All articles
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Health
Keeping synapses clean may hold key to fear-conditioning
As readers of introductory psychology texts know, animals easily learn to fear a harmless stimulus, such as a tone, if that stimulus is paired with a painful one, such as…
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Health
MRI scan shows promise in treating bipolar disorder
A study published in the Jan. 1, 2004 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry had a surprising start. As Michael Rohan, imaging physicist in McLean Hospital’s Brain Imaging Center,…
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Health
For-profit health plans did not restrict Medicare beneficiaries’ use of high-cost operative procedures
Testing the hypothesis that rates of use of 12 high-cost procedures would be lower in for-profit health plans than in not-for-profit plans, researchers analyzed Medicare HEDIS (Health Plan Employer Data…
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Science & Tech
Raging storms of hot and cold gas
New observations with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), Hubble’s high-precision and ultra-sensitive spectrometer, show that the warm chromosphere of Betelgeuse extends out to more than 50 times its radius…
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Science & Tech
Lifeless suns dominated early universe
The very first generation of stars were not at all like our Sun. They were white-hot, massive stars that were very short-lived. Burning for only a few million years, they…
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Science & Tech
Suns of all ages possess comets, maybe planets
Astronomers observed a comet puffing out huge amounts of carbon, one of the key elements for life. The comet also emitted large amounts of water vapor as the Sun’s heat…
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Science & Tech
Young star caught speeding
Findings linking a speeding star to its birthplace provide direct observational support of theoretical simulations predicting that protostars can be tossed out of a young cluster. This is the first…
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Health
Coffee cuts diabetes risk
More than 125,000 study participants who were free of diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease at the start of a study were selected from the on-going Health Professionals Follow-up Study and…
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Science & Tech
Planetary survivor strategy: Outeat, outweigh, outlast!
Astronomers Myron Lecar and Dimitar Sasselov have found that planet formation is a contest, where a growing planet must fight for survival lest it be swallowed by the star that…
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Health
New study identifies inhibitor of anthrax toxin
Findings by a research team could eventually lead to the development of a protease inhibitor drug, which in combination with antibiotics could be used to treat anthrax cases later in…
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Health
Many Americans at high risk from flu not vaccinated
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highly recommends the flu vaccine for certain high-risk groups including people with chronic illnesses, children between the ages of six and 23 months,…
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Science & Tech
Diminishing returns
Election Night is one of the increasingly rare moments when large numbers of Americans gather in front of their television sets to hear about politics. Although a comparison of the…
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Campus & Community
In brief
Band names Holmes Scholarship recipients The Harvard University Band has awarded its annual Malcolm H. Holmes Scholarship to freshmen Keneshia Washington and Kenton Hetrick. Given annually to two dedicated new…
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Campus & Community
Bridge Program seeks volunteers to tutor adult learners
The Harvard University Bridge to Learning and Literacy Program – an education program for the Universitys service workers – is seeking volunteers who can commit two hours per week to tutor adult learners in language, literacy, numeracy, and computers skills. While some volunteers are needed immediately, the program is also asking people who may be…
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Campus & Community
A choir of one’s own
Things happen to Edward Elwyn Jones in the nick of time. Consider. In 1998, he was in his final year at Cambridge University, when he was invited to Harvards Memorial Church, first as Organ Scholar, and then to stay on for an additional year as assistant organist to University Organist and Choirmaster Murray Forbes Somerville.…
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Campus & Community
Lowell House bells re-examined
On Dec. 4-8, 2003, representatives of Harvard University and members of a Russian delegation headed by the Father Superior of the Moscow St. Daniel Monastery met to discuss the future of the bells from the monastery that have hung in the Lowell House bell tower at Harvard University since 1930 when they were sold by…
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Campus & Community
Harvard launches new summer program
Harvard University announced today (Dec. 11) that it is launching a new summer program for academically talented high school students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds. Students will come to Harvard from public and parochial schools in Boston and Cambridge to participate in an intensive summer program focused on academic and personal development. Each student will participate…
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Campus & Community
Tracy and the Plastics entertain, provoke
During a brief lull in Tracy and the Plastics set this past Monday evening (Dec. 6) at the Cabot House Underground Theatre, Tracy (aka, Wynne Greenwood) – mastermind and front-woman of the Olympia, Wash.-based art-punk trio – invited the crowd of nearly 75 people to Look at each other for a second. Greenwoods suggestion to…
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Campus & Community
Remarks of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao
Remarks of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at Harvard University.
