All articles


  • Campus & Community

    Center for European Studies welcomes its fall fellows

    The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) has announced the arrival of its 2008 fall fellows. The CES is dedicated to fostering the study of European history, politics, and society at Harvard, and selects visiting scholars that will play an active role in the intellectual life of the CES and the University. While…

  • Science & Tech

    Black holes are the heart of galaxies

    Astronomers think that many — perhaps all — galaxies in the universe contain massive black holes at their centers. New observations with the Submillimeter Array now suggest that such colossal black holes were common even 12 billion years ago, when the universe was only 1.7 billion years old and galaxies were just beginning to form.…

  • Campus & Community

    Teacher of Arabic Wilson B. Bishai dies at 85

    Wilson B. Bishai, professor emeritus of Arabic for the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC), died Aug. 1 from kidney failure at his home in Maryland. He was 85.

  • Campus & Community

    Belfer Center names fellows for 2008-09

    The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School recently announced the following new 2008-09 research fellows. These fellows conduct research within the Belfer Center’s International Security Program/Program on Intrastate Conflict (ICP) and Project on Managing the Atom (MTA).

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard planners seek feedback on preliminary refinements to master plan

    Harvard University’s planners are seeking comment on preliminary refinements to several master planning concepts well in advance of filing an Institutional Master Plan (IMP) with the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), targeted for 2009.

  • Campus & Community

    Community comes out for fun, food, football

    A chilly Saturday morning outside of Harvard Stadium couldn’t stop the residents of Allston from coming out to mingle at the 19th annual Allston-Brighton Family Football Day (Oct. 18). President Drew Faust and Vice President of Government, Community, and Public Affairs Christine Heenan joined residents of Allston-Brighton for the pregame luncheon.

  • Health

    Scientists unlock secret of death protein’s activation

    Harvard Medical School researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have identified a previously undetected trigger point on a naturally occurring “death protein” that helps the body get rid of unwanted or…

  • Health

    Volunteers unveil DNA, medical data in push for everyday gene sequencing

    The world moved a step deeper into the DNA age yesterday as 10 volunteers released their genetic and medical information on the Internet as part of a multi-year effort to…

  • Health

    Reading human history in the bones of animals

    In a Siberian cave Patrick Wrinn found bones: bones of sheep and goats, bones of extinct bison and horses, of mammoths and wooly rhinoceroses. Wrinn, a doctoral student in archaeology at the University of Arizona and member of the Harvard Class of 1998, is trying to find out who — or what — put the…

  • Campus & Community

    Dan Shore named University’s vice president for finance

    Dan Shore, director of the University’s Office of Budgets and Financial Planning since 2003 and Harvard’s acting chief financial officer since May 2008, has been named vice president for finance and chief financial officer.

  • Campus & Community

    Alice Waters special guest at ‘smart food’ panel

    In anticipation of Harvard’s upcoming sustainability celebration, a panel discussion on sustainable food took place Tuesday (Oct. 14) in the Faculty Room at University Hall. It began with a reception at which chefs doled out demitasse cups filled with a chowder of Cape Cod Bay scallops and Berkshires bacon, and wait-staff circulated trays of heavenly…

  • Campus & Community

    ‘Green’ University celebration commences

    If you flew over Harvard University in a small plane, you would see only a few outward and obvious signs of sustainability. You would see a glittering solar array on Shad Hall at Harvard Business School, a landscaped green roof on Gund Hall, home of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and you would see a…

  • Health

    Major step forward in cell reprogramming

    Imagine, if you can, a day within the next decade when a physician-scientist could remove a skin cell from your arm and with a few chemicals turn that fully formed adult cell into a dish of stem cells genetically matched to you.

  • Health

    Study shows what smokers need to stay clean

    Hospital-sponsored stop-smoking programs for inpatients that include follow-up counseling for longer than one month significantly improve patients’ ability to stay smoke-free. An analysis of clinical trials of programs offered at hospitals around the world finds that efforts featuring long-term support can increase participants’ chances of success by 65 percent.

  • Campus & Community

    Police reports

    Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Oct. 13. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu.

  • Campus & Community

    MessageMe system to be tested Oct. 23

    The University will test its emergency text-messaging system, MessageMe, on Oct. 23. A test message will be broadcast midday to more than 14,000 Harvard community members who have signed up for the alert system.

