Featured series 
Year: 2012
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Arts & Culture
Old Japan, online
“Early Photography of Japan,” a virtual collection of more than 2,000 images from three Harvard University libraries, documents the early history of Japanese commercial photography, and reflects the Western image of traditional Japanese culture before modernization.
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Health
Tracing the brain’s connections
A team of researchers is using a genetically modified version of the rabies virus to create the first comprehensive list of inputs that connect directly to dopamine neurons in two regions of the brain.
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Campus & Community
Faust on forest foray
Harvard President Drew Faust toured scientific sites at the Harvard Forest last week in a visit that marked the first time in decades that a Harvard president visited the 3,500-acre experimental forest site.
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Arts & Culture
Updike’s roots and evolution
Harvard’s Houghton Library offers a glimpse of a coming treasure trove for scholars, the John Updike Archive.
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Health
Mapping microbes in people
New studies involving Harvard School of Public Health researchers have helped to identify and analyze the vast human “microbiome,” the more than 5 million microbial genes in the body.
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Science & Tech
Now, ice won’t stick
A Harvard team of researchers has invented a way to keep any metal surface free of ice and frost. The treated surfaces quickly shed even tiny, incipient condensation droplets or frost, simply through gravity.
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Arts & Culture
Strong showing for musicals with A.R.T. ties
“The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess” and “Once” — two shows with pre-Broadway origins at the American Repertory Theater — had a boffo night at Sunday’s Tony Awards, taking home the prizes for best musical revival and best musical, respectively.
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Campus & Community
Jain receives 2012 Science of Oncology Award
Rakesh Jain received the 2012 Science of Oncology award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, recognizing his three decades of pioneering work in the field of oncology.
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Science & Tech
Using nature to inspire robotics
The annual symposium of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, held at Harvard Medical School, prompted a spirited discussion on robotics and medicine, with nature as a model.
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Campus & Community
HMS publication recognized in national design competition
“Frontiers in Ophthalmology,” a comprehensive report of the Department of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, won a national design competition for its 2012 publication.
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Campus & Community
Peabody Museum’s new director
Professor Jeffrey Quilter will be the next William and Muriel Seabury Howells Director of the Peabody Museum, effective July 1.
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Health
Training leaders for malaria fight
A group of mid-career officials gathered at Harvard Business School for an intensive course focused on educating a generation of leaders for the global campaign to eradicate malaria.
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Health
‘Stealing’ life’s building blocks
Researchers have found that a parasitic flower takes large portions of its genetic code from its host, and that some genes borrowed by the flowers may even be functional. The surprising finding suggests that the process may convey some evolutionary advantage to the flowers.
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Campus & Community
Born to run, and run
Nearly 80 runners gathered at the Malkin Athletic Center for a celebratory jog along the Charles River with authors and fitness authorities Scott Jurek and Christopher McDougall.
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Campus & Community
Applications for Winter Break grants
Harvard University President Drew Faust today announced the opening of the 2013 Winter Break grant cycle for the President’s January Innovation Fund for Faculty. Proposals may be submitted online until Sept. 21.
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Campus & Community
A boost to international learning
Eight faculty led programs designed to give students international experience have received grants from the President’s Innovation Fund for International Experiences.
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Campus & Community
Extraordinary performers
A juggling janitor, an inspirational minister, all-star fundraisers, and a dining hall checker were among 49 University employees feted at Sanders Theatre June 5 as Harvard Heroes, a longstanding tradition at the University that returned this spring after a three-year hiatus.
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Science & Tech
Touch, drag, learn
Research by computer scientists, biologists, and cognitive psychologists at Harvard, Northwestern, Wellesley, and Tufts suggests that collaborative touch-screen games have value beyond play.
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Nation & World
A meeting of ministerial minds
At a moment of global opportunity for improving maternal and child health, the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Kennedy School’s Ministerial Leadership Program for Health launched the inaugural Ministerial Health Leaders’ Forum this week, inviting 16 officials from around the world to campus to share experiences and solutions and to create a network…
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Science & Tech
A Milky Way cooling its jets
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics’ astronomers have detected for the first time jets of gamma rays extending thousands of light years from the Milky Way’s core, confirming expectations based on observations of other galaxies.
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Health
Exercise reduces psoriasis risk
A study by researchers at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital adds to the list of medical problems that exercise eases, showing that vigorous activity reduces a woman’s risk of developing the skin condition psoriasis by 25 to 30 percent over the study subject who exercised the least.
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Science & Tech
Exploring edX 1.0
MIT’s Anant Agarwal, who is the first president of edX, shared early results from the new online education venture’s first pilot course at the second annual Harvard IT Summit.
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Campus & Community
Changes at Gutman Library
The Harvard Graduate School of Education’s (HGSE) Gutman Library has been partially refashioned into a thriving community space with areas dedicated to studying and socializing.
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Science & Tech
Harvard Athletics sports solar panels
On the roof of the Gordon Indoor Track and Tennis building, workers installed rooftop solar panels as part of what has become Harvard’s largest solar energy project. It is part of Harvard’s commitment to sustainability and its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2016 (from a 2006 baseline).
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Science & Tech
President’s Challenge
A business idea born in a Harvard classroom to improve the delivery of vaccines in developing countries has been selected as the grand prize winner of the Harvard University President’s Challenge for social entrepreneurship.
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Campus & Community
Harvard entrepreneurs weave silk with science
Harvard University President’s Challenge for social entrepreneurship has selected Vaxess Technologies, a company founded by Harvard students, to receive its grand prize. Vaxess Technologies will share the $100,000 to advance social ventures with SPOUTS of Water, Revolving Fund Pharmacy, and School Yourself.
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Health
Probing the sparrow’s beastly past
A new study led by Harvard scientists shows that birds are, essentially, living dinosaurs, with skulls that are remarkably similar to those of their juvenile ancestors.
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Science & Tech
Safer cataract surgery at hand
A new, highly innovative, computer-based simulation tool, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (Mass. Eye and Ear) Cataract Master, bridges the learning gap that residents and ophthalmologists new to phaco must navigate prior to performing actual surgery.
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Health
Fish in depth
The renovated fish gallery at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, open as of June 2, includes displays that explain both fish biology and the science being conducted on the topic at Harvard.
