All articles


  • Health

    Spare the medical resident and spoil nothing

    Hours of medical residents were capped at 80 per week in 2003 after a string of patient injuries and deaths, spurring fears that doctors-in-training would be less prepared for independent practice than before. A new study suggests their warnings were largely unjustified.

    Doctor and assistant looking at a clipboard
  • Science & Tech

    A product idea with legs

    Dakota McCoy, in collaboration with David Haig, led a group of researchers at Harvard studying the black spider and its ultrablack coat with microlenses that could lead to innovations in solar panels and sunglasses glare.

    Peacock spider.
  • Nation & World

    Simmer nears boil in Hong Kong

    The Gazette spoke with China expert Anthony Saich, director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and Daewoo Professor of International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, about the protests and about what the future might hold for Hong Kong.

    A mass of protesters march in Hong Kong.
  • Science & Tech

    Spreading seeds of life

    Scientists at the Institute for Theory and Computation have made a comprehensive calculation suggesting that panspermia could happen, and have found that as many as 10 trillion asteroid-sized objects might exist that carry life.

    Idan Ginsburg at Harvard College Observatory.
  • Science & Tech

    Soft robots for all

    The first soft ring oscillator gets plushy robots to roll, undulate, sort, meter liquids, and swallow.

    Hand holding oscillators
  • Science & Tech

    Polarizing apposite

    A portable, miniature camera that can image polarization in a single shot has potential applications in machine vision, autonomous vehicles, security, atmospheric chemistry, and more.

    Polorization graphic illustration
  • Science & Tech

    So you think he can dance?

    Snowball the dancing cockatoo is the subject of a study by Radcliffe fellow and Tufts neuroscientist Ani Patel, who suggests the bird’s ability to move in time to music is connected to the way humans groove to a beat.

  • Campus & Community

    One thing to change: Less driving, more thriving

    Lisa Randall, the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science, remembers when one shut-down street brought Harvard’s campus together, and wonders how that could apply to cities.

    Randall in her office
  • Health

    Debunking old hypotheses

    Biology Professor Cassandra G. Extavour debunks old hypotheses about form and function on insect eggs using new big-data tool

    Cassandra Extavour in her office
  • Arts & Culture

    A new way to read

    Stephanie Burt’s new book is a guide to understanding an art form that for many feels difficult to access. She talks about creating a “travel guide” for poetry.

    Stephanie Burt in her office
  • Health

    The vegans are coming, and we might join them

    Led by vegetarian tech companies looking to mimic and replace meat and other animal products, going vegan is on the verge of going mainstream.

    Package of lab-grown meat.
  • Campus & Community

    The simple joy of pets

    Phillips Brooks House program brings dogs to a local rehab center to interact with residents.

    Man holding small dog
  • Science & Tech

    Single letter speaks volumes

    Scientists have used an optimized version of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system to prevent hearing loss in so-called Beethoven mice, which carry a genetic mutation that causes profound hearing loss in humans and mice alike.

  • Science & Tech

    Combing out a tangled problem

    A new technique speeds creation of nanowire devices, boosting research into what’s happening inside cells.

    Charles Lieber
  • Nation & World

    Water, life, and climate change in South Asia

    In his latest book, Sunil Amrith, the Mehra Family Professor of South Asian Studies and chair of the Department of South Asian Studies, describes the ageless link between water and prosperity in South Asia and examines the new challenges of climate change.

    Images of raindrops on a windshield in India
  • Health

    Reeling in rising distracted driving deaths

    Crashes caused by distracted drivers are believed to have been the biggest cause of a 14 percent rise in traffic fatalities since 2014. The Harvard Chan School’s Center for Health Communication is mounting an anti-distracted driving campaign this fall to make headway against a problem that has proven resistant to change despite efforts by government,…

    Cars in traffic
  • Campus & Community

    John H. Shaw steps down

    John H. Shaw, the Harry C. Dudley Professor of Structural and Economic Geology, steps down at the end of June, having served as chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences since 2006.

    John Shaw against a black and rainbow background
  • Science & Tech

    Oceans away

    A new NASA-funded program will study water worlds and environments to understand the limits of life as part of the search for life on other planets.

    Fish in the ocean
  • Campus & Community

    Executive education with a soul

    For the second year in a row, Harvard Divinity School offers an executive course that draws on history and religious traditions around the world to help participants become agents of change.

    Two women speaking to each other
  • Campus & Community

    One thing to change: Think more like children

    Abraham “Avi” Loeb, the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science, argues that academia shouldn’t just be about proving theories, but about exploration.

  • Nation & World

    Stonewall then and now

    Harvard scholars reflect on the history and legacy of the 1969 Stonewall demonstrations that triggered the contemporary battle for LGBT rights in America.

    Stonewall protestors
  • Science & Tech

    Speeding up single-cell genomics research

    Harvard researchers have devised a time-saving method that makes it possible to speed up the process of profiling gene regulation in tens of thousands of individual human cells in a single day, a development that promises to boost genomics research.

    Image of a cell
  • Campus & Community

    In search of Quentin Compson

    A group of William Faulkner fans visited a plaque on the Anderson Bridge honoring his best-known character.

    Plaque on a brick wall
  • Campus & Community

    Chicken soup for the soul

    Harvard Divinity School graduate Israel Buffardi experienced an unconventional journey to his Unitarian Universalist ministry.

    Israel Buffardi faces congregants sitting at tables outside, holding up focaccia he made for a Sacred Supper.
  • Health

    Fears arise that new federal fetal-tissue restrictions will hobble a ‘workhorse’ of research

    With the Trump administration halting fetal tissue research at two prominent scientific institutions and new plans to review such research elsewhere, Harvard Medical School Dean George Daley discussed the importance of research using these tissues, which would otherwise be discarded, in creating vaccines and treatments and enhancing our understanding of human biology.

    George Daley speaking into a microphone
  • Science & Tech

    The RoboBee flies solo

    Several decades in the making, the Harvard Microbiotics Lab’s RoboBee made its first solo flight.

    To achieve untethered flight, the latest iteration of the Robobee underwent several important changes, including the addition of a second pair of wings.
  • Science & Tech

    Leave those calluses alone

    A running-studies pioneer takes a look at walking, with and without shoes, and gives calluses a thumbs-up.

    Nick Holowka, Postdoctoral Researcher, performs an ultra sound on callouses
  • Nation & World

    Halting urban violence seen as a key to ending poverty

    Harvard Kennedy School researcher and former Obama official Thomas Abt’s new book offers a concrete prescription for bringing peace to the streets.

    Thomas Abt walking on city street.
  • Campus & Community

    Welcoming the summer solstice

    People of all ages gathered at Harvard to celebrate the longest day of the year with performances, arts and crafts, and more.

    Child on parent's shoulders
  • Campus & Community

    The lessons he learned from the class he taught

    Dennis Norman, faculty chair of the Harvard University Native American Program, is retiring at the end of June. In a Gazette profile, he highlights the course he has taught at the Kennedy School that sends students to work in Native American communities.

    Portrait of Dennis Norman outside, framed by a tree