Featured series 
Year: 2007
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Arts & Culture
It takes 200 (or more) to tango
Barefoot and dressed with thrift-shop elegance in a floor-length, taffeta gown with fingerless gloves and a discus-shaped hat, Marta Elena Savigliano read from her paper “Wallflowers and Femmes Fatales: Dancing Gender and Politics at the Milongas” with a tinkling Argentine accent and an air of fey imperturbability.
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Campus & Community
Cultural Survival to bring world’s wares, tastes to Cambridge
Nonprofit organization Cultural Survival will celebrate 28 years of bringing native art and crafts to the University community with an upcoming holiday bazaar Nov. 24 and 25 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Cambridge College, 1000 Massachusetts Ave. The bazaar, which is being co-sponsored by Harvard, will feature unique products by indigenous artisans from…
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Arts & Culture
Washington Allston, a name to remember
When you graduate from a University that counts dozens of U.S. presidents and Supreme Court justices — and hundreds of distinguished scholars, scientists, and Nobel Prize winners — among its alumni, it is easy, even for the most accomplished and talented, to slip through the cracks into obscurity. One such alumnus whose reputation has fallen…
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Campus & Community
John Harvard Book Project to provide books to local schools
Few names are as universally known as Harvard, yet little is known about John Harvard. What is known is that the donation of his personal library to a fledgling Colonial college helped lay the foundation for the largest academic library in the world. In honor of the 400th anniversary of the University’s original benefactor’s birth…
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Health
DNA reveals Neanderthal redheads
Ancient DNA retrieved from the bones of two Neanderthals suggests that at least some of them had red hair and pale skin, scientists report this week in the journal Science. The international team says that Neanderthals’ pigmentation may even have been as varied as that of modern humans, and that at least 1 percent of…
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Health
Lava provides window on early Earth
Researchers at Harvard and the University of Hawaii believe they’ve resolved a long-standing controversy over the roots of islands — volcanoes in the middle of tectonic plates — showing that the islands’ lava provides a window into the early Earth’s makeup.
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Science & Tech
New laser nanoantenna shows unprecedented detail
In a stunning feat of nanotechnology engineering, researchers from Harvard University have demonstrated a laser with a wide-range of potential applications in chemistry, biology, and medicine. Called a quantum cascade (QC) laser antenna, the device is capable of resolving the chemical composition of samples, such as the interior of a cell, with unprecedented detail.
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Science & Tech
Massive black hole smashes record for sizeMassive black hole smashes record for size
Using two NASA satellites, astronomers have discovered a black hole that obliterates a record announced just two weeks ago. The new black hole, with a mass 24 to 33 times that of our sun, is the heftiest known black hole to orbit another star.
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Arts & Culture
Taxonomist Carl Linnaeus on show at HMNH
Carl Linnaeus believed that the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was not an apple but a banana. He came to this conclusion in 1737, while studying plant specimens at Hartecamp, the estate of George Clifford, a wealthy Dutch banker and director of the Dutch East India Company. Clifford collected exotic plants from around the…
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Science & Tech
If not in atmosphere, where does carbon go?
A prominent atmospheric scientist Monday (Oct. 29) called for more research into natural carbon “sinks,” which today absorb almost half of man-made carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere and which will play a large role in determining the extent of future global warming.
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Campus & Community
Shell makes 5-year gift to fund Harvard energy policy research
Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (KSG) is the recipient of a five-year $3.75 million donation from the Shell Exploration & Production Co., KSG Dean David T. Ellwood recently announced. The funds will be used to enhance and expand University research efforts on critical issues of energy policy.
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Campus & Community
Harvard president announces task force on the arts
Harvard President Drew Faust announced today (Nov. 1) that she is creating a University-wide task force to examine the place of the arts at Harvard. Chaired by Cogan University Professor Stephen Greenblatt, the task force draws its membership from faculty, students, and others across the University who represent many fields and modes of engagement with…
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Science & Tech
White dwarf “sibling rivalry” explodes
The new find, supernova 2006gz, was classified as a Type Ia due to the lack of hydrogen and other characteristics. However, an analysis combining CfA data with measurements from The Ohio State University suggested that SN 2006gz was unusual and deserved a closer look.
