Featured series 
All articles
-
Science & Tech
The skin’s the thing for conserving a building’s energy
It has been estimated that a third of the world’s energy is consumed by buildings, a third by transportation, and a third by industry. With gasoline prices rising and electrical blackouts plaguing California and threatening the rest of the country, conserving energy in all areas seems more and more of a necessity. That’s why a…
-
Science & Tech
New way to ‘see’ DNA
Research by Harvard scientists was driven by the need to make extremely small holes that mimic the pores in human cells through which different molecules must pass to keep the cells alive and healthy. “My colleagues and I first had the idea of sequencing genes by forcing DNA molecules through minute openings,” explains David Branton,…
-
Health
Adult stem cells effect a cure
Using stem cells from the unborn to treat adult diseases has created an anguished public debate. Now research news from Harvard Medical School scientists may help to end that debate by showing that adult stem cells can be coaxed into performing new functions. Researchers working with diabetic mice first killed cells responsible for the diabetes.…
-
Health
Deadliest form of malaria is younger than previously believed
Malaria kills more people than any other communicable disease except for tuberculosis. It is the world’s most serious parasitic tropical disease, resulting in 1 million to 3 million deaths annually. The most lethal form of malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, accounts for the majority of infections, 200 million to 300 million annually. Now researchers from the Harvard-Oxford…
-
Science & Tech
School segregation on the rise despite growing diversity
Nearly 50 years after the U.S. Supreme Court declared Southern segregated schools to be unconstitutional, resegregation is happening again. And it is occurring despite the nation’s growing diversity. According to Gary Orfield, co-director of The Civil Rights Project and professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, resegregation is contributing to a growing gap in…
-
Science & Tech
New report highlights safe, secure method for managing spent nuclear fuel
A joint Harvard University/University of Tokyo team of nuclear energy, nonproliferation, and waste management experts concludes in a new study that technologies are available to store spent nuclear fuel from hundreds of nuclear power plants around the world safely and securely for decades to come. To overcome political obstacles that have limited options for storage…
-
Health
An alternate take on Alzheimer’s
Much of Alzheimer’s research has focused on the role of a protein, amyloid-beta, found at high levels in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and which coagulates into plaques. Researcher Ashley Bush, a Harvard Medical School associate professor of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, believes that something else causes Alzheimer’s dementia: oxidation of trace metals in…
-
Science & Tech
No-fault compensation for medical injury proposed
Three jumbo jets filled with patients crashing every two days — that’s the analogy for the number of patients estimated to die annually from medical injury in the U.S. A big part of the problem is that the current malpractice system for compensating victims of medical injury does little to encourage hospitals to voluntarily report…
-
Science & Tech
Never-before-seen look inside the world of cancerous tumors
Harvard researchers working at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Radiation Oncology unit have used a powerful new microscope to see inside cancerous tumors. The microscope is so powerful that it can see individual cells within a tumor. “We can see what’s going on under the surface of the tumor without disturbing the tumor itself,” says principal investigator…
-
Science & Tech
Anatomy of the low-income homeownership boom in the 1990s
The rate of home ownership in the United States has grown to an unprecedented 67.7 percent since the 1990s. Low-income ownership has grown in particular. According to a study by researchers Mark Duda and Eric S. Belsky at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, an increase in manufactured housing has helped to fill the…
-
Science & Tech
National environmental policy during the Clinton years
Researchers at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government examined the environmental policy record of former President Bill Clinton. Environmental quality improved overall during the decade, the researchers found, continuing a trend that began in the 1970s, although improvements were much less than during the previous two decades. The researchers found that five themes emerged from their…
-
Science & Tech
Eighty-five percent of immigrant children separated from families during migration
An ongoing study of more than 400 children who have immigrated to the United States shows that 85 percent of them experience separation from one or both parents during the process of moving to this country. About 35 percent of these children are separated from their fathers for more than five years. Nearly half (49…
-
Science & Tech
Offshore investment funds: Monsters in emerging markets?
