Featured series 
Year: 2012
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Nation & World
In support of the generalist
Andrew Delbanco, social critic and recipient of the National Humanities Award, warned in a speech that the shift of American higher education away from its liberal arts traditions undermines democratic society as universities push students into preprofessional pursuits.
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Science & Tech
Technology transforms energy outlook
The U.S. energy picture has changed dramatically in recent years, with a flood of shale gas making natural gas a more attractive fuel option and the opening of new supplies cutting U.S. dependence on Middle Eastern oil, an energy expert says.
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Campus & Community
PBHA auction set for April 24
The 9th Annual SUP Auction, sponsored by the Phillips Brooks House Association, will be held April 24, 5:30-8:30 p.m. in the Cambridge Queen’s Head Pub.
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Campus & Community
Glamour honors Ryu
Harvard College student Annemarie Ryu was honored on April 4 as one of Glamour magazine’s Top 10 College Women.
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Health
2009 flu could have echoed 1918
David Butler-Jones, Canada’s chief public health officer, believes that the relatively mild 2009 global flu outbreak might have been as deadly as the 1918 Spanish flu that killed millions, if not for improved scientific, public health, and medical practices.
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Health
Pesticide tied to bee colony collapse
The likely culprit in sharp worldwide declines in honeybee colonies since 2006 is imidacloprid, one of the most widely used pesticides, according to a new study from the Harvard School of Public Health.
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Campus & Community
Faculty Council meeting held April 4
At the April 4 meeting of the Faculty Council, its members approved changes to the Handbook for Students and an amendment to the faculty’s rule on dismission and expulsion. They also approved two new concentrations in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
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Science & Tech
Black holes feed on stars
New research by astronomers at the University of Utah and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics shows that supermassive black holes can grow big by ripping apart double-star systems and swallowing one of the stars.
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Nation & World
Disaster by the numbers
Reported natural disasters are up dramatically since 1950, with more lives damaged by homelessness and injury, even as modern medical care and improved disaster response have reduced the number of lives lost, an authority on global disaster data says.
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Arts & Culture
The Widener Memorial Room
The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Room houses about 3,300 volumes from the book collection of its namesake, a 1907 Harvard graduate who died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic…
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Arts & Culture
Tremendous Pipes
A C.B. Fisk organ, Opus 139, was unveiled Easter Sunday in Harvard’s Memorial Church.
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Health
Big advance against cystic fibrosis
Harvard stem cell researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have taken a critical step toward discovering in the relatively near future a drug to control cystic fibrosis, a fatal lung disease that claims about 500 lives each year, with 1,000 new cases diagnosed annually.
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Campus & Community
Political science, in his marrow
Using history as a lens to predict future political trends has been the focus of Daniel Ziblatt’s career and informs his work as an educator, researcher, and author.
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Campus & Community
Social media, but not just for fun
Social networks can be time-savers, not just time-wasters. A series of popular courses gives Harvard faculty and staff members Web tools that are useful for professional gain and creative collaboration.
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Science & Tech
Bubble, bubble — without toil or trouble
Among the advances linked to Harvard is one that came in a field not normally associated with the University: the culinary arts. Cooks use a professor’s 1850s invention, baking powder, as a time-saving replacement for yeast.
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Campus & Community
A look inside: Cabot House
Cabot House is putting on a production of “The Wizard of Oz” on April 20-21 and 26-28.
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Arts & Culture
Widener Library rises from Titanic tragedy
The ship disaster a century ago led to the drowning of three men affiliated with Harvard. It also prompted a memorial gift that quickly led to construction of the University’s flagship book repository.
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Arts & Culture
Filling a gap between teachers, troubled children
Child psychiatrist Nancy Rappaport follows up her 2009 memoir that explored her mother’s suicide with a user-friendly guide for teachers dealing with behaviorally challenged students.
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Arts & Culture
Piping up, to good effect
After years of planning, an effort once spearheaded by the late Rev. Peter J. Gomes to install a new organ in the Memorial Church will fill its halls with music.
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Arts & Culture
Street artist eL Seed paints at Harvard
Street artist eL Seed stopped by Harvard to create a “calligraffiti” painting.
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Campus & Community
Making melodic mariachi music
In embracing a new form and playing in Harvard’s Mexican-inspired band, a student relearned the joy of playing the trumpet.
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Campus & Community
At long last, literary success
Peter Brown gave up the vagabond life of a poet for a family and a stable IT career in the Harvard Economics Department. Twenty years later, his dark fiction found unexpected success.
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Arts & Culture
Where art blends with activism
Tunisian artist eL Seed took his spray paints out into the cold last week to create an example of “calligraffiti” in the Science Center’s plaza.
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Campus & Community
In the swim of things
The men’s and women’s teams teach lessons to the community in the spring and fall to help fund their training trips in winter.
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Health
Chasing down a better way to run
From pondering prehistoric man to employing high-tech 3-D imaging, Harvard researchers are leaving no shoe unturned to discover why we run, and how we can do it better.
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Nation & World
Changing the world, in under 9 minutes
The inaugural event “One Harvard: Lectures that Last” featured short talks by a dozen speakers representing Harvard’s graduate and professional Schools. The session was designed to reveal the crosscurrents of innovation that can flow from discipline to discipline, and to expose students to fresh ideas.
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Nation & World
Teaching, NFL style
Panelists in a recent Askwith Forum discussed lessons for educators in the ways NFL teams prepare for games and evaluate talent.
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Science & Tech
The greenest lab, up and running
The renovation of Harvard’s Sherman Fairchild Building may have seemed inconsequential to the casual observer because the exterior barely changed. However, as a result of a two-year project to accommodate the Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Department (SCRB), the interior has been transformed into one of the University’s greenest and most efficient laboratory spaces.
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Nation & World
Wise negotiator
At Harvard to receive the Great Negotiator Award, James A. Baker III offered his insight and political perspective on his time as a senior government official for three U.S. presidents.
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Campus & Community
High honor for Bhabha
Harvard literary scholar Homi K. Bhabha was honored by the Republic of India for his work in education and literature at a ceremony in New Delhi on April 4.
