Year: 2008

  • Health

    South African AIDS policy tied to 330,000 lives lost

    More than 330,000 lives were lost to HIV/AIDS in South Africa from 2000 and 2005 because a feasible and timely antiretroviral (ARV) treatment program was not implemented, assert researchers from…

  • Campus & Community

    Twice as nice

    It took a fourth-quarter, goal-line stand in the last few minutes against Yale in the 125th playing of The Game on Saturday (Nov. 22), but the Crimson eventually got what they wanted: the ball, the win, and a share of the Ivy League Championship with Brown.

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard President Drew Faust, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Allston families celebrate the Harvard Allston Education Portal

    On Friday, November 21, Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Harvard President Drew G. Faust joined nearly 150 Allston-Brighton parents and their children, as well as Harvard undergraduate student mentors, faculty and staff for a celebration of the Harvard Allston Education Portal.

  • Campus & Community

    This month in Harvard history

    Nov. 14, 1953 — Before several hundred onlookers, the Harvard Engineering Society unveils a plaque on the south tower of Harvard Stadium to mark the structure’s 50th anniversary. Unveiling honors fall to Mrs. George B. de Gersdorff, “whose husband, a member of the Class of 1888, prepared the architectural designs for the Stadium.” (Quoted from…

  • Science & Tech

    Looking at the universe, one particle at a time

    Masahiro Morii is a tinkerer at heart, looking under the hood of the universe in hopes of finding unseen particles that explain how it all works.

  • Arts & Culture

    Achebe celebrates African literature with poetry

    Chinua Achebe, the esteemed Nigerian novelist and poet, delivered this year’s Distinguished African Studies Lecture at the Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS). Greeting the standing-room-only crowd in Tsai Auditorium earlier this week (Nov. 17), Achebe surprised the group by announcing that he had an unusual program in mind.

  • Arts & Culture

    ‘Godot’ in the bayou: Artist Chan speaks at Carpenter Center

    Paul Chan is soft-spoken, but his words are heavy. Carefully chosen, they offer an insight into his reflective process and the weighty implications of his work.

  • Arts & Culture

    Marla Frederick talks about faith, God, and money

    Not long ago, Harvard cultural anthropologist Marla Frederick sat on a wooden bench in a slum of Kingston, Jamaica. She was interviewing local churchgoers about the Christian “prosperity gospel” often promoted by American televangelists. It offers up a simple (and controversial) idea: The more you give, the more you receive.

  • Campus & Community

    Chaya Czernowin appointed professor of music at Harvard

    Chaya Czernowin, a composer who has received wide acclaim for her sophisticated, emotional operas, has been appointed professor of music in Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), effective July 1, 2009.

  • Arts & Culture

    Poetry, music, death take the stage at New College Theatre

    John Adams ’69, A.M. ’72 returned to Harvard on Nov. 17, where he attended a performance of his piece by Harvard’s Bach Society Orchestra (a group he led in the 1960s) at the New College Theatre.

  • Campus & Community

    This month in Harvard history

    Nov. 14, 1953 — Before several hundred onlookers, the Harvard Engineering Society unveils a plaque on the south tower of Harvard Stadium to mark the structure’s 50th anniversary. Unveiling honors fall to Mrs. George B. de Gersdorff, “whose husband, a member of the Class of 1888, prepared the architectural designs for the Stadium.” (Quoted from…

  • Campus & Community

    Police reports

    Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Nov. 17. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu.

  • Campus & Community

    In brief

    Money Mondays offer help; Harvard Real Estate Services plans home-buying seminar; Fontainebleau Schools info session in Adams House; Global health workshop, Dec. 3; Holiday gifts for those in need; A musical invitation

  • Campus & Community

    Newsmakers

    Carbonari named chair, Fulton named vice chair of Harvard’s JCHS Policy Advisory Board; HSPH presents Q Prize to maestro

  • Campus & Community

    HUHS to offer flu vaccination clinics through November

    Harvard University Health Services (HUHS) will conduct free vaccination clinics throughout November. The clinics will be open to the entire Harvard University community every Monday and Tuesday (noon-3 p.m.) at HUHS on the second floor of the Holyoke Center (Monks Library).

