Last week, an international group of scientists announced their intention to resume research on the potentially deadly H5N1 bird flu virus after a year’s hiatus, even as debate over the safety of the research continued. Researchers from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam and the University of Wisconsin-Madison created new strains of bird flu to…

“I didn’t expect to work on film music at first,” says music graduate student Hannah Lewis, “but I became fascinated by the intersections between music and visual media, especially the transition from silent to synchronized sound film. “The role of music in film changed completely. When there was a live orchestra, organ, or piano accompanying…

Joseph Brain, Cecil K. and Philip Drinker Professor of Environmental Physiology at Harvard School of Public Health, launched the Harvard undergraduate course “The Human Organism” in 1971 and has taught it for all but one year since. He will step down from the course at the end of the 2013 spring semester to devote more…

We are pleased to invite Harvard faculty members and instructors to our second HarvardX Town Hall meeting on course development and research (harvardx.harvard.edu and edx.org). The Town Hall will take place on Wednesday, February 13, from 3 to 5 p.m. at Askwith Hall on the campus of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Askwith Hall…

Six finalists for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting have been announced by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. The winner of the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, which carries a cash award of $25,000, will be announced at an awards ceremony on March 5, 2013 at the…

The Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection at the Arnold Arboretum celebrates its hundredth anniversary in America this year. The plants were originally imported in 1913 by the Honorable Larz Anderson, upon his return from serving as ambassador to Japan. The core of the collection consists of seven large specimens of compact hinoki cypresses Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Chabo-hiba’—now…

There appears to be no clear consensus among U.S. governors regarding the Medicaid expansion as called for in the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—which could deeply affect the future of the U.S. health care system, according to a Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) perspective article appearing in the January 16, 2013 New England Journal of Medicine.…

If you’ve taken a walk by Radcliffe Yard on Brattle Street recently, you’ve probably noticed a large, empty rectangle of white stone dust next to Buckingham House. But it isn’t just a rectangle. It’s a blank slate, and it won’t be empty for long. The Radcliffe Institute launched its first annual Public Art Competition in October, inviting…

Incorporating sustainable practices into Harvard’s most energy and resource intensive spaces may seem like a daunting task, but for the laboratories on Harvard’s Cambridge and Longwood campus, green and labs are synonymous terms. For researchers, students, faculty, and staff at both campuses, sustainable lab practices just got even easier, thanks to the launch of the…

The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study today announces the launch of a new Blackwell Family digitization project supported by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). The $150,000 grant funds a two-year project to digitize five Blackwell…

A majority of Americans put the creation of state-based health insurance exchanges at the top of the priority list for health policy in their state this year, according to a survey released January 24, 2013 by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Harvard School of Public Health. Fifty-five percent of the…

Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP) has announced its spring resident and visiting fellows. Resident fellows lead weekly study groups during an academic semester; visiting fellows join the institute for a shorter period and meet with students and faculty. IOP spring resident fellows include: Charlie Cook, political analyst, editor and publisher, “The Cook Political Report” and…

The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, located at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, is pleased to announce its 2013 spring fellows. “We have an all-star group of fellows from the heights of journalism and politics and the pinnacle of digital technology, and it promises to be a semester that…

Obese and overweight women are gaining weight rapidly in low-and middle-income countries while those who are severely undernourished are not experiencing similar weight gains, according to a study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and University of Toronto researchers. This growing divide may force governments in the developing world to care for people who…

Visiting Lecturer on Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) Michael Almereyda has won the Short Film Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival for his U.S. nonfiction film “Skinningrove.” The film profiles photographer and VES professor Chris Killip as he shares unpublished images chronicling time spent among the fiercely independent residents of a remote English fishing…

Karen Tse, M.Div. ’00, walked into a prison in the African nation of Burundi and found children: an 8-year-old boy tossed into jail for stealing a mobile phone; 12-year-old girls imprisoned for “sex crimes”; a 2-year old girl who had spent most of her short life behind bars with her mother, who was convicted of…

Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) nutrition experts, including Walter Willett, Frederick John Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology and chair of the Department of Nutrition, were quoted widely by the media about two obesity studies published in January 2013. The association between sugar and poor health has been contentious over recent decades, with scientists and…

The complex ecosystem of the American city provides a rich source of both study and inspiration. That fact could not have been clearer than at “The City as Subject,” a Radcliffe on the Road event held in January at the Peninsula Hotel in Chicago. The lunchtime event brought together two social scientists and an artist…

Vilma Hunt, a pioneering researcher who studied radioactivity in cigarette smoke and workplace environmental hazards for women, died on December 29, 2012. A former research associate and visiting scientist at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Hunt was described in the January 3, 2012 Gloucester Times as one of Cape Ann’s “intellectual dynamos” and a “spitfire” who…

In an airplane crisis—an engine failure, a fire—pilots pull out a checklist to help with their decision-making. But in an operating room crisis—massive bleeding, a patient’s heart stops—surgical teams don’t. Given the complexity of judgment and circumstances, standard practice is for teams to use memory alone. In a new study published in the January 17…

A two-minute video written by Raluca Ellis, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), has won the Scientific American “Iron Egghead” video contest. The lively, quirky video explains the role of cortisol, adrenaline, and noradrenaline in the human body. The judges praised it for its humor, attention to detail,…

We spoke with Calestous Juma, professor of the practice of international development and director of the Science, Technology and Globalization Project, about the pressing international development policy issues of the president’s second term. Q: What are the top priorities for a second Obama administration in the area of international development? A: The international development scene underwent seismic changes during…

Quitting smoking is a common New Year’s resolution for Americans each year, but research has repeatedly shown it is not an easy task. Some groups, such as racial/ethnic minorities, have an even harder time quitting. New research suggests hard-hitting graphic tobacco warnings may help smokers of diverse backgrounds who are struggling to quit. A new…

A new study led by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of East Anglia finds that women who eat three or more servings of blueberries and strawberries each week may lower their risk of having a heart attack. The berries contain the dietary flavonoid anthocyanin, which may benefit the heart by…

We spoke with Robert Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government Environment and Natural Resources Program, about energy and environmental policy issues the president will face in the next four years. Q: What are the top priorities for a second Obama administration in energy and environmental policy? A: The Obama administration faces a number of impending challenges…

The nation’s best overall diets for 2013, according to U.S. News & World Report, are the DASH diet, the TLC diet, and the Mayo Clinic diet. The magazine enlisted the help of 22 experts to make their choices, including two from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)—Teresa Fung, adjunct professor of nutrition; and JoAnn Manson, professor in…

We spoke with Robert Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at the School of Public Health and faculty member of HKS, about the Affordable Care Act and its challenges on the president’s radar screen. Q: What health care policy priorities should be atop the president’s agenda in his second term? A: The election is now over…

On Dec. 6-8, 2012, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, together with seven international co-organizers, hosted a symposium at Harvard Law School titled “Internet-Driven Developments: Structural Changes and Tipping Points,” convening representatives from Internet and society research centers spanning 5 continents and 22 countries. At the event, led by the Berkman Center’s Executive Director Urs…

The Securities and Exchange Commission recently indicated in an entry in the Office of Management and Budget’s Unified Agenda that it plans to issue by April 2013 a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on requiring public companies to disclose their spending on politics. The adoption of such a rule was urged in a rulemaking petition (PDF)…

Six students and recent alumni were recently were chosen by the Skadden Foundation to receive two-year fellowships to support their work in public service. This year’s recipients include current students Haben Girma ’13, Hunter Landerholm ’13, Adam Meyers ’13 and Mara Sacks ’13, and recent graduates Robert Hodgson ’12 and Daniel Saver ’12. The fellowships,…