  • Health

    Genetic ‘fingerprint’ shown to predict liver cancer’s return

    Scientists have reached a critical milestone in the study of liver cancer that lays the groundwork for predicting the illness’s path, whether toward cure or recurrence. By analyzing the tissue in and around liver tumors, an international research team has identified a kind of genetic “fingerprint” that can help predict whether cancers will return.

  • Health

    Scholar: Health facts about U.S. Latino communities belie stereotypes

    Decades after predicting Latinos will become California’s majority, a leading researcher into Latino health argued Wednesday (Oct. 8) that the development might mean a healthier population.

  • Nation & World

    Dynamics of a changing workforce laid out in forum

    Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., didn’t actually use the phrase “I told you so” in his remarks at a panel discussion on labor issues at the Harvard Business School last week. But he cited some evidence that the national economics discussion is coming around to his way of looking…

  • Campus & Community

    Gazette writer Gewertz dies at 63

    Ken Gewertz, teacher, editor, and longtime staff writer for the Harvard University Gazette, died of cancer on Sept. 7 at his home in Watertown, Mass. He was 63. Gewertz gave 22 years of service to the University. As a reporter for the Gazette, he covered almost every aspect of life at Harvard, concentrating on the…

  • Campus & Community

    This month in Harvard history

    October 1784 — Harvard awards an honorary Doctor of Laws degree to Maj. Gen. Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.

  • Campus & Community

    Kuwait Program accepting grant proposals

    The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) has announced the 15th funding cycle for the Kuwait Program Research Fund, which is supported by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). An HKS faculty committee will consider applications for one-year grants (up to $30,000) and larger grants for more extensive proposals to support advanced research by…

  • Campus & Community

    Big Red, no big deal for the Crimson

    The Cornell Big Red, the last unbeaten team in the Ivy League, fell at the hands of a stronger, more talented Harvard Crimson team on Saturday (Oct. 11) by a score of 38-17. The Crimson (3-1; 1-1) got out to a quick 14-0 lead in the first quarter and went into the half up 28-7.

  • Campus & Community

    HUHS to offer flu vaccination clinics throughout October

    Harvard University Health Services (HUHS) will conduct free high-risk flu vaccination clinics throughout the month of October. The clinics will be held for all high-risk individuals 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.

  • Campus & Community

    Field hockey riding high with four-game streak

    Crimson field hockey stayed on an upswing, crushing the St. Louis Billikens (4-8) on Monday (Oct. 13) by a score of 6-0. Harvard (6-5; 1-1) jumped out of the gate early, scoring their first goal less than four minutes into the game.

  • Nation & World

    HBS summit addresses future

    The timing couldn’t have been worse, or perhaps better, for Harvard Business School’s (HBS) “Centennial Global Business Summit,” a three-day conference Oct. 12-14.

  • Arts & Culture

    Dracula, Romanian revolution onstage at A.R.T.

    Thirteen men and women stand in a semicircle. Several of them are wearing hammer and sickle-shaped headdresses. Some are carrying wrenches; others, flowers. They are all singing the refrain “Drac-u-laaa.” And in the center of it all, there is a man, slowly turning, pretending to draw a cape to the tip of his nose.

  • Arts & Culture

    Are boundaries between ‘the arts’ irrelevant?

    What does Harpo Marx’s bicycle horn have to do with Richard Wagner’s epic opera “The Ring of the Nibelung”? Everything, if you ask Daniel Albright, Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature. Albright, who studies the intellectual history of comparative arts, is currently at work on a book about the boundaries and overlaps between different artistic media.

  • Health

    Study examines association between caffeine, breast cancer risk

    Caffeine consumption does not appear to be associated with overall breast cancer risk, according to a report in the Oct. 13 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, there is a possibility of increased risk for women with benign breast disease or for tumors that are hormone-receptor negative or larger…

  • Campus & Community

    Sam Nunn to deliver inaugural McNamara Lecture at HKS

    Former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn will deliver the inaugural Robert S. McNamara Lecture on War and Peace, titled “A Race Between Cooperation and Catastrophe,” at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) on Friday (Oct. 17).