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Science & Tech
In distant space, a water world
Observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have added a new type of planet to the mix. By analyzing the previously discovered world GJ1214b, astronomer Zachory Berta of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and colleagues proved that it is a water world enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere.
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Nation & World
Fostering global understanding
A panel of scholars made up of the directors of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centers met to discuss how to promote better understanding between the Islamic world and the West.
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Health
Repercussions of gender nonconformity
Children in the U.S. whose activity choices, interests, and pretend play before age 11 fall outside those typically expressed by their biological sex face increased risk of being physically, psychologically, and sexually abused, and of suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by early adulthood, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard School…
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Science & Tech
Right choice, but not the intuitive one
When faced with a tough choice, we already have the cognitive tools we need to make the right decision, Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology, told a Harvard Law School audience on Feb. 16. The hard part is overcoming the tricks our minds play on us that render rational decision-making nearly impossible.
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Science & Tech
‘Pop!’ goes the robot
A production method inspired by children’s pop-up books enables rapid fabrication of tiny, complex devices. Devised by engineers at Harvard, the ingenious layering and folding process will enable the creation of a broad range of electromechanical devices.
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Campus & Community
Harvard tennis pro nabs honors
Harvard’s Head Tennis Professional Michael L. Mercier has been named Professional Tennis Registry (PTR) Member of the Year for the State.
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Campus & Community
Faculty Council meeting held Feb. 15
At the Feb. 15 meeting of the Faculty Council, its members considered proposals for a Ph.D. program in education and to change the schedule of regular meetings of the Faculty in the rules of faculty procedure. They also met with President Drew Faust to ask and answer questions as representatives of the faculty.
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Campus & Community
Making the World Smaller – Daniel Lieberman – Harvard Thinks Big
Daniel Lieberman Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology
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Campus & Community
Confusion, Play and Postponing Certainty – Eleanor Duckworth – Harvard Thinks Big
Eleanor Duckworth Professor of Education Harvard Graduate School of Education
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Campus & Community
Stimulating Cells – Doug Melton – Harvard Thinks Big
Doug Melton Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences at Harvard University and co-Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute
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Campus & Community
Act Big: Dare to See – Kaia Stern – Harvard Thinks Big
Kaia Stern Director of the Prison Studies Project Visiting Faculty at Harvard Divinity School Visiting Faculty in Sociology at Harvard University Visiting Faculty in African and African American Studies at Harvard University
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Health
Fears of bioterrorism or an accidental release
In a preview of what is likely now playing out in a closed-door meeting of the World Health Organization, a cadre of experts on infectious disease gathered Feb. 15 at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) to debate whether efforts to combat a deadly form of flu have actually increased the risk to public…
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Nation & World
Poised to strike?
As Iran moves closer to having a nuclear weapon, Israel faces an existential moment.
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Health
Sending DNA robot to do the job
Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have developed a robotic device made from DNA that could potentially seek out specific cell targets within a complex mixture of cell types and deliver important molecular instructions, such as telling cancer cells to self-destruct or programming immune responses.
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Arts & Culture
The Last Supper as Passover
A leading cultural and intellectual historian of Renaissance Europe, Princeton Professor Anthony Grafton suggests that the diligent work of 16th-century scholar Joseph Scaliger, in particular, led to the theory that the Last Supper may well have been in fact a Passover Seder.
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Campus & Community
GSAS Dean Allan Brandt to step down
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dean Allan M. Brandt, who pioneered a new approach to curricular development with the launch of the Graduate Seminars in General Education, announced Feb. 15 that he will step down as GSAS dean this spring owing to health considerations. He plans to return to the faculty when his…
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Health
Willing a way to clean water
Kennedy School Fellow Daniele Lantagne is using her engineering background to expand on a program, partially developed by Professor Michael Kremer, to provide clean water to communities in rural areas. The soluti
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Arts & Culture
When religion turned inward
A groundbreaking speech by Ralph Waldo Emerson at Harvard Divinity School in 1838 helped to transform faith, spur the transcendentalist movement, and change the future of Harvard.
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Health
Pain relief for patients in Uganda
A collaboration between anesthesiologists at Massachusetts General Hospital and overworked doctors at an African hospital provides training in a technique that can soothe patients during surgical recoveries.
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Arts & Culture
An artful perspective
Museum educators are using their collections to help members of the Harvard community explore salient issues like creativity and leadership in new ways.
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Campus & Community
Immersed in the body politic
Susan Greenhalgh, a new professor in Harvard’s anthropology department, studies China’s controversial one-child policy, finding lessons for American health policymakers, too.
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Nation & World
Student’s aim: A harvest of good
Annemarie Ryu ’13 hopes to create an American market for tasty, nutritious jackfruit, while helping to support struggling Indian farmers at the same time.
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Campus & Community
The magic of beanbags
Two high school friends brought an old-fashioned backyard tossing game with them when they entered Harvard, and now it’s an official club sport.
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Campus & Community
A life reborn, a story now told
Escaping Cambodia’s violence, Aun Em gradually built a new life, becoming IT coordinator at Harvard Medical School and a passionate advocate for women.
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Campus & Community
A look inside: Eliot House
In Eliot House, interested students flock to a basement woodshop to construct tables, boxes, or chairs, to turn vases or bowls, or to create other works.
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Campus & Community
Slowing down to see more
An undergraduate finds her path to satisfying public service by searching among the alternatives she sampled to discover the best fit for her.
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Campus & Community
Remembering the co-ed experiment
A search sheds light on the controversial turning point 40 years ago when men and women first shared housing in Pforzheimer and Winthrop.
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Arts & Culture
Let there be music
As a liberal arts college, Harvard trains its students broadly so they can adapt nimbly to a rapidly changing world. Increasingly, appreciating and participating in music are integral parts of student life.
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Science & Tech
Black hole came from shredded galaxy
Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found a cluster of young, blue stars encircling the first intermediate-mass black hole ever discovered. The presence of the star cluster suggests that the black hole was once at the core of a now-disintegrated dwarf galaxy.
