All articles


  • Science & Tech

    First supernovae quickly seeded universe with stuff of life

    The early universe was a barren wasteland of hydrogen, helium, and a touch of lithium, containing none of the elements necessary for life as we know it. From those primordial…

  • Health

    Tobacco deaths a developing problem

    Research published in the Sept. 13, 2003 issue of the medical journal The Lancet shows that global tobacco deaths were about 4.8 million in 2000, with about 2.4 million each…

  • Science & Tech

    Researchers make new compounds from protein

    Over the years, scientists have repeatedly sought to use a cell’s protein-making process to create new drugs and other compounds. They have had some dramatic successes, such as inducing bacteria…

  • Science & Tech

    Seeing the hole truth

    Folding is a big deal in biology. It not only changes a molecule’s shape but its function. Take the proteins made by genes. Folded one way, they can activate processes…

  • Health

    Wine molecule slows aging process

    Called resveratrol, a wonder substance discovered by Harvard researchers seems to work in the same way as does drastic calorie cutting. Dramatic reduction of calories has been shown to increase…

  • Health

    Longer life for blood

    Blood platelets, which are transfused into those who lose too much blood from wounds, major surgery, or cancer treatments, can be kept for only five days. Then they must be…

  • Health

    Death and survival proteins work together

    At a cellular level, life-sustaining activities such as glucose metabolism were thought to be carried out by entirely different proteins from those involved in apoptosis, or cell death. “People in…

  • Health

    Dual action anthrax vaccine more effective than current vaccine in early tests

    A new vaccine prods the immune system to attack both the anthrax bacterium ( Bacillus anthracis ) and the toxins it makes. This dual action represents an improvement over the…

  • Health

    Discovery of inner ear cells may lead to new therapies

    A research team led by Stefan Heller, a principal investigator at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary’s Eaton-Peabody Laboratory and assistant professor at the Department of Otology and Laryngology at…

  • Health

    Early molecule fingered as an Alzheimer’s cause

    “The way we look at it, Alzheimer’s disease is really cancer of the brain,” says Rachael Neve, Harvard Medical School associate professor of psychiatry at McLean Hospital. “But neurons cannot…

  • Campus & Community

    Drawing on all your resources to explore the nature of drawing:

    If your goal is to go home with a nice picture of an earthenware pitcher and a bowl of apples that you can frame and give to your Aunt Ida, better go somewhere else. Here its all about process, not product.

  • Campus & Community

    Gross assembles senior staff, completes integration of offices:

    Benedict H. Gross, dean of Harvard College, has assembled his senior staff for the Office of the Dean of Harvard College and completed the consolidation of this office with the Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education, as begun this spring.

  • Campus & Community

    Newsmakers

    Head coach of W’s lax named Two-time All-American Sarah (Downing) Nelson ’94 has been named head coach of the Harvard women’s lacrosse team. After starring on three Ivy championship teams…

  • Campus & Community

    HBS rugby set to roll

    The Harvard Business School (HBS) rugby team will open its fall 2003 season with a pair of home matches against the Boston Irish Wolfhounds Rugby Club on Sept. 13. The teams pitch is located next to Harvard Stadium and the action kicks off at noon. For more information, visit the squads Web site at http://sa.hbs.edu/rugby/.

  • Campus & Community

    Food, frolic, and no rain:

    Despite forecasts to the contrary, weather held a tentative truce with Harvards 28th annual Senior Picnic on Aug. 6, treating the 1,100 Cambridge senior citizens to a rain-free, albeit humid, celebration of friendship and community.

  • Campus & Community

    Writer Battles’ unusual muse is a library

    Roaming the stacks of Widener Library as a selector for the HD Push Project – which processed books for transfer to the Harvard Depository – Matthew Battles, mesmerized by rows and rows and rows of volumes, began to ponder his surroundings – the library. With Widener as an ever-present muse and a valuable resource, Battles…

  • Campus & Community

    You don’t say:

    A former boss of mine once called me a scissor-bill. I concluded that it was not a term of endearment, but I didnt know what it meant.

  • Campus & Community

    Zelen Award committee names winner, seeks nominations

    The Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health named Wayne A. Fuller, professor in liberal arts and sciences at Iowa State University, the recipient of the 2003 Marvin Zelen Leadership Award in Statistical Science. Fuller delivered a lecture at Harvard titled Analytic Studies with Complex Survey Data this past May.

  • Campus & Community

    Orr named director for research at Belfer Ctr.

    Robert C. Orr, a leading authority on nation building and peace operations, has been named executive director for Research of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (BCSIA) at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

  • Campus & Community

    HLS Web site gives access to Nuremberg Trials documents:

    You wouldnt expect a collection of crumbling documents from a trial that occurred more than half a century ago to still have power to shock, but Harry S. Martin, director of the Law School Library, knows better.

  • Campus & Community

    Common painkillers reduce risk of Parkinson’s

    Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, in the first study to investigate the potential benefit in humans of the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) in reducing the risk of Parkinsons disease, have found that regular users of these drugs had a lower risk for Parkinsons disease than nonusers. The findings appear in…

  • Campus & Community

    Despite economy, PBHA camps thrive:

    Preparing for their positions as co-directors of a Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) summer day camp, Kristin Garcia 05 and Chris Vena 05 had a jam-packed semester this past spring. Into their Harvard studies they shoehorned the sorts of real-world duties that would make their camp – the Franklin I-O Summer Program in Dorchester -…

  • Campus & Community

    Faculty, staff tell us what to read at the beach

    What makes a great summer? Warm weather, cloudless skies, a blanket on the sand or an Adirondack chair by the lake, and, above all, a stack of reading matter that includes all the books you meant to read all year but didnt have the time.

  • Campus & Community

    Chefs shake up college dining conventions:

    Somewhere between seared tilapia and popcorn chicken, Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) Council of Chefs is cooking up a revolution. Assembled just over a year ago, the council – a critical mass of culinary talent, according to Alexandra McNitt, director for marketing and communications at HUDS – is in charge of creating and executing menus…

  • Campus & Community

    ‘Training the trainers’ to fight AIDS battle:

    Taped on the side of a gray filing cabinet in Eric Krakauers Harvard Medical School office is a black-and-white photograph of a 4-year-old Vietnamese girl holding a bowl of food and wearing a sour expression.

  • Campus & Community

    New busing controversy flares up:

    Youve seen the billboards: Natural gas: The clean alternative. But is it?

  • Campus & Community

    Widener ILL is No. 1 lender in N.E. area

    The Interlibrary Loan Division (ILL) at Widener Library is the No. 1 lender in the New England area according to statistics recently published by the New England Library Network (NELINET). ILL received, processed, and shipped 18,075 loans or copies through the national Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) in the year 2002.

  • Campus & Community

    Former N.H. Gov. Sununu to join KSG as visiting professor:

    Former White House chief of staff and New Hampshire Gov. John H. Sununu will join the faculty of the Kennedy School of Government this fall. Sununu will serve as Roy M. and Barbara Goodman Family Visiting Professor of Practice in Public Service, announced Kennedy School Dean Joseph S. Nye Jr.

  • Campus & Community

    Mars’ approach spurs CfA ‘Fever’:

    Mars has always fascinated humankind.