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Campus & Community
Diplomacy of Lewis and Clark stressed in exhibit
In 1803, when Americans spoke about going west, they meant Ohio, Kentucky, or Tennessee. The phrase manifest destiny – the God-given right of Americans to spread over the continent – wouldnt be coined for another four decades. America didnt extend from sea to shining sea – rather it shaded off on its western edge into…
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Campus & Community
Software upgrade to limit HOLLIS availability
During the weekend of Dec. 27 and 28, the Harvard University Library Office for Information Systems (OIS) will implement a software upgrade for HOLLIS, Harvards online integrated library system. On those days, the online HOLLIS catalog will be either limited in function or unavailable. The upgrade schedule is as follows:
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Campus & Community
Playwright Eve Ensler lectures at Radcliffe
Obie Award-winning playwright Eve Ensler comes to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Thursday (Dec. 11) to discuss the activism thats sprung from her acclaimed drama The Vagina Monologues. In this lecture, called Vagina Warriors: An Emerging Paradigm, An Emerging Species, Ensler will outline the unique qualities of activists she calls Vagina Warriors, and how…
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Campus & Community
This year in Harvard history
December 1890 – The Faculty of Arts and Sciences establishes the Division of American Archaeology and Ethnology. Dec. 17, 1920 – In Lawrence Hall (lost to fire in 1970 on…
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Campus & Community
Faculty Council notice Dec. 10
The Interim Report on the Progress of the Curricular Review was the primary topic at the Faculty Councils fifth meeting of the year. In addition to Deans William C. Kirby (history), Benedict H. Gross (mathematics), and Jeffrey Wolcowitz (economics), Professor Eric N. Jacobsen (chemistry and chemical biology), co-chair of the Working Group on General Education,…
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Campus & Community
Dunlop memorial service this Friday
A memorial service for John T. Dunlop, Lamont University Professor Emeritus, will be held Friday (Dec. 12) at 3 p.m. in the Memorial Church. A reception will follow in the Faculty Room, University Hall. Please enter through the north entrance.
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Campus & Community
Harvard Gazette: Sperm cells made in laboratory can fertilize eggs
Scientists know that stem cells from embryos have the potential to develop into brain, bone, or any other type cell, but getting them to actually do this in a laboratory is a different thing. Now, for the first time, researchers have crossed this bridge by coaxing uncommitted stem cells to grow into sperm cells in…
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Campus & Community
CBRSS welcomes four Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars
The Center for Basic Research in the Social Sciences (CBRSS) has announced the arrival of four new visiting scholars, as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundations Scholars in Health Policy Research Program. This is a two-year postdoctoral fellowship program for outstanding new Ph.D.s in economics, political science, and sociology who wish to advance their…
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Campus & Community
Summers, Menino break ground for new units
In a show of community partnership, Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers stood shoulder-to-shoulder and shovel-to-shovel with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and community, city, and state leaders Thursday (Dec. 4) to break ground for 50 future units of affordable housing in Allston. The Brian J. Honan Apartments, named to honor the late city councilor from Allston-Brighton…
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Campus & Community
It’s never too late
Theres good news on the research front for those who want to shed some pounds and get in shape this holiday season. A new study by Joslin Diabetes Center researchers shows that obese adults who lost just 7 percent of their weight – or 16 pounds in a 220-pound, 5-foot-5-inch woman – and did moderate-intensity…
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Campus & Community
Schlesinger to undergo renovation
The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study is preparing for major renovations in 2004 and will be closed to all users from Jan. 19 through Feb. 9, as part of that process.