All articles

  • Health

    Flavonoid-rich diet helps women decrease risk of ovarian cancer

    New research out of the Channing Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) reports that frequent consumption of foods containing the flavonoid kaempferol, including nonherbal tea and broccoli, was associated with a reduced risk of ovarian cancer.

  • Arts & Culture

    The hidden resources of ‘the extended piano’

    Brian Kane’s composition “Another Cascando” sounds a bit like barking dogs at a construction site; Johannes Kreidler’s “Piano Piece #5” is reminiscent of distant artillery fire; and Hans Tutschku’s “Zellen – Linien” seems to include the sharp, high-pitched sounds of breaking glass.

  • Health

    Symposium addresses disparities in Native American health care

    Sunshine Dwojak, a fourth-year Harvard Medical School student, was 26 when her mother died of heart disease, leaving behind three children.  Dwojak’s mother was 48. “My grandmother said our family…

  • Campus & Community

    Sports brief

    Senior safety Doug Hewlett recorded a game-high seven tackles against the host Columbia Lions on Nov. 3 to pace a defensive effort that gave up just 68 yards in the second half. The clampdown helped set up a pair of touchdowns for Harvard to expand its 13-6 advantage at the break to a 27-12 final…

  • Campus & Community

    Tennis invite welcomes some eclectic company

    Women tennis players from across the country descended upon the Murr Center courts this past weekend for the Harvard Invitational (Nov. 2-4). The final fall meet-up paired athletes from North Carolina State, Texas A&M, the University of Illinois — and, of course, Harvard — in head-to-head doubles and singles matches. Because team scores weren’t tallied,…

  • Campus & Community

    Water polo lands sixth seed

    The Harvard men’s water polo team topped Iona College, 7-5, on Sunday (Nov. 4) to finish 2-1 this past weekend at the Northern Division Championships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The physical win over the Gaels (the game was marked by a handful of ejections) assured the Crimson the No. 6 seed in the…

  • Campus & Community

    Flu vaccination clinics are armed and ready for you

    Harvard University Health Services (HUHS) is offering free flu shots to members of the Harvard community.

  • Campus & Community

    Community Gifts supports work of local environmental rights group

    This is the first 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 you to donate to a charity of your choice through cash, a check, or a payroll deduction. For more…

  • Health

    A smaller world, but not more intimate

    Our increasingly interconnected world has made it easier for information and disease to spread. However, a new study from Harvard University and Cornell University shows that fewer “degrees of separation” can make social networks too weak to disseminate behavioral change. The finding that “small world” networks are limited in their power to shape individual behavior…

  • Health

    Fellow’s focus is foggy, froggy forest

    In the dark of the Sri Lankan cloud forest, the researchers’ only guide was the headlamps they used to light up the night, illuminating the cold, gray mist that drifted through the trees.

  • Health

    Genome study charts genetic landscape of lung cancer

    An international team of scientists Sunday (Nov. 4) announced the results of a systematic effort to map the genetic changes underlying lung cancer, the world’s leading cause of cancer deaths.

  • Science & Tech

    White dwarf ‘sibling rivalry’ explodes into supernova

    Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have found that a supernova discovered last year was caused by two colliding white dwarf stars.

  • Health

    Researchers track down arthritis gene

    Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have discovered a gene involved in rheumatoid arthritis, a painful inflammation that affects 2.1 million Americans and which can destroy cartilage and bone within the afflicted joint.

  • Science & Tech

    Holdren talks back to skeptics of global warming

    “Global warming is a misnomer,” said John P. Holdren, speaking Tuesday night (Nov. 6) at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at the Kennedy School. “It implies something gradual, uniform, and benign. What we’re experiencing is none of these.”

  • Health

    Routine screening test examines substance abuse prevalence among teens

    Approximately 15 percent of teens receiving routine outpatient medical care in a New England primary care network had positive results on a substance abuse screening test, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

  • Health

    Decoding effort reveals fly species’ DNA

    An enormous effort to decode the DNA of one of science’s most important laboratory animals — the fruit fly — ended in success this week as a collaboration of researchers from 16 nations announced the sequencing of 10 fly species’ genomes.

  • Arts & Culture

    Freshmen strut fantasy runway

    The third annual Freshman Costume Catwalk brought out the precocious brilliance of this generation of first-year students. Five hundred dazzling freshmen gathered in Annenberg Hall to get a chance to strut their costumed stuff on the runway.

  • Campus & Community

    HMS Dean Flier hails new, cooperative era in Harvard science

    Harvard Medical School Dean Jeffrey Flier said Friday (Nov. 2) that new approaches are needed to advance the fight against disease and embraced cross-institutional collaborations at Harvard as a way to bring new thinking to old problems.

  • Science & Tech

    Engineered weathering process could mitigate global warming

    Researchers at Harvard University and Pennsylvania State University have invented a technology, inspired by nature, to reduce the accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) caused by human emissions.

  • Arts & Culture

    Kennedy Center to showcase A.R.T. production

    The American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) will join nine other theater groups to present at the 10th New Visions/New Voices festival this spring (April 25-27) at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

  • Arts & Culture

    ‘When I wrote a play, I found that I lost myself’

    A black comedy from the early 1960s with a title too long to fit the average marquee may seem an odd choice for the New College Theatre’s first production, but once you’ve heard the story behind the play, it makes perfect sense.

  • Campus & Community

    Karen Armstrong will make the ‘Case for God’ in Noble Lectures

    Acclaimed author and religious historian Karen Armstrong will present “The Case for God” during the three-day William Belden Noble Lectures at the Memorial Church Nov. 13-15 at 8 p.m. Armstrong, the author of some 20 books, including the best-selling “A History of God” and “The Battle for God,” is renowned for her ideas about the…

  • Nation & World

    Researcher finds roots of fundamentalism in 16th century Bible translations

    The English Reformation — heyday of religious change — spurred a fundamentalist approach to Bible reading, according to new research by a Harvard professor.

  • Arts & Culture

    Former trio reunited and it sounds so good

    Peter Gomes wasn’t stingy with his superlatives when he introduced the trio of musicians about to perform at the Memorial Church on the evening of Oct. 30.

  • Nation & World

    Closing the ‘achievement gap’

    The achievement gap in American K-12 schools is well-documented, and is characterized by racial and class differences.

  • Arts & Culture

    Tools for ‘navigating childhood’

    The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen have enchanted children the world over for more than two centuries with their verbal sorcery and expressive intensity. Now their iconic power has drawn the attention of a Harvard professor, who hopes to broaden our understanding of how those eye-widening fairy tales expand the imaginations of children.

  • Campus & Community

    This month in Harvard history

    Nov. 23, 1876 — Princeton convenes a meeting in Springfield, Mass., that results in the formation of the Intercollegiate Football Association (Princeton, Harvard, and Columbia). Yale decides not to join but does contribute to the development of the IFA’s modified rugby rules.

  • Nation & World

    Islam in the contemporary world: Questions of interpretation

    “Interpreting the Islamic Tradition in the Contemporary World” was the title of the gathering, the first annual Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program Conference.

  • Campus & Community

    Police reports

    Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Nov. 5. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.

  • Campus & Community

    Faculty Council

    At its fourth meeting of the year on Nov. 7, the Faculty Council received an update on General Education, considered the role of the Faculty Council as raised by a Nov. 3 Boston Globe article concerning the Harvard University Art Museums, and was joined by Professor J. Lorand Matory for a discussion of the concerns…