All articles


  • Health

    High-deductible health plans are linked to fewer ER visits

    Patients who switched to high-deductible health plans went to the emergency department 10 percent less than patients who remained in traditional plans, according to a new study by the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention (of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care). The study, published in the March 14 Journal of the American…

  • Health

    Study questions ‘cancer stem cell’ hypothesis in breast cancer growth

    A Dana-Farber Cancer Institute study challenges the hypothesis that “cancer stem cells” — a small number of self-renewing cells within a tumor — are responsible for breast cancer progression and recurrence, and that wiping out these cells alone could cure the disease.

  • Nation & World

    Can science, religion coexist in peace?

    Almost 14 billion years after the big bang, and 3.5 billion years since the first bacteria appeared on Earth, humans occupy just one branch of the tree of life. We share an evolutionary limb with other eukaryotes, creatures whose membrane-bound cells carry genetic material. Our biological neighbors developed over time just as we did, by…

  • Health

    Indonesia’s strategies to fight bird flu run afoul of reality

    If Indonesia is able to execute a comprehensive bird flu plan written by the government, it will take great strides toward controlling the outbreak in the sprawling island nation, a visiting professor who has studied the region said Friday (March 9). Unfortunately, there’s little chance of that happening.

  • Health

    Sleep found to repair and reorganize the brain

    Most of us do it every night but we don’t know why. If you miss too many nights, it might kill you. We know why we eat, drink, breathe, and move around, but no one can explain why we need to sleep. What does seven or eight hours of snoozing really do for us? Van…

  • Nation & World

    A message of hope…from Newark

    Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Cory Booker brought his message of hope and revitalization to the John F. Kennedy School of Government Monday (March 12), describing his own painful odyssey to the mayor’s office and his plans to take Newark from its blighted past to a promising future.

  • Nation & World

    Journalism less appreciated, still essential, says NPR’s Daniel Schorr

    The public has a much more jaundiced opinion about journalists than the almost heroic image they had during the Watergate era, but society needs the press to do its job just the same, National Public Radio analyst Daniel Schorr said Tuesday (March 13). “What is clear is that the press can no longer rely on…

  • Campus & Community

    IBM, Ash Institute create award to recognize innovation in government

    IBM and the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) recently announced the creation of a $100,000 award program to recognize the world’s most transformative government programs.

  • Campus & Community

    Sports in brief

    Men’s hockey falls in ECAC quarterfinals Men’s tennis halts Bulls Swimmers represent at NCAA champs

  • Arts & Culture

    BMF to honor actress Allen as Woman of the Year

    The Harvard Black Men’s Forum (BMF) will present the 2007 Woman of the Year award to acclaimed actress, producer, director, and choreographer Debbie Allen. The presentation of the 2007 award — scheduled for March 10 at the Boston Fairmount Copley Hotel — will be the highlight of the 13th annual “Celebration of Black Women: Honoring…

  • Arts & Culture

    Music, words to honor Longfellow on poet’s 200th birthday

    The Boston Landmarks Orchestra will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) with a March 25 tribute at Sanders Theatre.

  • Arts & Culture

    The Fromm Players present!

    Music lovers will soon have a chance to hear pieces by some of the most influential classical composers working today performed by one of the most honored groups of players specializing in new music. And it’s all free!

  • Arts & Culture

    Is democracy merry?

    An enlarged news photo, flaunting its rough pattern of halftone dots, shows a man in jeans, a military overcoat, and a fedora striding toward the camera. Judging by his wide grin he seems to be enjoying himself hugely, but his downcast eyes convey that it is a private enjoyment, not shared by the uniformed police…

  • Campus & Community

    This month in Harvard history

    March 5, 1954 — The Faculty of Arts and Sciences approves the Special Standing Program recently proposed by the Educational Policy Committee. The program allows specially qualified high-school students who have completed 11th grade to enter as freshmen, specially qualified freshmen to enter as advanced-standing sophomores, and honors candidates to have one or two required…

  • Campus & Community

    Police reports

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

  • Campus & Community

    Deadline for HMS grant

    Each year more than 50 postdoctoral and faculty fellowships/grants are available to the Harvard medical community by invitation only. The private foundations that fund these grants permit a limited number of individuals to be nominated for these awards. In order to choose candidates that will represent the Harvard medical community in the national competitions, the…

  • Campus & Community

    Center for Health spoof takes on serious subject

    The Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School recently launched “The (Bio)DaVersity Code” — a short, Flash-animated spoof of “The Da Vinci Code” that illustrates the importance of biodiversity to the planet’s health. Free Range Graphics, creators of the award-winning “The Meatrix,” produced the short.

