Year: 2014

  • Nation & World

    Sweet feat

    New research by Harvard scientists shows how hummingbirds evolved a novel mechanism of taste.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    More art sees the light

    A new gallery at the Harvard Art Museums will display art from various other University institutions.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    From awareness to action

    Anita Hill says it’s time for the national conversation on sexual harassment to get “beyond awareness to consequences” for gender violence.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Where heat is deadliest

    A new study of heat waves found a strong correlation between excess deaths and poverty, poor housing quality, hypertension, and impervious land cover.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Spread of multiple myeloma halted in mice

    In an advance against cancer metastasis, scientists at the Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have shown that a specially developed compound can impede multiple myeloma in mice from spreading to the bones.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Far-out questions

    Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb talked about the search for intelligent life in a lecture at the Science Center.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The business of being Beyoncé

    A new Harvard Business School case study digs into the mystery and motives behind Beyoncé’s surprise 2013 album release.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Stephen Blyth to lead Harvard Management Company

    Stephen Blyth will become the next president and chief executive officer of Harvard Management Company, Harvard University announced today.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Spreading the knowledge

    Harvard’s copyright “first responders” program has equipped a group of University librarians with the knowledge to help library users navigate the tricky field of copyright law.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard University endowment delivers 15.4% return for fiscal year 2014

    Harvard University announced today that its endowment posted a 15.4 percent return and was valued at $36.4 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2014. The fiscal year 2014 endowment return was 82 basis points in excess of the 14.6 percent return on the benchmark Policy Portfolio.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Leaders or followers?

    Author William Deresiewicz answers questions about his controversial new critique of elite colleges and universities.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Pasta yes, gluten no

    At science and cooking lecture, chef Mark Ladner explained his unusual process for making tasty pasta without gluten.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A run to remember

    The 11th annual Brian J. Honan 5K Run/Walk in Allston-Brighton on Sept. 20 brought together people from both sides of the Charles, including 600 Harvard runners.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Catching the next wave

    PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel talks tech startup strategies and why HBS students should ignore what most of their classmates are doing.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    On climate, ‘do no harm’

    Harvard’s Robert Stavins discusses the importance of flexible rules that allow national carbon markets, if established under a future climate agreement, to link, which would increase efficiency and cut costs of reducing carbon emissions.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A bookbinding bonanza

    A new exhibit at the Houghton Library, “InsideOUT: Contemporary Bindings of Private Press Books,” showcases artistic and innovative approaches to the traditional craft of bookbinding, reminding viewers that books are not just text.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    An introduction to rebuilding the body

    A new course at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences is bringing students up to speed on biomedical engineering, preparing them to contribute to University research, pursue summer internships, or take an idea conceived in the classroom to the next stage of development.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    First named deanship announced

    In recognition of the long, sustained support of Paul B. Edgerley, M.B.A. ’83, and Sandra Matejic Edgerley ’84, M.B.A. ’89, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences deanship will be named in honor of the Edgerley family. This is the first of Harvard’s deanships to be named.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Weapons for battling viruses

    Bangladesh has used stepped-up surveillance, an understanding of transmission routes, and expert advice on cultural and traditional practices to devise interventions against Nipah, an Ebola-like virus with a high mortality rate.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Vertical Harvard

    Harvard University’s early buildings hugged the ground; after two centuries, the campus began to soar.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Pluto’s demotion debated

    In 2006, the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto from its rank as a planet. But after an hourlong debate between planetary science experts on what constitutes a planet, an audience packed into Harvard’s Phillips Auditorium voted to restore it to its place.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Let there be light

    The glass-and-steel roof, the calling card of Pritzker Prize-winning Italian architect Renzo Piano, caps the expanded and renovated Harvard Art Museums and is the building’s defining feature.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Build your own bot

    A new resource provides both experienced and aspiring researchers with the intellectual raw materials needed to design, build, and operate robots made from soft, flexible materials.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Microbursts in learning

    The annual Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching conference forges path between engagement and distance.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    All goes swimmingly

    Using simple hydrodynamics, a team of Harvard researchers was able to show that a handful of principles govern how virtually every animal — from the tiniest fish to birds to the largest whales — propel themselves through the water.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Deadly violence a natural tendency in chimps, study finds

    A new study shows that chimps engage in violent and sometimes even lethal behavior regardless of human effects on local ecology.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    After Ferguson’s fury

    A panel convened by HLS professor Charles Ogletree reflected on the broad social, legal, and political issues raised by the protests in Ferguson, Mo., last month.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Recruiting bacteria for innovation

    A team at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University sees biofilms as a robust new platform for designer nanomaterials that could help clean polluted rivers, manufacture pharmaceutical products, fabricate new textiles, and more.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A mark on modern Europe

    New research from the lab of David Reich challenges the prevailing view among archaeologists that there were no major influxes of new peoples into Europe after the advent of agriculture.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A MacArthur for math professor

    Professor of Mathematics Jacob Lurie, whose work has helped to transform algebraic geometry to derived algebraic geometry and made it applicable to other areas in new ways, has been named a MacArthur fellow.

    3 minutes