All articles

  • Health

    Flipping the switch that halts obesity

    Flipping a newly discovered molecular switch in white fat cells enabled mice to eat a high-calorie diet without becoming obese or developing the inflammation that causes insulin resistance, report Harvard scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

  • Health

    Putting humanity in its place

    Professor Charles Langmuir worked for 10 years on an update of “How to Build a Habitable Planet,” a textbook published in 1985 by famed geoscientist Wallace Broecker.

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard University endowment yields flat return for fiscal 2012

    Harvard University announced today that its endowment posted a -0.05% return and was valued at $30.7 billion for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2011. The fiscal year 2012 endowment return was 98 basis points in excess of the -1.03% return on the benchmark Policy Portfolio.

  • Campus & Community

    Coming back, looking forward

    Members of Harvard’s Corporation and Board of Overseers, past and present, gathered at Harvard Law School’s new Wasserstein Hall Sept. 22 for a reunion afternoon featuring a panel discussion on teaching innovation and a question-and-answer session with Harvard President Drew Faust.

  • Campus & Community

    Losick awarded Horwitz Prize

    Richard M. Losick, the Maria Moors Cabot Professor of Biology at Harvard, has been named one of three winners of the 2012 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize by Columbia University in recognition of his work to understand the intricate, dynamic, and three-dimensional organization of bacterial cells.

  • Arts & Culture

    Bon appétit! Julia at 100

    In honor of what would have been French chef Julia Child’s 100th birthday, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America hosted an entertaining and informative daylong symposium.

  • Campus & Community

    HAA honors four Aloian Scholars

    In honor of the Aloian Memorial Scholarships program’s 25th anniversary, the Harvard Alumni Association has selected four students to receive Aloian scholarships. They will be honored on Sept. 27.

  • Health

    Stem cells need recovery time, too

    A new study describes the mechanism behind impaired muscle repair during aging and a strategy that may help rejuvenate aging tissue by manipulating the environment in which muscle stem cells reside.

  • Health

    Kids are what they eat

    Sugary cereals, oversized soft drinks, and quarter-pound cheeseburgers are among the unhealthy food choices kids face daily. Junk food, most of it highly processed, and sugar-sweetened beverages are major contributors to the childhood obesity epidemic.

  • Campus & Community

    On the streets of Allston

    Approximately 400 Harvard runners participated in the ninth annual Brian Honan 5K Run/Walk on Sunday.

  • Arts & Culture

    Visions of doom

    A pair of Harvard events looked at the artistic legacy of Pompeii — a kind of “Apocalypse Then.”

  • Health

    Controlling behavior, remotely

    Researchers have been able to take control of tiny, transparent worms by manipulating neurons in their brains, using precisely targeted pulses of laser light.

  • Science & Tech

    An invasion of New England

    While new species naturally expand to other places and sometimes disrupt the scene when they arrive, the pace of introduction of invasive species has picked up enormously over the past century and a half, stressing and transforming New England forests.

  • Health

    Finding our way

    Elizabeth Spelke, a professor of psychology, discussed research on how humans develop navigational skills in an event at the Barker Center.

  • Science & Tech

    Managing just fine

    Measurements of stress hormones and self-reports of anxiety show that leaders in stable organizations experience less stress than their subordinates, likely because they have greater control over their office lives.

  • Health

    Pecking order

    Harvard researchers have found that a new investigation of tissues and signaling pathways in finches’ beaks reveals surprising flexibility in the birds’ evolutionary tool kit.

  • Campus & Community

    Mathews and Wells elected to Harvard Corporation

    Jessica Tuchman Mathews and Theodore V. Wells Jr. have been elected to become the newest members of the President and Fellows of Harvard College (the Harvard Corporation), the University announced today.

  • Arts & Culture

    The literary landscape

    Sponsored by the Woodberry Poetry Room, the Literary Homecoming drew representatives from the English Department, the Harvard Review, the Harvard Advocate, Speak Out Loud, Tuesday magazine, among others.

  • Campus & Community

    A president next door

    Harvard President Drew Faust — with a mischievous gift in tow — helped the Massachusetts Institute of Technology welcome its new president, L. Rafael Reif, at his inauguration on Friday.

  • Arts & Culture

    The tale of Benny and Jenny

    In the first lecture of the season’s American Literature and Culture Series, Harvard history Professor Jill Lepore previews her book on Jane Franklin Mecom, Benjamin Franklin’s little-known yet favored sister.

  • Nation & World

    A firm voice on Europe

    Jan Fischer, former PM and current presidential candidate in the Czech Republic, talked to a Harvard audience about the debt crisis and the possibility of a full European federation.

  • Campus & Community

    A welcome from John Harvard

    In honor of Rafael Reif’s inauguration as the 17th president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the iconic John Harvard Statue seated in Harvard Yard was decked out with an MIT cap, scarf, and pennant.

  • Health

    For a health reform model, try Brazil

    Scholars and public health experts gathered at the Harvard School of Public Health to examine Brazil’s progress toward meeting the United Nations’ Millennium Development goals, and to see if there are lessons that can be applied to other countries.

  • Nation & World

    Middle East in motion

    Speaking at the Harvard Kennedy School, journalist Rami Khouri presented an overview of the “bewildering and exhilarating changes” that have swept the Middle East since the Arab Spring.

  • Arts & Culture

    Mighty exhibit

    Roberto Mighty’s exhibit, “First Contact,” opens Sept. 23 with a one-time film screening and an artist presentation. The exhibit is the culmination of Mighty’s yearlong artist residency at the Harvard Forest. The exhibit continues through October.

  • Campus & Community

    Faculty Council meeting held Sept. 19

    At its second meeting of the year on Sept. 19, the Faculty Council nominated a Parliamentarian for the 2012-13 academic year. They also heard a preview of the Dean’s Annual Report to the faculty and presentations on academic integrity, Harvard’s international strategy, and edX.

  • Science & Tech

    Spoiled opportunity

    Republican objections to a climate change “tax” have stained the cap-and-trade approach to tackling climate change, making it politically unpalatable, even though it proved effective at fighting acid rain over the past two decades.

  • Health

    Rapid acts of kindness

    In a series of experiments, Harvard researchers found that people who make quick decisions act less selfishly than those who deliberate.

  • Arts & Culture

    The sacred Toni Morrison

    The Harvard Divinity School has organized a series of working groups to explore the religious dimensions of the work of author Toni Morrison in the lead-up to her Ingersoll Lecture on Immortality.

  • Nation & World

    Explaining the baby bust

    Postindustrial countries from Japan to Italy are experiencing startling low birthrates, but the entry of women into the workforce isn’t to blame, according to Sociology Professor Mary Brinton, whose research looks at more subtle factors, including attitudes toward men’s and women’s roles in the workplace and the home.