  • Campus & Community

    Wilga Marie Rivers

    At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on October 21, 2008, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Wilga Marie Rivers, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Rivers was an international authority on language learning and teaching.

  • Campus & Community

    Sports in brief

    Crimson win despite surrendering an early lead at Penn; Crushing NCAA first-round loss completes memorable season; Men’s soccer drops final contest in OT, still receives NCAA berth; Icers rebound, skate into first place; Crimson swept in weekend series despite the return of Stone and Vaillancourt

  • Arts & Culture

    Appreciating Billie Jean King’s contribution to second-wave feminism

    In a stately room in the Barker Center, flanked by portraits of famous men, Billie Jean King holds court. Not physically. She’s the topic of discussion, the name on everyone’s lips. One would think this were the after party of her notorious 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match with Bobby Riggs, the match she…

  • Campus & Community

    Field trip

    For well over a century, Harvard and Yale have gone head-to-head at the end of November for the epic football match known simply as “The Game.” The contest is steeped in history and tradition, not just for the undergraduates who take to the field but also for the thousands of students and alumni who descend…

  • Nation & World

    N.E. HUD chief offers suggestions

    The chief federal housing official in New England told a Harvard University audience that his department is poised to help foreclosure-imperiled homeowners navigate the nation’s economic crisis, but he called on President-elect Barack Obama to empower that effort by expanding the nation’s commitment to fair and affordable housing.

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard College Library is going green

    The changes may not be immediately evident, but little by little, Harvard College Library (HCL) has been “going green” for years, even before the University’s newest commitment to sustainable practices.

  • Campus & Community

    ‘Ed Portal’ builds bridge of learning for area children

    When she grows up, 7-year-old Carley Daly wants to be “an animal doctor” who takes care of dolphins. As she explained her coming profession: “They’re partly scientists.”

  • Campus & Community

    Community Gifts finds food at the top of wish list this holiday season

    That’s the magic number for The Greater Boston Food Bank’s (GBFB) annual Turkey Drive, where just $15 provides a meaty turkey to families across eastern Massachusetts for the holiday. Yet with winter swiftly approaching, Thanksgiving is just the threshold for the need the GBFB anticipates this season.

  • Health

    Genetic screening no better than traditional risk factors for predicting type 2 diabetes

    Screening for a panel of gene variants associated with the risk for type 2 diabetes can identify adults at risk for the disorder but is not significantly better than assessment based on traditional risk factors such as weight, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels.

  • Health

    Anesthetic causes changes in mouse brains

    For the first time researchers have shown that a commonly used anesthetic can produce changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease in the brains of living mammals, confirming previous laboratory studies. In their Annals of Neurology report, which has received early online release, a team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators shows how administration of the gas…

  • Science & Tech

    Humanity may hold key for next Earth evolution

    Human degradation of the environment has the potential to stall an ongoing process of planetary evolution, and even rewind the evolutionary clock to leave the planet habitable only by the bacteria that dominated billions of years of Earth’s history, Harvard geochemist Charles Langmuir said Thursday (Nov. 13).

  • Science & Tech

    Quantum computers could excel in modeling chemical reactions

    Quantum computers would likely outperform conventional computers in simulating chemical reactions involving more than four atoms, according to scientists at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Haverford College. Such improved ability to model and predict complex chemical reactions could revolutionize drug design and materials science, among other fields.

  • Health

    For innovative undergrads, bacteria make some buzz

    A team of undergraduates who engineered a bacterial biosensor with electrical output recently made some buzz at the 2008 international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

  • Health

    A single gene leads yeast cells to cooperate against threats

    An ingenious social behavior that mobilizes yeast cells to cooperate in protecting each other from stress, antibiotics, and other dangers is driven by the activity of a single gene, scientists report this week in the journal Cell. The cooperating cells use the same gene, dubbed FLO1, as a marker for detecting “cheaters,” cells that try…

  • Science & Tech

    Moral dimensions of ‘the scientific life’

    Scientific knowledge is reliable and it is authoritative. It is also often understood to be impersonal: The personal characteristics of a researcher are not thought to influence his or her findings. In recent work, historian Steven Shapin assumes the reliability and authority of scientific knowledge but illustrates how scientists’ personal characteristics and traits figure prominently…