All articles


  • Science & Tech

    Cyclones spurt water into the stratosphere, feeding global warming

    Scientists at Harvard University have found that tropical cyclones readily inject ice far into the stratosphere, possibly feeding global warming.

  • Health

    Microbes thrive under Antarctic glacier

    A reservoir of briny liquid buried deep beneath an Antarctic glacier supports hardy microbes that have lived in isolation for millions of years, researchers report this week in the journal Science.

  • Health

    Malnutrition, obesity present global food challenges

    Even as public health officials deal with the age-old problems of starvation and malnutrition, new nutritional maladies linked to Western diets and lifestyles are spreading around the world, complicating the global nutrition picture.

  • Health

    Harvard nutritionists take aim at sugary drinks

    Comparing the nation’s obesity epidemic to a house on fire, Harvard nutrition experts took aim at sugar-sweetened beverages Monday (April 20), recommending the creation of a new, low-sugar alternative and urging adults and children alike to quench their thirsts the natural way — with water.

  • Nation & World

    Experts talk about reducing crime through a holistic approach

    Los Angeles is a city that many equate with violent gangs and an ineffectual and troubled police force. Yet recent years have seen a decline in gang homicides and violent crime due to a new approach in policing.

  • Nation & World

    Strategist behind Obama campaign talks tactics at HKS

    The architect behind Barack Obama’s successful presidential run shared his insights at Harvard Kennedy School on the strategies that propelled a first-term senator to the White House.

  • Nation & World

    Interdisciplinary program on leadership hosts a host of fellows

    Susan Leal intends to use her public sector expertise to address issues of water management and climate change. Former astronaut Charles F. Bolden Jr. is passionate about health care. Robert Whelan will likely turn his business acumen toward education.

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard Kennedy School dean awarded Moynihan Prize

    David T. Ellwood, dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, has been selected by the American Academy of Political and Social Science as winner of the 2009 Daniel Moynihan Prize. The prize will be awarded at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on May 7.

  • Nation & World

    ‘What Just Happened? What’s Next?’

    You might think of the little bits of good news that came out last week as the macroeconomic equivalent of the first crocuses of spring. There was the heartening word that initial jobless claims are slowing.

  • Nation & World

    Petraeus addresses John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum

    Gen. David H. Petraeus, chief of the United States Central Command, spoke at Harvard April 21, offering his perspective on leadership and lessons learned in Iraq, and his take on the United States’ strategy for the future security of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

  • Health

    Chylack and Dowling named ARVO Fellows

    The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) has named Harvard Professor of Ophthalmology Leo T. Chylack Jr., and Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences John E. Dowling…

  • Nation & World

    Jocelyn Kelly: Seeking the whole picture of Congo violence

    Jocelyn Kelly stood alone at the airport in Rwanda’s capital city of Kigali, wondering whether anyone would meet her.

  • Health

    Eating fatty fish once a week reduces men’s risk of heart failure

    Eating salmon or other fatty fish just once a week helped reduce men’s risk of heart failure, a recent study shows, adding to growing evidence that omega-3 fatty acids are of benefit to cardiac health.

  • Campus & Community

    Eighteen faculty, affiliates named to 2009 class of AAAS Fellows

    The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) today (April 20) announced the election of leaders in the sciences, the humanities and the arts, business, public affairs, and the nonprofit sector. The 210 new AAAS Fellows and 19 Foreign Honorary Members join one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies and a center for independent…

  • Health

    Universal coverage may narrow gaps in health outcomes

    Health care disparities in the United States have long been noted, with particular attention paid to the gaps separating racial and economic groups. And while some research has looked at…

  • Health

    HMS professor devises single test for cancers

    Imagine visiting a doctor’s office five years from now and, as a routine part of your annual physical, getting an accurate test that can tell whether you have cancer long…

  • Health

    A more direct delivery of cancer drugs to tumors

    An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) has demonstrated a better way to deliver cancer drugs…

  • Health

    MicroRNA discovered to play role in DNA repair

    Among their many roles as message couriers and gene regulators, microRNA molecules also help control the repair of damaged DNA within cells, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School scientists…

  • Nation & World

    Jennifer Scott: Being there for atrocity’s survivors

    Jennifer Scott worked hard to become a doctor. But when she faced the ills of women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, she realized her technical skills weren’t enough.

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard: Leadership through service

    Harvard fosters a culture of community service that embraces those who study, teach and work here. An essential component of today’s Harvard education is the call to serve the greater community, both locally and globally.

  • Arts & Culture

    Roughing it on Great Brewster

    Four women keep a meticulous diary of their stay on Great Brewster Island in July of 1891. The diary, which is filled with illustrations and photographs, was purchased by the Schlesinger Library in 1999.

  • Health

    Neglected diseases leave sufferers with few options

    Nicholas De Torrente was at Harvard as part of Harvard Global Health Day 2009, sponsored by the Harvard College Global Health and AIDS Coalition and the International Relations on Campus student groups.

  • Arts & Culture

    Inaugural Playwrights’ Festival

    Eleven undergraduate playwrights will present staged readings of their plays as part of the inaugural Harvard Playwrights’ Festival, held April 23-26 in New College Theatre. The plays will be performed with the collaboration of professional directors, graduate actors, and dramaturges from the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training.

  • Arts & Culture

    Playwrights find a venue

    Chris Gummerson ’12 was driving past the headquarters of a scrapple factory in a small town when an idea for a musical came to her. What if the town’s livelihood depended on the factory, and what if a USDA official made a surprise visit that culminated in a product-recall panic, and what if the meat-eating…

  • Arts & Culture

    Roughing it on Great Brewster

    On the hot day of July 15, 1891, four women set off for the adventure of a lifetime in Boston Harbor. For nearly two weeks the quartet — well-educated, upper-class women from the Lowell area — “roughed it” in a quaint yet ramshackle cottage on remote Great Brewster Island, a place they considered “an enchanted…

  • Arts & Culture

    Yannatos retires after 45 years, concert planned

    With music filling his ears, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (HRO) Conductor James Yannatos will retire after 45 years by giving his final concert on April 17.

  • Arts & Culture

    Jehn is appointed director of the Harvard College Writing Program

    Thomas R. Jehn, an expert in writing pedagogy, has been appointed Sosland Director in the Harvard College Writing Program, effective immediately.

  • Arts & Culture

    Pros teaching prose

    Clicking keyboards provide a soundtrack to the semester’s end, as students put finishing touches on term papers, theses, dissertations, and the like. But amid the flurry of traditional writing assignments, there are other projects afoot. Short stories, for example. Screenplays. Fiction manuscripts. Personal essays.

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard Board of Overseers voting in progress

    The spring election for new members of the Board of Overseers is now in progress. Eligible voters include all Harvard degree holders, except for employees of the University who are officers of instruction or administration. All degree-holding alumni may vote for Elected Directors. For more information, visit www.harvard.edu/alumni/elections.php.

  • Campus & Community

    MessageMe system to be tested April 16

    The University will test its emergency text-messaging system, MessageMe, on April 16. The test message will be broadcast midday to more than 14,000 Harvard community members who have signed up for the alert system to date.