuroscientists at Harvard University are imaging the brain and nervous system as never before, rendering their cells in a riotous spray of colors dubbed a “Brainbow.”