All articles


  • Health

    Hormone therapy for prostate cancer does not appear to increase cardiac deaths

    Treating prostate cancer patients with drugs that block hormonal activity does not appear to increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, according to a study led by Harvard Medical…

  • Campus & Community

    Task Force Releases Report on the Arts

    A concerted effort should be made to put the arts at Harvard University on par with the study of the humanities and sciences, according to a report released today (Dec. 10) by a University-wide task force that examined the role the arts play in campus life.

  • Health

    Connie Cepko

    In some ways, Connie Cepko’s job has gotten easier. The Harvard Medical School genetics professor is working to uncover the mysteries of the eye, to understand how it develops and…

  • Health

    Fresh insight into retinitis pigmentosa

    Rods and cones coexist peacefully in healthy retinas. Both types of cells occupy the same layer of tissue and send signals when they detect light, which is the first step…

  • Science & Tech

    Having happy friends can make you happy

    If you’re happy and you know it, thank your friends — and their friends. And while you’re at it, their friends’ friends. But if you’re sad, hold the blame. Researchers…

  • Health

    Some blood-system stem cells reproduce more slowly than expected

    A research collaboration lead by Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has found a subpopulation of hematopoietic stem cells, which generate all blood and immune system…

  • Science & Tech

    Thinking globally and mapping locally

    Akiyuki Kawasaki thinks globally and maps locally. To do that, the Japanese researcher, who is spending the academic year as a visiting scholar at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied…

  • Health

    Another step forward in ALS and stem cell research

    A Harvard Stem Cell Institute research team has succeeded in deriving spinal motor neurons from human embryonic stem cells, and has then used them to replicate the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) disease process in a laboratory dish.

  • Campus & Community

    This month in Harvard history

    Dec. 29, 1627 — John Harvard enters Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, England.

  • Arts & Culture

    ‘The health of poetry’

    As a graduate student at Oxford, Gwyneth Lewis wrote her dissertation on 18th century literary forgery. But as a working poet for three decades — and this year as a Radcliffe Fellow — she is as far from that fraud as conceivable.

  • Arts & Culture

    Patricia Cornwell endows conservationist at Straus Center

    Harvard Art Museum announced the establishment of the Patricia Cornwell Conservation Scientist position at the museum’s Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies. Funded by a $1 million commitment from best-selling author Patricia Cornwell, the Cornwell Conservation Scientist will play a key role in the analytical laboratory and beyond.

  • Campus & Community

    Making connections: A special evening for Harvard faculty

    “The arts are something we all care deeply about, whether we are artists ourselves, whether we are social scientists, or whether we are scientists,” Senior Vice Provost Judith Singer told an audience of about 120 Harvard faculty of all stripes and ranks gathered at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum.

  • Campus & Community

    Police reports

    Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Dec. 1. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.

  • Campus & Community

    In brief

    FAS Supply Swap; HRO plays Weber, Yannatos, Mahler; New lab to open at HKS

  • Campus & Community

    Newsmakers

    Obama names Summers director of National Economic Council; Honorary degree awarded to Professor Wei-Ming Tu; Retsinas honored by the Affordable Housing Hall of Fame; Lu wins grand prize in the 2008 Collegiate Inventors Competition; Business School’s Kanter receives honorary degree from Aalborg University

  • Campus & Community

    Faculty Council

    At its fifth meeting of the year on Dec. 3, the Faculty Council discussed the Summer School course list for 2009, undergraduate foreign language requirements, and the finances of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The council next meets on Jan. 7. Due to the holiday schedule, the preliminary deadline for the Jan. 13 Faculty…

  • Campus & Community

    Money Mondays to help staff

    The Office of Human Resources will be offering a special series of “HARVie chats” on banking, benefits, investing, and other financial topics. Harvard staff are invited to visit http://harvie.harvard.edu/chats/upcomingchats.shtml to get information that may help in navigating through the current economic downturn.

  • Campus & Community

    HUHS continues to offer flu vaccination clinics

    Harvard University Health Services (HUHS) is conducting free vaccination clinics. The clinics are open to the entire Harvard University community every Monday and Tuesday (noon-3 p.m.) at HUHS on the second floor of the Holyoke Center (Monks Library). Students must have their Harvard ID to receive the vaccination. More information on the flu can be…

  • Campus & Community

    Rolf Mowatt-Larssen named senior fellow at Belfer Center

    Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, director of the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence at the U.S. Department of Energy and former head of the Central Intelligence Agency’s WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) and terrorism efforts, will join the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs as a senior fellow on Jan. 19.

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard launches redesigned Web site

    Harvard University has a newer and shinier Web presence. The easily accessible and eminently navigable Web site has a clean, bold, handsome design.

  • Campus & Community

    Sports in brief

    With a 3-1 record, men’s basketball is off to its best start in three years — tallying wins over New Hampshire, Holy Cross, and Army — in large part because of the play of junior guard Jeremy Lin (averaging 20 points, 5.5 rebounds, and four steals per game) and freshman forward Keith Wright (averaging 12.3…

  • Campus & Community

    Renewing a venerable experiment

    Even as we absorb the implications of the global financial crisis and plan for how we might react to it, our commitment to provide our undergraduates with an unparalleled academic experience remains as strong as ever. Progress continues with our new Program in General Education and with planning for our ambitious House renewal effort. It…

  • Campus & Community

    Phillips Brooks House: A tradition of reaching out to the community

    This is the fourth in a series of Gazette articles highlighting some of the many initiatives and charities that Harvard affiliates can support through this month’s Community Gifts Through Harvard campaign. The Community Gifts campaign allows affiliates to donate to a charity of their choice through cash, check, or payroll deduction.

  • Campus & Community

    Caroline Kennedy honors public service award winners

    Two young leaders, whose work on the front lines of public service has won national acclaim, were honored on Nov. 14 at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS).

  • Campus & Community

    FAS plan will slash greenhouse gas emissions

    Without action to slow the release of greenhouse gases, Harvard biologist and oceanographer James McCarthy said last week, current projections indicate that Massachusetts in 2080 could resemble South Carolina in 2008: The Bay State would experience an average of 24 days over 100 degrees each summer and two solid months of temperatures above 90.

  • Campus & Community

    Education Portal is a gateway to learning

    Education, excitement about learning, and a sense of curiosity were the themes of the day as Harvard undergraduates and the Allston children they mentor joined Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Harvard President Drew Faust, and dozens of Allston families to celebrate the Harvard Allston Education Portal on Nov. 21.

  • Science & Tech

    Scientists explore nature’s designs

    As a graduate student, Harvard physical chemist Joanna Aizenberg acquired a passionate curiosity about — of all things — sponges. She particularly liked the ones made of glass, whose apparent fragility belied the fact that they could withstand terrific pressure in the deep sea.

  • Science & Tech

    Students looking to light African night

    Some current and former Harvard students have joined forces in an effort to apply new technology to an old problem: how to light Africa’s rural areas far from modern power supplies.

  • Health

    Early success highlights need for more progress

    Many of the 500,000 African babies born infected with HIV each year won’t live past age 2, a fact made even more appalling by the fact that doctors know how to halt mother-to-child HIV transmission.

  • Health

    Cutler finds decline in cancer deaths

    Improvements in behavior and screening have contributed greatly to the 13 percent decline in cancer mortality since 1990, with better cancer treatments playing a supporting role, according to new research from David Cutler of Harvard University.