All articles


  • Science & Tech

    Have light, will not travel

    Harvard researchers fired a short signal pulse of red laser light into a sealed glass cylinder containing a hot gas of rubidium atoms illuminated by a strong control beam. While…

  • Health

    Scorpion venom blocks bone loss

    Rats given kalitoxin, from scorpion venom, enjoyed 84 percent less jawbone loss than those that didn’t get the injections. “We are very excited because this is the first demonstration that…

  • 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…

  • 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,…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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,…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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.…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Campus & Community

    Remarks of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao

    Remarks of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at Harvard University.

  • 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…

  • 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:

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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,…

  • 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.

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…