Tag: Alvin Powell

  • Arts & Culture

    At one with Thoreau

    Scot Miller’s photographs from the Maine wilderness, inspired by Thoreau’s “Maine Woods,” are on display at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

  • Health

    A splash with the spleen

    A group of Harvard Medical School students is using the viral success of tongue-in-cheek video on the spleen to promote science education, launching a contest for younger students to make organ-themed music videos.

  • Campus & Community

    ‘Brain candy,’ with beer

    Science met the community Monday night at The Burren pub in Davis Square, Somerville, when Harvard Biology Professor David Haig talked about huddling and the importance of conserving body heat among mammals and birds.

  • Health

    Fighting disease on a global scale

    The idea that the wave of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer breaking over the world is largely the result of wealth and inactivity is not only wrong, it’s counterproductive, says a Harvard research fellow who recently founded a nonprofit organization to fight disease.

  • Science & Tech

    Following the weather

    From the violence of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot to Earth’s own extreme weather, Ziff Environmental Fellow Pedram Hassanzadeh is investigating atmospheric vortices, those swirling air masses that make the weather go — and sometimes make it stop.

  • Health

    Saving tortoises by a hair

    Five species of giant, long-lived Galapagos tortoises are thought to have gone extinct, but recent DNA analysis shows that some may survive on other islands in the archipelago, according to work by Michael Russello, Harvard Hrdy Fellow in Conservation Biology.

  • Science & Tech

    Carbon tax for China?

    A new book by the Harvard China Project examines air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in the world’s largest nation, and uses both science and economics to propose possible solutions.

  • Science & Tech

    Seeing the forest for the trees

    Harvard Forest researchers, together with state officials and representatives of conservation groups, are proposing a Massachusetts forest plan that increases both conservation and logging, while carefully focusing development to conserve as many large tracts as possible.

  • Science & Tech

    That thing attached to your hand? It might be doomed

    With some predicting the demise of the smartphone, Professor Woodward Yang spoke to the Gazette about near and far prospects in personal tech.

  • Science & Tech

    Creative, useful, and fun

    From a “Bad Basketball” fantasy league to software that helps partygoers communicate with DJs, students at Harvard’s introductory computer science course created a wide array of programs on display during the annual fair.

  • Nation & World

    Mandela’s legacy

    Harvard South Africa specialists discuss the legacy of Nelson Mandela and the future of the country he changed.

  • Health

    Other unknowns in health care rollout

    Politics and change are the only sure things ahead in the continued implementation of the Affordable Care Act, according to a panel of experts at the Harvard School of Public Health.

  • Science & Tech

    Airmail, to your door

    Harvard engineering Professor Robert Wood lends his perspective to Amazon’s proposal to start a flying drone delivery service within a few years. His verdict is that FAA regulations and liability concerns will likely be bigger hurdles than the technology.

  • Health

    ‘A once-in-human-history opportunity’

    A new report chaired by Harvard economist and University Professor Lawrence Summers says that eliminating health disparities between rich and poor nations is not only possible by 2035, it’s cost-effective. The study also sets out the steps to achieve it.

  • Health

    New hope for imperiled children

    A new suite of courses designed by the Harvard School of Public Health’s FXB Center for Health and Human Rights aims to bring academic rigor to the field of child protection.

  • Nation & World

    German central banker sees walls in need of mending

    In a Harvard talk the head of Germany’s central bank advocated steps to de-link failing governments and banks from the inflation-fighting monetary policy of central banks.

  • Health

    21 million in slavery

    Experts on forced labor and sexual slavery outlined what remains a large-scale problem.

  • Nation & World

    The day the president died

    Five from Harvard remember where they were when President John F. Kennedy was killed on Nov. 22, 1963, and what effect the shooting had on their lives.

  • Science & Tech

    Technically, you are what you wear

    The Google Glass and Warrior Web projects highlight the annual Radcliffe Science Symposium, which focused on the integration of technology with “smart clothes.”

  • Health

    Underprepared for the next pandemic

    A lack of “surge” capacity plagues pandemic flu preparations around the world, as public health officials, scientists, and pharmaceutical industry scientists work to streamline vaccine production as well as improve surveillance, communication, and other public health practices before the next new ailment hits.

  • Health

    Genes without patents

    The ACLU’s lead attorney and other participants in the Supreme Court case that overturned the common practice of patenting human genes discussed the ramifications in an event at the Science Center.

  • Campus & Community

    Architect, donors named for new campus center

    Years of discussion about the need for a Harvard campus center came closer to fruition Nov. 14, when Harvard President Drew Faust announced that a donor had been found and an architect selected for an expansive facility to transform Holyoke Center. The center, expected to open in 2018, will be named for its major donors,…

  • Health

    Three days, three wild finds

    Tim Laman, an associate of Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology and an award-winning wildlife photographer, was part of a two-man team that helicoptered into a remote Australian rainforest earlier this year, coming out with three new species: two lizards and a frog.

  • Health

    Online, on site, in the field

    Harvard School of Public Health Dean Julio Frenk outlined a new vision for public health education Friday (Nov. 1), outlining courses that blend online, in-person, and in-the-field experiences and that take different forms throughout a professional’s life.

  • Health

    When depression and anxiety loom

    Two new books from Harvard Health Publications are aimed at people who have more than normal levels of anxiety and depression but fall short of clinical definitions.

  • Health

    Comparing charts on health

    U.S. and Chinese health officials gathered at Harvard’s Longwood Campus to discuss health care challenges facing both nations, including the rise of noncommunicable diseases and reforming health care systems.

  • Science & Tech

    Geoengineering: Opportunity or folly?

    Scholars on opposite sides of geoengineering debated the climate change strategy’s potential — pitfalls and benefits — this week at the Science Center.

  • Science & Tech

    As complex as a toy

    Radcliffe Fellow Tadashi Tokieda is creating and using simple toys whose sometimes surprising behavior both illustrates scientific concepts and causes even experienced scientists to scratch their heads trying to figure out what’s happening.

  • Campus & Community

    Collaboration key in health gains, Clinton says

    Former President Bill Clinton, at the Harvard School of Public Health to accept a Centennial Medal, hailed the networks active through the global health community as critical to gains made in recent decades.

  • Science & Tech

    In Ireland’s recent history, a model for clean growth

    Clean economic growth is not just a pipe dream — it happened in Ireland between 1990 and 2010, when emissions dropped 10 percent even as the country’s economy grew 265 percent, the leader of that country’s Green Party said in a Harvard talk.