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Health
Researchers create colorful “Brainbow” images of the nervous system
By activating multiple fluorescent proteins in neurons, neuroscientists at Harvard University are imaging the brain and nervous system as never before, rendering their cells in a riotous spray of colors dubbed a “Brainbow.”
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Health
Almost two million veterans lack health coverage
One in every eight (12.2 percent) of the 47 million Americans without health insurance is a veteran or member of a veteran’s household, according to a study by Harvard Medical…
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Health
Economic motivation could underlie some ordering of imaging tests
A new study by researchers at Institute for Technology Assessment in Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) Department of Radiology finds that physicians who consistently refer patients to themselves or members of…
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Science & Tech
Survey: Med students ill prepared for ethical issues faced in wartime
A new survey of U.S. medical students shows they receive little training about what they should or should not do in wartime, despite ethical questions over physician involvement in prisoner…
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Science & Tech
Mystery comet explodes into brightness
A once-faint comet has made a sudden leap from obscurity tocenter stage. Comet 17P Holmes, now visible to northern hemisphereresidents, increased its brightness by a factor of one million this…
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Campus & Community
James Harriman Jandl
Dr. James H. Jandl died on July 17, 2006 after a prolonged illness. He spent his entire career at Harvard Medical School where he became one of the world’s premier experimental hematologists. He was also a highly effective teacher and a renowned textbooks author.
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Campus & Community
Memorial Church
The Rev. Professor Peter J. Gomes talks about the Memorial Church, a place for “trouble, sorrow and celebration.”
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Campus & Community
Du Bois Institute announces appointment of 20 fellows for 2007-08
Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, has announced the appointment of 20 new fellows for the 2007-08 academic year.
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Campus & Community
University announces this year’s public-spirited Zuckerman Fellows
A trustee of the University of Notre Dame, a former naval intelligence officer, and a former special assistant to the Iraqi Ministry of Health are among this year’s Zuckerman Fellows.
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Campus & Community
Reynolds Fellows are active social entrepreneurs
A documentary filmmaker, a former vice president for Teach for America, and a cellist for the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as a lawyer, two M.D. candidates, and five M.B.A. candidates, are among the Reynolds Foundation Fellows for 2007–08.
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Campus & Community
Administrative Fellowship Program names 10 fellows
Continuing the legacy of a flagship leadership development fellowship for academic administrators of color, 10 new fellows have been selected for the 2007-08 class of the Administrative Fellowship Program. The seven visiting fellows are talented professionals drawn from business, education, and the professions outside the University, while the three resident fellows are exceptional professionals currently…
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Campus & Community
The Committee for the Provostial Fund awards seven new proposals
The Office of the Dean for the Arts and Humanities has announced that the Committee for the Provostial Fund in the Arts and Humanities has recently awarded funds to the following seven proposals (in alphabetical order by title).
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Campus & Community
Harvard-Yenching Institute names doctoral fellows
Initiated in the 1960s, the Harvard-Yenching Institute’s Doctoral Scholar Program (DSP) now consists of two branches — Harvard-DSP and Non-Harvard DSP. Each year the institute invites Harvard departments of the humanities and social sciences to nominate candidates for the Harvard-DSP scholarship. Although not necessarily faculty members or researchers, these candidates must be from Asia.
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Campus & Community
Kuwait Program Research Fund accepting grant proposals
The Kennedy School of Government (KSG) has recently announced the 13th funding cycle for the Kuwait Program Research Fund. With the support of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, a KSG faculty committee will consider applications for one-year grants (up to $30,000) and larger grants for more extensive proposals to support advanced research…
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Campus & Community
Bearden Foundation honors Henry Louis Gates Jr. , Derek Walcott
This past September, the Romare Bearden Foundation honored Alphonse Fletcher Jr. University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. along with Nobel laureate Derek Walcott for their contributions and commitment to the literary and artistic canon.
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Campus & Community
President’s office hours 2007-08
President Drew Faust will hold office hours for students and staff in her Massachusetts Hall office on the following dates: