Year: 2001

  • Nation & World

    Study finds embryonic stem cells can repair heart muscle

    Heart failure develops when the heart stops pumping effectively due to the destruction of muscle cells, known as cardiomyocytes. Damage inflicted during a heart attack causes massive loss of cardiomyocytes,…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    High levels of Epstein-Barr virus antibodies in women linked to risk of multiple sclerosis

    Multiple sclerosis is a chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous system. Nationwide, there are an estimated 250,000 to 350,000 people with MS. Researchers have long wondered how MS develops…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Grants vs . investment subsidies

    In many countries, governments face policy decisions about how to help poor people who have difficulty helping themselves because they can’t borrow money. What is the proper form of intervention?…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Economic growth in Colombia: A reversal of “fortune”?

    Between 1950 and 1980, the Colombian economy grew at a respectable average rate of 5 percent. Between 1980 and 2000, that average rate of growth fell to 3 percent. Why?…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    User fees have unintended effect of decreasing health care access for poor

    The reform of health care systems is supposed to make access to health care better. But in the particular case of user fees, the opposite effect was observed. During the…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Indivisible territory and ethnic war

    Monica Duffy Toft is assistant professor of public policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and assistant director of the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard’s…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Sickle cell disease cured in mouse model

    Sickle cell disease is a blood disorder caused by a single mutation in the beta-globin gene that results in the substitution of one amino acid. This small error is enough…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Polarity gene yields clues to organization of cell signaling, structural growth

    Researchers are beginning to understand how a gene called “stardust” works to set up the basic top-down architecture of the epithelial cells that line the gut, skin, and many other…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Technique enables quick accounting of gene function

    Now that whole genomes have been sequenced, a group of scientists has geared up for the next phase: identification and classification of newly discovered coding regions. The DNA microchip, developed…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Diagnosis by database shows promise

    A relatively new approach to researching cancer involves looking at the actions of thousands of genes in cancer tumors. This technique just recently became possible because, using new applications of…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Pain and pleasure activate same brain structures

    David Borsook is a Harvard Medical School associate professor of radiology, who both treats patients and conducts research. “Over 15 years of seeing patients with pain it became obvious that…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Two named 2002 Marshall Scholarship winners

    Lauren Baer and Sarah Moss, both Harvard College seniors, have won Marshall Scholarships. The prestigious scholarships allow young American leaders to study at a university in Britain. On Dec. 5, the British ambassador to the United States, Sir Christopher Meyer, announced the names of the 40 American students who will become the new Marshall class.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Alexander wins International Rhodes

    Karin Alexander of Lowell House is a winner of an International Rhodes Scholarship. Alexander plans to further her work in social studies, in which she concentrated, during her time at Oxford University. Alexander, who grew up in Zimbabwe, will be pursuing a degree in Development Studies at Oxford. She wants to prepare herself to work…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    In brief

    Hauser Center accepting fellowship applicants The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations is currently accepting applications for the 2002-03 Doctoral Fellowships in Nonprofit Sector Studies. The center will award up to…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Newsmakers

    Faculty selects Lewis for Bond Book Award David Levering Lewis, the Martin Luther King Jr. University Professor at Rutgers University, is the recipient of this year’s Horace Mann Bond Book…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Holiday tree trimming

    John Carrol from Facilities Maintenance Operations trims trees in JFK Park during the warmer weather earlier this month.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Edward Wagner dies at 77

    Edward Wagner, who taught Korean studies at Harvard for 35 years, died Dec. 7, 2001, at the Walden Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Concord of pneumonia and other complications from AlzheimerÕs disease. He was 77.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The end

    The good news is that the universe will last forever. The bad news is that we will be seeing less and less of it as galaxies fade and become frozen in time.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Stone resigns as Fellow of Harvard College

    Following twenty-seven years as a member of the Harvard Corporation, Robert G. Stone, Jr., will conclude his service as Fellow of Harvard College at the end of the 2001-02 academic year.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    President Summers Appoints William A. Graham Acting Dean of the Harvard Divinity School

    William A. Graham, Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Professor of the History of Religion in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, will serve as Acting Dean of the Harvard Divinity School pending the appointment of a permanent dean, President Lawrence H. Summers announced today.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard After School Initiative announces $400,000 in grants

    From soccer to science, civics to computers, the after-school offerings of 21 programs serving Boston youth got a $400,000 boost yesterday (Jan. 9), as Harvard formally honored its agreement to…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The beauty of numbers

    After three hours of mathematics one recent Saturday morning, 25 Boston middle school teachers paused briefly for lunch, after which they began their fourth hour of class totally engaged with…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Contemporary approach to art

    When Linda Norden got hired by the Fogg Art Museum as associate curator of contemporary art, she faced a challenging problem. Museums like the Fogg collect art objects, and they…

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Goodbye, Mr. Chips

    If you asked most college students at most colleges to name their favorite class, chances are the words “freshman chemistry” wouldn’t come up all that often. On the other hand,…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard welcomes 2001-02 Fulbright Scholars

    Thirty-seven foreign scholars and professionals and a senior fellow at Harvard have been named 2001 – 02 Fulbright Grant recipients. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, participating governments, and host institutions in the United States and abroad, these grants allow scholars from across the globe to lecture or conduct research at Harvard during the…

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Spiegelman speaks at Carpenter

    Comic books have come a long way.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Quigley to direct Art Museums’ digitizing

    Acknowledging the essential role that technology plays in all aspects of museum work today, the Harvard University Art Museums (HUAM) has announced its first-ever appointment of a director of digital information and technology.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Balancing act

    Alan Dershowitz, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, has long been a defender of civil liberties. The Sept. 11 attacks on America have brought about some changes in his thinking and some readjustments of old beliefs to fit present circumstances.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    See light at end of semester darkened by tragedy

    As the academic year began this fall, the annual rites of passage from high school to college, from vacation back to school, were rendered indelible by the events of Sept. 11. Many of us will see no before-and-after division more clearly in our lives.

    8 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Crash course

    Unlike other days, Sept. 11 didnt end at midnight. The country still roils the reverberations of the terrorist attacks continue to be felt in spaces private and public, including this Universitys classrooms and in the quiet of professors research activities. Teachers and students alike struggle to understand, and respond to, the unprecedented tragedy.

    8 minutes