Campus & Community

Current thinking on how most communicable respiratory infections are spread – by large droplets over short distances or by coming in contact with contaminated surfaces (face-to-face) – needs to be reconsidered, according to Donald Milton, lecturer on occupational and environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health and co-author of a perspective in the April 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The perspective coincides with the report by Yu et al. in this issue on airborne transmission of SARS.

The children who inhabit the world of award-winning author, educator, and activist Jonathan Kozol 58 dont wear designer clothing, dont have parents who drive around in SUVs, and dont vacation at Disney World. They live in extreme poverty in the inner cities in places like New York and Los Angeles and often endure chronic asthma, hunger, and homelessness as a way of life. For 40 years, Kozol has worked with these poor children, their parents, preachers, teachers, and principals – and spoken out against the inequities of this countrys public school systems.

A bunch of leeks, an alarm clock, a nylon rope, a banana, three playing cards, an ice skate – what does that suggest to you, Dr. Watson?

1 educational Web site to be launched in late spring

Stem cell therapies have the potential to do for chronic diseases what antibiotics did for infectious diseases. It is going to take years of serious research to get there, but as a neurologist, I believe the prospect of a penicillin for Parkinsons is a potential breakthrough that we must pursue. As in other areas of creative endeavor in science, the answers will come only with careful experimentation.

Rakesh Jain looks at tumors from an engineers perspective. The view he gets has led to some startling results.

Kofi Annan, the secretary-general of the United Nations and 2001 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, will be Harvards 2004 Commencement speaker at the Afternoon Exercises on June 10.

At its 11th meeting of the year (April 14) the Faculty Council discussed with Dean of the College Benedict Gross (mathematics) and Professor Jennifer Leaning (faculty of public health) the implementation of the recommendations made last year by the Committee to Address Sexual Assault at Harvard (the Leaning Committee). Dean Julia Fox (Harvard College) and Susan Marine (director of the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response) were present for this conversation.

April 4, 1907 – Nathan Marsh Pusey, Harvard’s future 24th President, is born in Council Bluffs, Iowa. April 15, 1912 – The luxury liner “Titanic” sinks in the North Atlantic.…

Flags adorning the parking lot at O¹Donnell Field, where the Crimson baseballers play, ensure that no visitors think theyre in New Haven.

Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending April 10. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor.

President Lawrence H. Summers will hold office hours for students in his Massachusetts Hall office on the following dates:

Marking the 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that desegregated Americas schools, Harvard Law School (HLS) turned its attention Tuesday night (April 13) to Justice of the United States Thurgood Marshall, who as legal director for the NAACP successfully argued the Brown case. Yet with a panel of eight HLS faculty members who clerked for Marshall, the event painted a far richer portrait of the civil rights leader than is well known. The panelists shaded his august jurisprudential legacy with personal recollections of Marshall as a boss and mentor who told salty stories, gambled with passion, and called his clerks knuckleheads.

Two music department faculty honored G. Gordon Watts Professor of Music Kay Kaufman Shelemay was elected fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research. The academy represents the oldest organization…

Defender Belitsos earns league accolades For her recent efforts against the attack, sophomore midfielder Elaine Belitsos of the Harvard women’s lacrosse team was named the Ivy League’s Defensive Player of…

National interfaith leader and best-selling author the Rev. Mel White will address the conflict between religious and gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender (GLBT) communities at three events this weekend (April 16-18) at Harvard. White is the founder of SoulForce Inc., an interfaith movement committed to ending spiritual violence against GLBT people.

As sales of recorded music drop precipitously, the music industry has pointed a blaming finger at the dramatic growth of file sharing among individuals who search, share, and download music files from each other. Surely if consumers can get their favorite songs for free, the reasoning goes, theyre not making tracks to the nearest record store to pay $18 for a CD.

Americas intelligence community stands at a critical crossroads. So says Jack Grierson, the Kennedy Schools CIA officer in residence, who recently retired after 30 years with the agency.

The Ottoman Empire – what was that, an empire based on putting your feet up?

Detailed results of the estrogen-alone study within the Womens Health Initiative (WHI), which was terminated in early March 2004, are providing some of the first answers to questions about the efficacy of estrogen alone to prevent chronic disease in healthy, postmenopausal women who have had a hysterectomy. WHI researchers, including investigators at Brigham and Womens Hospital (BWH), have shown that after 6.8 years of study on more than 10,000 women nationwide, estrogen-alone hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in postmenopausal women increased the risk of stroke, reduced the risk of hip fracture, and had minimal effect on the risk of heart disease and breast cancer. In addition, the research suggests that women who start estrogen earlier in life may receive more heart health benefits than those who start later in life. These findings are published in the April 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The tour of Harvard Square left little doubt in Jody Pintos mind that this was a neighborhood full of well-loved buildings and important historical sites.

When Harvard Law School (HLS) Dean Elena Kagan charged the faculty with enhancing the intellectual life of the Law School, many of them convened conferences, booked speakers, and hosted seminars on legal issues of the day.

The Clothesline Project was designed as a way for survivors of sexual violence to air out their dirty laundry – a way for survivors of a crime that is often kept silent to let their voices be heard.

The Kokkalis Program on Southeastern and East-Central Europe at the Kennedy School of Government has announced the creation of its first faculty research grant program. Grants of up to $15,000 will support advanced research by Harvard faculty members on issues of critical importance to Southeastern and East-Central Europe. Grants can be applied toward research assistance, travel, summer salary, and course buyout.

Kokkalis Program supporting summer research grants The Kokkalis Program on Southeastern and East-Central Europe is now accepting applications for summer research and internship grants. Students currently enrolled in undergraduate, graduate,…

I think I was living someone elses life, says Elisabeth Newman.

Blazing bats aside, it was another round of solid pitching that helped rocket the Harvard baseball team to the top of the Red Rolfe Division this past weekend at home. In a pair of doubleheader sweeps, four starting Crimson hurlers (and four relievers) allowed Columbia and Penn just nine runs, as Harvard held off the Lions, 4-3, and 10-2, on Friday afternoon (April 9), before dismissing the Quakers, 5-1, and 7-3, the following day (April 10). With the wins, Harvard (13-9-1) improves to 7-1 in league play.

Several hundred fans turned out on a chilly spring day at Ohiri Field this past Friday (April 9) to watch the host Harvard Crimson participate in two spring training matches against the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer, and regional power UConn Huskies. Getting a chance to match skills with professional players posed a unique opportunity for Harvard head coach John Kerr, himself a former Revolution player, but off-season rust was hard to shake off in the 45-minute match, with the Revolution emerging as 4-0 victors. Revolution forward and U.S. National Team player Taylor Twellman earned a hat trick on the day, with the fourth coming courtesy of an unfortunate own-goal from Harvard senior Andrew Nechtem.

If you want to increase your chances of living longer, taking cholesterol drugs is an easy way to do it. Thats the message from a Harvard study of 4,162 people hospitalized in 350 places in eight countries. It is the first research to show that intense lowering of cholesterol results in a major reduction in deaths and major heart attacks.

James F. Rothenberg, a leading figure in the investment world and a distinguished alumnus of both Harvard College and Harvard Business School, will become the Universitys next treasurer and the newest member of the Harvard Corporation, effective July 1.