Year: 2007

  • Nation & World

    Karen Armstrong will make the ‘Case for God’ in Noble Lectures

    Acclaimed author and religious historian Karen Armstrong will present “The Case for God” during the three-day William Belden Noble Lectures at the Memorial Church Nov. 13-15 at 8 p.m. Armstrong, the author of some 20 books, including the best-selling “A History of God” and “The Battle for God,” is renowned for her ideas about the…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Researcher finds roots of fundamentalism in 16th century Bible translations

    The English Reformation — heyday of religious change — spurred a fundamentalist approach to Bible reading, according to new research by a Harvard professor.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Former trio reunited and it sounds so good

    Peter Gomes wasn’t stingy with his superlatives when he introduced the trio of musicians about to perform at the Memorial Church on the evening of Oct. 30.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Closing the ‘achievement gap’

    The achievement gap in American K-12 schools is well-documented, and is characterized by racial and class differences.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Tools for ‘navigating childhood’

    The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen have enchanted children the world over for more than two centuries with their verbal sorcery and expressive intensity. Now their iconic power has drawn the attention of a Harvard professor, who hopes to broaden our understanding of how those eye-widening fairy tales expand the imaginations of children.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    This month in Harvard history

    Nov. 23, 1876 — Princeton convenes a meeting in Springfield, Mass., that results in the formation of the Intercollegiate Football Association (Princeton, Harvard, and Columbia). Yale decides not to join but does contribute to the development of the IFA’s modified rugby rules.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Islam in the contemporary world: Questions of interpretation

    “Interpreting the Islamic Tradition in the Contemporary World” was the title of the gathering, the first annual Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program Conference.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Police reports

    Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Nov. 5. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Faculty Council

    At its fourth meeting of the year on Nov. 7, the Faculty Council received an update on General Education, considered the role of the Faculty Council as raised by a Nov. 3 Boston Globe article concerning the Harvard University Art Museums, and was joined by Professor J. Lorand Matory for a discussion of the concerns…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Glendon named U.S. ambassador to the Holy See

    President Bush has appointed Harvard Law School (HLS) Professor Mary Ann Glendon as the new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. The president announced his intention to nominate Glendon on Nov. 5.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    David Clarence McClelland

    At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences October 16, 2007, the following Minute was placed upon the records.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    In brief

    The Science Center will screen a 30-minute preview of “The Naturalist,” a film biography of Pellegrino University Professor Emeritus E.O. Wilson, on Dec. 10 at 7:30 p.m. Harvard employees who work at the Holyoke Center are invited to participate in the eighth annual group art exhibit, to be displayed Dec. 7, 2007, through Jan. 2,…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Scholars ask, ‘How does gender affect negotiation?’

    To most of us, negotiation is a way of getting happily to the end of a problem. As in: Who’s going to do the dishes tonight? Let’s talk.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Newsmakers

    Swanee Hunt, founding director of the Women and Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG), accepted the Leadership in Advocacy Award from the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK) at the group’s 14th annual Silk Road Gala Nov. 3 at the Boston Marriott Copley Plaza Hotel. “The Conquest of Nature” by…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Hay memorial set for Nov. 18

    A memorial service for Elizabeth Dexter Hay, embryologist and educator at Harvard Medical School (HMS), will be held Nov. 18 at 2 p.m. in the rotunda of HMS’s New Research Building at 77 Ave. Louis Pasteur.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    HMS field station founder Elizabeth Lindemann dies

    Elizabeth Brainerd Lindemann, a staff member of the Wellesley Human Relations Service, a field station of the Harvard Medical School (HMS) Department of Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), from 1948 until 1965, died July 20 at Kendall at Hanover, a Quaker-sponsored continuing care community in New Hampshire. She was 94 years old.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Korea Institute announces three postdoctoral fellows

    The Korea Institute at Harvard has recently announced its 2007-08 Postdoctoral Fellows in Korean Studies. This year, the institute will welcome Elise Prebin and Isabelle Sancho, international specialists on Korea, and Samuel Perry, the first Korea Institute-Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies Postdoctoral Fellow, a joint appointment shared by the two centers.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    ‘Politics, social movements’ focus of fellows

    James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History Joyce Chaplin, director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, has announced the names of nine resident scholars participating in the center’s 2007-08 workshop, “Politics and Social Movements.” Leading the workshop are Lisa McGirr, professor of history, and Daniel Carpenter, professor of government.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Second class of Lemann Fellows welcomed

    Kenneth Maxwell, director of the Harvard University Brazil Studies Program at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) and visiting professor of history, has announced the arrival of the second class of Lemann Fellows.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    HMNH’s Wild Wednesdays receives sponsorship

    Distrigas of Massachusetts/SUEZ Energy Resources has announced its support as the lead corporate sponsor of Wild Wednesdays, a program for urban youth at the Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH).

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies awards prizes

    The Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and Kodansha Publishers hosted the 13th annual Edwin O. Reischauer/Kodansha Ltd. Commemorative Symposium and the 12th annual awarding of the Noma-Reischauer Prizes in Japanese Studies on Oct. 19. These prizes are given annually by Kodansha Publishers for the best essays written by Harvard University students on Japan-related topics. The…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The cultural politics of pain, from Percodan to Kevorkian

    On a rainy Tuesday afternoon, physicians, historians of science, and members of the general public gathered in the  Gymnasium at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study to hear about pain.…

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Honorary degree to HSPH Dean Barry R. Bloom

    Barry R. Bloom, Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), is being awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The University annually awards one…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Foraging for forest frogs

    In the dark of the Sri Lankan cloud forest, the researchers’ only guides were the headlamps they used to light up the night, illuminating the cold, gray mist that drifted…

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Engineered weathering process might mitigate climate change

    Researchers at Harvard University and Penn State University have invented a technology, inspired by nature, to reduce the accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) caused by human emissions. By electrochemically…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Massive decoding effort reveals fruit fly DNA

    An enormous effort to decode the DNA of one of the most important laboratory animals — the fruit fly — ended in success this week as a collaboration of researchers…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard, Japanese science organization sign memorandum of understanding

    Officials of Harvard and RIKEN, Japan’s equivalent of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Lanoratories have October 29 signed a Memorandum of Understanding to encourage and facilitate collaborations between Harvard…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Study examines substance abuse prevalence among teens receiving routine medical care

    Approximately 15 percent of middle and upper middle class teens receiving routine outpatient medical care in a New England primary care network had positive results on a substance abuse questionnaire,…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Flier hails new, cooperative era in Harvard science

    Harvard Medical School Dean Jeffrey Flier Friday evening issued a call for new approaches to advance the fight against disease, embracing cross-institutional collaborations at Harvard as a way to bring…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Study paints genetic portrait of lung cancer

    An international team of scientists today announced the results of a systematic effort to map the genetic changes underlying lung cancer, the world’s leading cause of cancer deaths. Appearing in…

    6 minutes