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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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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. ...
In brief
Band names Holmes Scholarship recipients The Harvard University Band has awarded its annual Malcolm H. Holmes Scholarship to freshmen Keneshia Washington ...
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 interested in tutoring in the spring semester to inquire as soon as possible.
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. In 2002, just as Jones was finishing further music studies in New York, he was asked to take over as interim organist and choirmaster until the search for a permanent replacement for Somerville, who left Harvard for a position in Nashville, Tenn., was completed.
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 the Soviet government. The Russian delegation acknowledged Harvards legal ownership of the bells and expressed its gratitude for the preservation of these bells. The discussions were cordial and constructive.
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 for three successive summers, beginning after ninth grade, with mentoring throughout the school year.
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 transfer the focus from herself to those in attendance wasnt so much a break from the evenings performance, as it was an extension of it. Call it audience participation, Tracy and the Plastics style.
Remarks of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao
Remarks of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at Harvard University.
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 a stupendous and perilous unknown.
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:
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 they have filled her with awe and inspiration.
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 ...
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, and Professor Lawrence Katz (economics), co-chair of the Working Group on Concentration, were present for this discussion.
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.
Sperm cells made in lab can fertilize eggs
Scientists injected laboratory-created sperm into eggs, and the resulting embryos grew to the point where they would normally be implanted into a womb. The ...
Picturing a universe that’s out of sight
Giovanni Fazio, a senior physicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, directed the design and construction of a camera that is looking ...
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 a petri dish.
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 understanding of health policy research.
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 who died in 2002, will comprise nine buildings on a site once occupied by Legal Seafoods fish processing plant.
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 physical exercise for six months improved their major blood vessel function by approximately 80 percent, regardless of whether or not they had type 2 diabetes.
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.
Corporation to hike endowment payout
Soaring health care and other fringe benefit costs have prompted the Harvard Corporation to take a second look at next years financial picture and add an extra $16 million in endowment funds to 2004-2005 budgets across the University.
Mao under a microscope
More than Saddam Hussein, more than Osama bin Laden, Mao Zedong used to terrify people in the West. Absolute leader (or so we thought) of a billion Chinese dressed in identical drab uniforms brandishing their ubiquitous Little Red Books, Mao seemed to embody an implacable anti-individualistic force bent on destroying all that the West stood for and cherished.
Maria Guerrero’s ‘kids’ rally in a time of trouble
On a chilly Wednesday evening in November, Cabot Houses dining hall glows bright across the quiet Radcliffe Quad. Inside, an otherwise ordinary midweek meal sparkles with flowers, banners, flashbulbs, and Latin music. At the center of the hubbub, surrounded by students who clamor for hugs, Maria Guerrero, who has worked for Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) at the Quad for three years, sits in near silence, alternately - sometimes simultaneously - grinning widely and weeping freely.
Harvard mulls challenges facing Native Americans
Invoking the Great Creator to guide them, Native Americans and researchers examining Native American challenges convened their first-ever Harvard-wide symposium Thursday (Dec. 4), joining forces to improve Native American lives.
Augusto Boal’s ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’
Oppression, according to Augusto Boal, is when one person is dominated by the monologue of another and has no chance to reply. Boals life is devoted to giving those who are in this one-down position the tools with which to express themselves and discover a way out of their powerlessness.
University readies for Wen Jiabao
Premier Wen Jiabaos visit to Harvard lasted just a few hours, but preparations for the occasion spanned nearly a month. Wens Harvard hosts - the Office of the President, the Harvard University Asia Center, and the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research - worked alongside hundreds of faculty, staff, and volunteers from around the University to plan and execute the visit. The University Marshals office managed protocol Transportation Services shuttled audience members across the river to the Business School campus the Harvard University Police Department coordinated the security forces of the U.S. and Chinese governments as well as the Boston Police the Harvard News Office corralled the 70-some members of the media expected to attend the event and Harvard Business School (HBS) opened its campus and facilities while ensuring the event didnt interfere with its students final exams.
Small, vocal groups protest Wen’s visit
Chants of China lie! People die! and Hands off Taiwan! echoed across Western Avenue in Allston Wednesday (Dec. 10) as about 85 demonstrators sent a message to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to improve human rights, stop sabre-rattling over Taiwan, and get out of Tibet.
Clark gives Bush the business
This is the last in a series of interviews with Democratic presidential candidates.
