All articles


  • Science & Tech

    Foraging for forest frogs

    In the dark of the Sri Lankan cloud forest, the researchers’ only guides were the headlamps they used to light up the night, illuminating the cold, gray mist that drifted…

  • Science & Tech

    Engineered weathering process might mitigate climate change

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

  • Health

    Massive decoding effort reveals fruit fly DNA

    An enormous effort to decode the DNA of one of the most important laboratory animals — the fruit fly — ended in success this week as a collaboration of researchers…

  • Science & Tech

    Harvard, Japanese science organization sign memorandum of understanding

    Officials of Harvard and RIKEN, Japan’s equivalent of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Lanoratories have October 29 signed a Memorandum of Understanding to encourage and facilitate collaborations between Harvard…

  • Health

    Study examines substance abuse prevalence among teens receiving routine medical care

    Approximately 15 percent of middle and upper middle class teens receiving routine outpatient medical care in a New England primary care network had positive results on a substance abuse questionnaire,…

  • Health

    Flier hails new, cooperative era in Harvard science

    Harvard Medical School Dean Jeffrey Flier Friday evening issued a call for new approaches to advance the fight against disease, embracing cross-institutional collaborations at Harvard as a way to bring…

  • Health

    Study paints genetic portrait of lung cancer

    An international team of scientists today announced the results of a systematic effort to map the genetic changes underlying lung cancer, the world’s leading cause of cancer deaths. Appearing in…

  • Health

    Researchers track down rheumatoid arthritis gene

    Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have discovered a gene involved in rheumatoid arthritis, a painful autoimmune disease that affects 2.1…

  • Science & Tech

    Percentage of Katrina survivors with mental disorders increasing

    According to the most comprehensive survey yet conducted of people affected by Hurricane Katrina, the percentage of pre-hurricane residents of the affected areas in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi who have…

  • Health

    Changes in diet and lifestyle may help prevent infertility

    Women who followed a combination of five or more lifestyle factors, including changing specific aspects of their diets, experienced more than 80 percent less relative risk of infertility due to ovulatory disorders compared to women who engaged in none of the factors.

  • Campus & Community

    Statistics captures unpredictability of real world

    Harvard’s small but active statistics department celebrated its 50th anniversary last week. There were two days of lectures and panels Oct. 26-27 at the Gutman Conference Center, and a noisy, social, and musical banquet at the Harvard Club of Boston.

  • Health

    Scientists image vivid ‘brainbows’

    By activating multiple fluorescent proteins in neurons, neuroscientists at Harvard University are imaging the brain and nervous system as never before, rendering these cells in a riotous spray of colors dubbed a “Brainbow.”

  • Health

    AAAS selects four faculty members as fellows

    The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) recently awarded the distinction of fellow to four Harvard faculty members. In all, 471 new members were named for their efforts toward advancing science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished.

  • Nation & World

    Sovereignty vs. global responsibility

    As part of Harvard Business School’s International Week, an annual event to highlight the cultural diversity at the School, Srgjan Kerim, president of the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, delivered the keynote address at the Spangler Auditorium on Oct. 25.

  • Health

    1.8 million veterans lack health coverage

    Of the 47 million uninsured Americans, one in every eight (12.2 percent) is a veteran or member of a veteran’s household, according to a study by physicians from Cambridge Health Alliance who are also Harvard Medical School researchers. The study is published in the December issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Approximately 1.8…

  • Health

    Med students don’t study war, ethics

    A new survey of U.S. medical students shows they receive little training about what they should or should not do in wartime, despite ethical questions over physician involvement in prisoner interrogation and a legal framework making a “doctor draft” possible.

  • Campus & Community

    Faust, Pilbeam greet freshman parents

    To an assemblage of 1,000 freshman parents on Oct. 26 in Sanders Theatre, Dean of Harvard College David R. Pilbeam offered a welcome. “Your freshman is already a member of the extended Harvard family.”

  • Nation & World

    KSG panel: Early campaigning takes voter toll

    The intense media coverage of a small group of presidential hopefuls is prematurely narrowing the field of worthy nominees, many political experts claim.

  • Nation & World

    Dowd works the crowd at White Lecture

    Journalism, the saying goes, is the first draft of history.

  • Nation & World

    Vermont and New Hampshire, geographic twins, cultural aliens

    Ever wonder about Vermont and New Hampshire?

  • Nation & World

    Looking at China’s role in Africa

    China’s increasing influence in Africa is a double-edged sword that wields the potential for prosperity and despair.

  • Arts & Culture

    Rehding finds ‘monumental’ works key to German political history

    In December 1989, a few weeks after the reunification of Germany, Leonard Bernstein ’39 raised his baton above the ruins of the Berlin Wall and conducted a special arrangement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The central statement of the work — “all men will be brothers” — captured the sentiment of those who saw a brighter…

  • Nation & World

    A vision of collaboration, mutual respect

    Harvard and South Asia go way back.

  • Arts & Culture

    Taxonomist Carl Linnaeus on show at HMNH

    Carl Linnaeus believed that the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was not an apple but a banana. He came to this conclusion in 1737, while studying plant specimens at Hartecamp, the estate of George Clifford, a wealthy Dutch banker and director of the Dutch East India Company. Clifford collected exotic plants from around the…

  • Arts & Culture

    Tale of John Harvard’s surviving book

    This November, Harvard University will mark the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Harvard, not the institution’s founder as he is sometimes credited, but rather its first major benefactor. Such a noteworthy anniversary warrants reflection, although, unfortunately, a great many details about both the history of John Harvard and the legacy of his library…

  • Arts & Culture

    Darnton looks at the ‘art and politics of libel’ in 18th century France

    Government censors in pre-Revolutionary France were so hypervigilant that under their watchful eyes no one with anything significant to say dared publish their works in their own country. The solution was to publish abroad and smuggle the contraband books into France where they were soon snapped up by eager readers.

  • Campus & Community

    This month in Harvard history

    Nov. 6, 1770 — Rumblings of Revolution: Joseph Avery, Class of 1771, orates on “Oppression and Tyranny” before the Speaking Club.

  • Campus & Community

    Police reports

    Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Oct. 24. 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

    Community Gifts kicks off season of giving Vendor fair to explore the ease of being green HILR’s new Green Committee spotlights transportation Upcoming Goethe-Institut concert to feature Harvard composer Safra Foundation seeks fellowship applicants Holyoke group art show seeks submissions Arboretum seeks T-shirt designs for Lilac Sunday

  • Campus & Community

    Newsmakers

    The Lindbergh Foundation recently named Assistant Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Peter Girguis one its 14 Lindbergh Grant recipients for 2007. ProCor, a global communication program promoting heart health founded by Harvard School of Public Health Professor of Cardiology Emeritus Bernard Lown, has granted its first Louise Lown Heart Hero Award to the Heart…