  • Campus & Community

    MAC moves equipment to QRAC and Gordon

    Following the closing of the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC) the week of March 19, MAC equipment will be made available to recreational users at the QRAC (66 Garden St.) and the Gordon Indoor Track and Tennis facility (65 N. Harvard St.).

  • Campus & Community

    Practical ethics grants available to undergraduates, application deadline approaching

    The Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics invites Harvard College students to apply for Lester Kissel Grants in Practical Ethics to support research and writing that makes contributions to the understanding of practical ethics. A number of grants will be awarded on a competitive basis for projects to be conducted during the summer of…

  • Campus & Community

    Take a lunch break to ancient Israel

    The Semitic Museum is sponsoring a free, docent-led tour of “The Houses of Ancient Israel: Domestic, Royal, Divine” today (March 8) at 12:15 p.m.

  • Campus & Community

    Seminar on gender history seeks participants

    The March 15 application deadline for “Writing Past Lives: Biography as History” — the Schlesinger Library’s summer seminar on gender history — is fast approaching. Established scholars, writers, and advanced graduate students in U.S. history and gender studies are invited to apply.

  • Campus & Community

    MIND recognizes Cure Alzheimer’s Fund with first philanthropic award

    Established in 2001 by members of the Harvard Medical School faculty, the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease (MIND) recently recognized the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund with its first Philanthropic Innovation and Investment Award. The award recognizes donors who have made substantial commitments to visionary work that cannot be funded through other sources but has the potential…

  • Campus & Community

    KSG student awarded prestigious press award

    Kennedy School of Government (KSG) student Sareena Dalla was recently awarded a $2,000 Overseas Press Club (OPC) Foundation scholarship at the foundation’s annual scholarship luncheon in New York City. A panel of leading journalists selected Dalla (and 11 others) from a pool of applicants representing 65 colleges and universities.

  • Campus & Community

    Fryer awarded Sloan Award

    Assistant Professor of Economics Roland Fryer Jr. recently received the prestigious Sloan Award in the field of economics.

  • Campus & Community

    Hart honored for research on entrepreneurship

    M.B.A. Class of 1961 Professor of Management Practice Emerita Myra Hart has been named a recipient of the 2007 FSF-NUTEK Award, an international prize for research on entrepreneurship and small business.

  • Campus & Community

    ‘Redefining Health Care’ collects Hamilton Award

    “Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results,” by Michael E. Porter, the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, and Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg, a senior institute associate at Harvard Business School’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness and an associate professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, has been awarded the 2007 James A.…

  • Campus & Community

    Engell wins Ness Book Award

    The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has awarded its Frederic W. Ness Book Award to James Engell, the Gurney Professor of English Literature and professor of comparative literature, for his book with Anthony Dangerfield, “Saving Higher Education in the Age of Money.”

  • Campus & Community

    HBS-affiliated work named top management book

    “From Resource Allocation to Strategy” (Oxford University Press), co-edited by Joseph L. Bower, the Donald Kirk David Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, has been named the best management book of 2006 by Strategy + Business magazine.

  • Campus & Community

    Faculty Council

    At its 11th meeting of the year on March 7, the Faculty Council considered support of study abroad programs and a motion concerning scholarly publishing licensing, and discussed Dean Jeremy R. Knowles’ upcoming “Letter on Growth and Renewal of the Faculty.”

  • Campus & Community

    Faculty of Arts and Sciences – Memorial Minute

    On October 12, 1997, when Isadore Twersky died, Jewish studies lost one of its giants, and a remarkable chapter in the history of the field came to a close.