Less moderated by tax consequences, and less subject to supervision and regulation, offshore investment funds are alleged to engage in trading behaviors that are different from those of their onshore counterparts. Some have thought that means offshore funds may trade more intensely, and could also engage in trading patterns that make financial markets volatile. The…
-
Health
Fireflies seen in a new light
Anyone who has ever seen fireflies do their luminescent mating dance on a summer’s night has wondered: How do they light up like that? Now, two researchers, Sara Lewis from Tufts University and Thomas Michel from Harvard Medical School, have unraveled the mystery. Fireflies produce their light with nitric oxide, which is the same gas…
-
Science & Tech
Housing market resilient in slowing economy
The housing market has not been affected by a slowing economy, according to a report, The State of the Nation’s Housing: 2001, released in June 2001 by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. In fact, home sales at the beginning of the year were near record levels. However, prices for houses and…
-
Science & Tech
Children from working-class families twice as likely to be depressed adults
Children from low socioeconomic backgrounds have an elevated risk of depression throughout their lifetimes, even if they become more professionally successful than their parents. That’s the conclusion of a study conducted by Harvard School of Public Health researcher Stephen Gilman and colleagues. The study also suggests that girls raised in working-class households are more likely…
-
Health
A familiar drug gives surprising hope against diabetic blindness
A common complication of diabetes is diabetic retinopathy, which can lead to blindness. Diabetic retinopathy is caused by changes in the blood vessels of the retina. This form of retinopathy has long been suspected of being the result of tiny blood clots in the capillaries of the eye that lead to blockages in blood circulation…
-
Health
Green vegetables and fruits rich in vitamin C reduces risk of heart disease
Regularly eating fruits and vegetables, in particular green leafy vegetables and fruits that contain vitamin C, reduces the risk of coronary heart disease, according to researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health. In a study, individuals who increased consumption of fruits and vegetables by one additional serving per day helped reduce their risk for…
-
Campus & Community
Harvard Gazette: Fanfares, halos, sharks, moms, and dads
Gazette reporters Ken Gewertz, Beth Potier, and Alvin Powell roamed through Commencement Day, eyes, ears, and notebooks open. Some of their observations follow.
-
Campus & Community
Harvard Commencement 2001 photo gallery
Photos from the 350th Commencement ceremonies at Harard University
-
Campus & Community
‘Participate,’ Card tells KSG grads
Having ridden his political fortunes from the Holbrook Town Planning Board to the Massachusetts state legislature to Washington, D.C., White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card knows a thing or two about public service. Card shared many of those lessons during an inspirational Class Day address to Kennedy School graduates and their parents on Wednesday,…
-
Campus & Community
The road from ‘knitting needles to laptops’: In Radcliffe talk, medalist Albright looks back – and ahead
At the Radcliffe Associations annual luncheon on Friday, June 8, Madeleine Albright provided the star-power, but she shared the spotlight with womens education, womens advancement, and the new role of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
-
Campus & Community
Making Web access a reality
Seeking to make online information open to everyone, Harvard has embarked on a program to make Web sites accessible to the visually impaired.
-
Campus & Community
Galbraith receives prestigious award
John Kenneth Galbraith has received Indias second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, comparable in importance to the U.S. Congressional Medal of Freedom.
-
Campus & Community
Installation fete for Summers set
Lawrence H. Summers will be officially installed as Harvards 27th president on Friday, Oct. 12, in an outdoor ceremony in Tercentenary Theatre.
-
Campus & Community
Police Reports
Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending June 9. The official log is located at Police Headquarters, 29 Garden St. June 3: A wallet was reported stolen at Lowell House. June 4: A bicycle was reported stolen at 24 Oxford St. June 5: An…
-
Campus & Community
This month in Harvard history
June 1, 1774 Several parliamentary punishments for the Boston Tea Party (December 1773) take effect, and British troops occupy Boston. “[C]onsidering the present dark aspect of our public Affairs,” the Harvard Corporation votes “that there be no public Commencement this Year.” Ceremonies do not resume until 1781. June 25, 1825 After much deliberation…
-
Campus & Community
Michael Porter to lead new Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness
Harvard University announced June 28 the establishment of a new interdisciplinary Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness (ISC), based at Harvard Business School and directed by Michael E. Porter.
-
Campus & Community
Fireflies seen in a new light
One of nature’s best shows features the signals that fireflies exchange as they search for mates on warm summer nights. Few people can watch it without wondering how the little bugs turn their belly lanterns on and off so quickly.
-
Campus & Community
Coldest place in the universe
The coldest place in the universe is not millions of miles away in a dark corner of outer space but in an exotic laboratory in Cambridge, Mass. It’s a place where Harvard University researchers are slowing and compressing light and probing exotic states of matter.