Faculty panel sets the stage for what’s to come
Moderator Roderick MacFarquhar, Anthony Saich, Regina Abrami, and Alastair Iain Johnston participated in the faculty panel on China that preceded yesterday's (Dec. 10) visit of China's Premier Wen Jiabao.
Tellers of tale talk at Nieman narrative conference
More than half of the weekends 23 inches of snow had fallen, and, with the wind launching most of it at me, I climbed over a knee-high drift to free myself from the shin-high swell blanketing the sidewalk. Walking on the street allowed for some speed, and the circumstances demanded speed. It was close to 8 oclock on Saturday night, the seasons first storm was trapping people indoors, and my notebook, filled with two days worth of quotes, notes, and observations, was still at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge where the Nieman Conference on narrative journalism was taking place all weekend - and I wasnt.
Linguist Linda
Linda Wanlin Zhang 06, winner of this years Tazuko Ajiro Monane Award, views Japanese books and artwork inside the Houghton Librarys Yenching Library Exhibition, which celebrates the 75th year of the Harvard-Yenching Library and highlights its special collections. The Tazuko Ajiro Monane Prize is awarded each year to an outstanding student of Japanese who has completed at least two years of Japanese language study at Harvard. This monetary award is sponsored by the Tazuko Ajiro Monane Memorial Fund, and is hosted by the Japanese Language Program in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations.
Seniors steam UNH
A strong outing for Harvards seniors propelled the womens hockey team past New Hampshire, 4-0, on Tuesday night (Dec. 9) at the Bright Hockey Center. Lauren McAuliffe and Angela Ruggiero - two of the teams three seniors - posted a goal and an assist each as the No. 3 Crimson earned its seventh shutout to stay perfect on the season (11-0-0). The victory extends what was already the programs best start ever.
Mental health task force announced
Provost Steven Hyman and Dean of Harvard College Benedict Gross have announced a task force on mental health that will include clinicians, students, and faculty. The purpose of the task force is to develop a plan to increase education about, and decrease stigma around, mental and emotional problems as well as to provide an optimum environment both for detecting and treating these problems early on.
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 a petri dish.
Go to bed! say experts at pajama party panel
They packed Ticknor Lecture Room in Boylston Hall, some wearing pajamas, some snuggling beneath blankets. They drank warm milk and ate cookies. They listened to soothing music.
Community Gifts reaches out a special hand to area hungry
Harvards Community Gifts Campaign is a way for Harvard employees to help the city of Boston meet a critical need for food donations.
First snowful
An aerial view of Eliot Tower as seen from Lowell House. The Yard and its environs look all spiffed up by the regions first snow, a mighty storm that hit the East Coast well in advance of the official beginning of winter.
Start year off right
President Lawrence H. Summers will hold office hours for students in his Massachusetts Hall office on the following dates:
Police reports
Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department for the week ending Dec. 6. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor.
CCSR annual report is available
The 2003 Annual Report of the Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (CCSR), a subcommittee of the President and Fellows, is now available upon request from the Office for the Committees on Shareholder Responsibility. Please call (617) 495-0985 to request copies.
China premier comes to Harvard
Capping his first-ever visit to the United States with a talk at Harvard University yesterday (Dec. 10), Wen Jiabao, premier of the Peoples Republic of China, drew upon Chinas rich cultural past and current atmosphere of openness to predict a bright future of development, economic wealth, and democracy.
New task forces tap Harvard expertise to advance next phase of Allston planning
Faculty task forces with representation from across the University will help shape the next phase of planning for a future campus in Allston. The four task forces are charged with discussing, and ultimately sharpening, the preliminary academic framework outlined in President Lawrence H. Summers October letter to the Harvard community.
One combination of AIDS drugs appears better for starting treatment
Combination drug therapy - also called highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) - made a huge difference in the treatment of HIV infection during the ...
Scientists create lab model of human pancreatic cancer
Currently, nearly all the 30,000 cases of pancreatic cancer diagnosed annually are fatal within a matter of months because they are too advanced to remove ...
Ritalin use in childhood may increase depression
A study, led by McLean Hospital's William Carlezon and Susan Andersen, found that adult rats given Ritalin as juveniles behaved differently than their ...
Researchers shed light on myotonic muscular dystrophy
Research by scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) helps to explain the wide range of signs and symptoms associated with myotonic ...
