Subscribe to the 
The defense of Ebenezer
A Winthrop House tradition retakes the airwaves, as WHRB rebroadcasts professor’s defense of Christmas anti-hero Ebenezer Scrooge.
Shareholder report available Dec. 22
The 2011 Annual Report of the Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (CCSR), a subcommittee of the President and Fellows, will be available upon request on Dec. 22.
A possible aid for navigators
John Huth, the creator of the popular “Primitive Navigation” course, spent most of last summer investigating a mysterious phenomenon called “underwater lightning,” which some say can be used as a navigational tool.
Prayers for the season
The final Morning Prayers of the year at Appleton Chapel involve a message of concern and hope.
Alien worlds, just like home
Harvard astronomers, working as part of NASA’s Kepler mission, have detected the first Earth-sized planets orbiting a distant star, a milestone in the hunt for alien worlds that brings scientists one step closer to their ultimate goal of finding a twin Earth.
An echo of Harvard in New Mexico
The purpose of the trip was to generate interest for Harvard among Native American students, as well as to host a Harvard booth at the National Indian Education Association conference in Albuquerque. For many of the high school students we visited, the Harvard name was simply an abstraction.
Use, abuse of Internet pharmacies
Efforts to halt the growing abuse of prescription drugs must include addressing the availability of these drugs on the Internet and increasing physician awareness of the dangers posed by Internet pharmacies.
Harvard grad and HMS student are Rhodes Scholars
Matthews Mmopi, a recent Harvard graduate from South Africa, and David Obert, a second-year Harvard Medical School (HMS) student, have been selected as 2012 Rhodes Scholars, and will join the University’s four U.S. Rhodes winners at the University of Oxford next fall.
Health reform in the crosshairs
With health care costs set to gobble up more of the federal budget, analysts say that additional reforms are inevitable, though national indecision over what they should look like could mean a rocky path ahead.
In January, a learning smorgasbord
Graduate students and others will be able to take part in January @ GSAS, a series of more than 80 workshops, seminars, and classes on topics that range from how to write fellowship proposals, to using online citation tools when conducting research, to social events such as film screenings and tours of Harvard museums.
A humanitarian comes home
Harvard Medical School Instructor Stephanie Kayden’s educational life came full circle this semester, when she taught a humanitarian studies course in Emerson Hall, where, as an undergraduate philosophy concentrator she honed her own reasoning skills years ago.
Lights, Camera, Reaction
Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) students learn to master the art of a live television interview in the On-Camera Interview Basics workshop, one of many hosted by the HKS Communications Program.
Slowing neurodegeneration in Huntington’s
Harvard researchers have found a treatment that increases brain levels of an important regulatory enzyme may slow the loss of brain cells that characterizes Huntington's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.
When art advanced science
More than a masterful artist, Albrecht Dürer strongly influenced 16th-century science with cartographic and anatomical work that gets little attention from art historians.
Dealing with data
A computer program developed by brothers David and Yakir Reshef, together with Professors Michael Mitzenmacher and Pardis Sabeti, enables researchers to scour massive data sets for meaningful relationships that might otherwise have been missed.
Donald Ingber wins 2011 Holst Medal
Donald Ingber, the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and founding director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, has been awarded the 2011 Holst Medal.
Why some TB cells resist antibiotics
A new study led by Harvard School of Public Health researchers provides a novel explanation as to why some tuberculosis cells are inherently more difficult to treat with antibiotics.
Harvard encourages ‘shop local’
Harvard University is encouraging staff, faculty, and students to “shop local” this holiday season and support locally owned, small businesses near work and in their home communities.
Harvard poll predicts Obama loss
A new national poll of America’s 18- to 29-year-olds by the Institute of Politics (IOP) at the Harvard Kennedy School finds more millennials predict President Barack Obama will lose his bid for re-election (36 percent) than win (30 percent).
Young minds well matched
The work of 100 Allston-Brighton children was on display during the eighth installment of the Harvard Allston Education Portal’s Student Showcase and Open House.
Memorial service for Bernie Wolfman
Harvard Law School will host a memorial Service in honor of Bernie Wolfman on Feb. 3.
Rethinking work, beyond the paycheck
Eighty years ago, the idea that workers were purely rational beings motivated solely by money dominated American business. But a famous study known as the Hawthorne Experiments, led by two men at Harvard Business School, helped to found the human relations movement.
Baking in the details
A long-term Semitic Museum project labors to conserve thousands of 3,500-year-old clay tablets that detail everyday life in an ancient city.
Helping women help themselves
Victoria Budson always wanted to aid the cause of gender equality. As executive director of the Kennedy School’s Women and Public Policy Program, she helps to develop leaders, too.
Dateline: Classroom
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a Nieman Fellow, explains the dangers of his craft, and why he can’t return to Pakistan.
‘E Pluribus Domus’
The Eliot House Grille — affectionately named the “Inferno” for, among other reasons, its basement location — has never been hotter. Thanks to recent enhancements, which include comfy leather couches and chairs, a boss sound system, and improved lighting, the beloved social space is welcoming more students and serving up more fun and snacks.
