Featured series 
Year: 2010
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Nation & World
Protecting justice
Chief Justice Margaret Marshall of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court warned of troubled courts and politicized judiciaries while delivering the Paul Tillich Lecture at the Memorial Church at Harvard.
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Nation & World
Medical School’s Jocelyn Spragg, 70
Jocelyn Spragg, faculty director of diversity programs and special academic resources in the division of medical sciences at Harvard Medical School (HMS), as well as a research scientist, educator, mentor, and tireless promoter of educational opportunities for underrepresented students, died Nov. 2.
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Nation & World
Key support
As director of Harvard’s Advising Programs Office, Adela Penagos oversees advising programs for all undergraduates — from peer advisers and proctors who help freshmen make the adjustment to college life, to concentration advisers who guide students through their chosen areas of study.
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Nation & World
A master at his craft
Author and Harvard graduate Tracy Kidder is the first writer in residence at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. For the fall semester, he is sharing his insights about the art of writing with the Harvard community.
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Nation & World
Honoring great teaching
The Harvard Statistics Department’s inaugural David K. Pickard Memorial Lecture highlights the importance of passion, clarity, and accessibility in undergraduate teaching.
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Nation & World
Giving thanks to each other
Just in time for Thanksgiving, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences is giving staff members an opportunity to show their gratitude to one another at this week’s first-ever Giving Thanks Open House (Nov. 16-18).
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Nation & World
Heavy smoking in pregnancy linked to crime in offspring
Mothers who puff a pack a day or more while pregnant run a 30-percent higher risk of having kids who become criminal offenders, according to a study published Tuesday…
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Nation & World
Baby photos from the ultimate edge – a black hole
Astronomers may have lucked into the ultimate in cosmic baby pictures: a voracious black hole fresh from its violent birth…
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Nation & World
Brain-damage risks higher for younger marijuana users, study says
People who start smoking marijuana before they turn 16 may damage their brains more than people who start later, according to a small study from McLean Hospital…
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Nation & World
Partnerships, training key to global health
Partnerships, training of local medical personnel, and practice in delivering services are all key if the effort to improve global health is to be successful, say speakers at the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health’s inaugural symposium.
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Nation & World
Teeth marks
A sophisticated examination of teeth from 11 Neanderthal and early human fossils suggests that modern humans’ slow development and long childhood are recent and unique to our own species, and may have given early humans an evolutionary advantage over Neanderthals.
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Nation & World
46 faculty enter retirement program
Forty-six faculty members have elected to take advantage of Harvard’s faculty retirement program, with longer phased retirement options the most popular choice.
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Nation & World
Early marijuana use a bigger problem
Researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital have shown that those who start using marijuana at a young age are more impaired on tests of cognitive function than those who start smoking at a later age.
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Nation & World
Harvard Foundation unveils new portrait
A portrait of Chester Middlebrook Pierce ’48, M.D. ’52, was the latest to be unveiled in the Harvard Foundation’s Portraiture Project.
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Nation & World
Winter Break recharge
For many undergraduates, Winter Break (Dec. 22-Jan. 23) will be a welcome opportunity to recharge after the fall semester. At the same time, students looking for something to do between semesters will find plenty of exciting activities offered by Harvard and its alumni, on and off campus.
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Nation & World
Queen of Soul — and body
Author and Radcliffe Fellow Daphne Brooks discussed Aretha Franklin’s role as a feminist icon in a lecture at the Radcliffe Gymnasium.
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Nation & World
Harvard professor INET grant recipient
The Institute for New Economic Thinking has selected James Robinson, David Florence Professor of Government at Harvard, and his research partner Steven Pincus of Yale University, to be awarded a project grant through the institute’s Inaugural Grant Program to research the events leading to the British Industrial Revolution.
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Nation & World
Michael Tinkham, superconductivity pioneer, 82
Michael Tinkham, the Rumford Professor of Physics and Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics Emeritus at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Department of Physics, passed away on Nov. 4.
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Nation & World
Promising therapy for stroke patients
A noninvasive electric stimulation technique administered to both sides of the brain can help stroke patients who have lost motor skills in their hands and arms, according to a new study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
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Nation & World
Faculty Council meeting held Nov. 10
At its sixth meeting of the year on Nov. 10, the Faculty Council heard updates about plans for Jan. 2011, the Rockefeller funds, and study abroad.
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Nation & World
Future of Diplomacy Project names fellows
Harvard Kennedy School’s Future of Diplomacy Project has announced new resident and nonresident fellows for fall 2010.
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Nation & World
Wandering mind not a happy mind
People spend 46.9 percent of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they’re doing, and this mind wandering typically makes them unhappy, according to research by Harvard psychologists Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert.
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Nation & World
Hope for AIDS vaccine?
Progress on several fronts has raised optimism about the possibility of achieving an effective AIDS vaccine in the coming years, a speaker at the Harvard School of Public Health said Tuesday (Nov. 9).
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Nation & World
The rise of chronic disease
Heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic diseases are becoming enormous problems in the developing world and need more attention even as the challenge of fighting infectious diseases like AIDS shows no sign of abating, according to Institute of Medicine President Harvey Fineberg.
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Nation & World
Overjoyed
Taking his audience on a musical journey through time, Harvard music professor Thomas Kelly explored the first performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Harvard Allston Education Portal.
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Nation & World
Suffering, through an Asian lens
Several Asian scholars and historians gathered at the Faculty Club Nov. 5 to discuss the cultures of suffering produced by war and tragedy, as shown in the book “This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War,” by Harvard President Drew Faust.
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Nation & World
Tracking nanoparticles
Using a real-time imaging system, scientists have tracked a group of near-infrared fluorescent nanoparticles from the airspaces of the lungs into the body and out again, providing a description of the characteristics and behavior of the particles that could be used in developing therapeutic agents to treat pulmonary disease.
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Nation & World
Where surgery is lacking
Authorities on global health and surgery gathered Nov. 5 to discuss how to address the lack of trained surgeons and adequate operating rooms in developing nations.
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Nation & World
Radcliffe appoints director of communications
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study has named Alison Franklin director of communications.
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Nation & World
Harvard Shorts Film Festival seeks film submissions
The Harvard Shorts Film Festival is open for submissions until Feb. 4.