Relief for the weary
Ninety instructors and junior faculty members at Harvard Medical School have received fellowships from the Eleanor and Miles Shore 50th Anniversary Fellowship Program for Scholars in Medicine. The program provides grants for recipients to hire lab help or to gain protected time by easing clinical duties.
A quarter-century, and still going strong
Annual ceremony honors 142 longtime employees, the keepers of Harvard’s institutional identity. But they’re more than just the guardians of a legacy — sometimes they’re guardian angels, too.
Creating the digital humanities
Jeffrey Schnapp, professor of Romance languages and literatures, is using his academic passions to explore and experiment with the emerging field of digital scholarship.
Using the bully pulpit
In his new memoir, former Harvard Medical School Dean Joseph Martin recalls a small-town childhood, an attraction to medicine, and the ups and downs of leadership.
A look inside: Lowell House
With the holidays nigh, Lowell House residents celebrated with the Yule Dinner, where they observed some pagan traditions such as "bringing greens into homes at midwinter, kindling lights and fires at the darkest time of year, and feasting at table with loved ones," according to House Master Diana Eck.
Powerhouses in the making
With both the men’s and women’s squash teams still undefeated, the teams look to capitalize on their momentum when the season resumes after winter break.
Inspired by their stories
Student who backs women’s causes aims to make a difference in the next election by working in national politics.
Adding art to academics
Modern dance instructor Liz Lerman uses a Harvard semester to cross disciplines, deepen understanding, promote research, and increase knowledge.
Let the admissions begin
Seven hundred and seventy-two students have been admitted to the Harvard College Class of 2016 through the Early Action program, which was reinstated this year after a four-year absence.
Sampling Harvard, in essays
It is sometimes said that youth is wasted on the young. It also could be said that college sometimes is wasted on students, and that only after graduating does a former student come to appreciate learning. For those wishing to revisit the college classroom, or those who never had the opportunity, there is “The Harvard Sampler: Liberal Education for the Twenty-First Century.”
Gen Ed connects the dots of life
Harvard’s Program in General Education aims to tie what students learn at the College to the lives they will lead after graduation. A hit with both students and faculty, Gen Ed has expanded to more than 400 courses in less than three years, and now includes some of the most popular classes on campus.
Students awarded for Japanese studies
Four Harvard students were awarded prizes in Japanese studies by Tazuko Ajiro Monane Memorial Fund and the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies.
Of helixes, neurons, and chemicals
Science writer Carl Zimmer talked about the surprising number of science-oriented tattoos gotten by scientists, who wear their love of science proudly, and his related book, “Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed,” during a lecture at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
Soft-bots
Harvard Professor George Whitesides and his research team have developed an array of “soft” robots based on natural forms, including squids and starfish, that may one day be used to aid disaster recovery efforts by squeezing into the rubble left by an earthquake to locate survivors, or as a way to free up a surgeon’s hands in the operating room.
Slow road to stability for emulsions
By studying the behavior of tiny particles at an interface between oil and water, researchers at Harvard have discovered that stabilized emulsions may take longer to reach equilibrium than previously thought.
A show fit for royalty
“The Snow Queen,” the classic fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, has been reworked in an imaginative stage adaptation at the American Repertory Theater. It will be performed through Dec. 31.
Winter bounty
As winter break approaches, College officials strongly encourage students to spend time away from campus and to reconnect with friends and family. But those hungry for something to do can return on Jan. 13 for Wintersession 2012, 10 days of innovative programming for students interested in exploring a creative passion, developing a new skill, or delving into an extracurricular or career interest.
Creative pursuits
Projects on display at the CS 50 Fair ranged from a tool that limits procrastination, to a website that displays longitudinal market capitalization data, to an application that helps with music composition.
Harvard professors partner in unique approach
The first-of-its-kind strategy is credited for curing at least five of 10 children at a rural Rwandan hospital; two others are in remission while receiving chemotherapy, and three children have died. The long-distance team approach was designed by Harvard Medical School instructor in medicine Sara Stulac, director of pediatrics for Partners In Health.
When plants may not help
Large-scale increases in forest cover in North America and Eurasia — proposed by some analysts as a way to cut climate change — could hurt the environment by shifting rainfall patterns across the globe, Harvard study says.
When to help a patient die
Legal analysts at a Harvard Medical School forum differ over whether a law allowing death with dignity or assisted suicide for terminally ill patients is right for Massachusetts. But they agreed that similar laws in Oregon and Washington have not proven to be a “slippery slope” that endangered vulnerable patients.
The plight of adolescents, worldwide
Children and youths globally are suffering from neglect and abuse, living on the streets, being recruited into militias, and contracting serious ailments. A two-day conference examined the troubles facing the world’s adolescents.
Thinking green, and thinking big
At the first Harvard Thinks Green, six Harvard professors gathered at Sanders Theatre to seek big solutions for complex and potentially intractable problems such as climate change.
Unraveling a brutal custom
A research team at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study is debunking myths surrounding the brutal practice of foot binding young women in China, tying it to handwork and weaving rather than marriage prospects.
