Featured series 
Tag: Alvin Powell
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Health
Bleary America needs some shut-eye
Cranky, sleep-deprived America got some advice from experts at a Harvard School of Public Health Forum: Get some rest, and reap the health and productivity benefits shown in numerous scientific studies.
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Health
Clams, snails, and squids, oh my!
A new Museum of Natural History exhibit focuses on the enormous diversity of mollusks, which live everywhere from the deep ocean to fresh water to land.
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Health
Obesity? Diabetes? We’ve been set up
The twin epidemics of obesity and its cousin, diabetes, have been the target of numerous studies at Harvard and its affiliated hospitals and institutions. Harvard researchers have produced a dizzying array of findings on the often related problems.
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Health
Using galaxies as yardsticks
Astronomy Professor Daniel Eisenstein is using a new understanding of spacing between galaxies to build a 3-D map of the cosmos and confirm theories about its structure.
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Science & Tech
On climate issues, look to states
The head of California’s air pollution regulatory board said Feb. 27 that with climate change action stalled in Washington, D.C., the states are taking the lead in creating ways to reduce carbon emissions.
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Nation & World
India to retain economic ties to Iran
Though India shares global concerns about the possible development of nuclear weapons by Iran and is working to reduce its reliance on Iranian oil, India needs to continue fuel imports that are critical to the welfare of millions of people, said India’s ambassador to the United States.
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Health
Willing a way to clean water
Kennedy School Fellow Daniele Lantagne is using her engineering background to expand on a program, partially developed by Professor Michael Kremer, to provide clean water to communities in rural areas. The soluti
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Health
Pain relief for patients in Uganda
A collaboration between anesthesiologists at Massachusetts General Hospital and overworked doctors at an African hospital provides training in a technique that can soothe patients during surgical recoveries.
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Science & Tech
Trouble afloat: Ocean plastics
Plastic pollution in the oceans is a large and growing problem, but one that may be out of the reach of consumers to solve and instead may require cooperation from industry, said Max Liboiron, regional co-director of the Plastic Pollution Coalition.
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Health
The search for life’s stirrings
As science wrestles with the problem of how life arose on Earth, hindsight shows that seemingly intractable obstacles can have simple, even elegant solutions, said Nobel laureate Jack Szostak.
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Health
Making the worms turn
Biophysicist Aravinthan Samuel has developed new techniques to monitor and influence the behavior of roundworms to learn how their basic nervous systems work, a first step to understanding the circuitry in more complex creatures, like humans.
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Science & Tech
As strong as an insect’s shell
Wyss Institute scientists have created a material that mimics the hard outer skin of bugs. The result is low-cost and easily manufactured, and tough. It eventually might provide a more environmentally friendly alternative to plastic.
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Health
Triumphs against smallpox, polio, AIDS
Harvard researchers have been at the forefront of many battles against devastating diseases, leading pivotal breakthroughs against scourges from 1800 to the present.
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Health
Decoding keys to a healthy life
Now 74 years young, the Harvard Study of Adult Development continues to yield a treasure trove of data about how people behave, and change — including predictions of strong indicators to a happy life.
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Campus & Community
No time to waste
Harvard recycles, reuses, or composts more than half its waste, but a recent audit shows that there is room to further reduce the more than 6,300 tons sent to landfills each year, according to Rob Gogan, associate manager of recycling services in Harvard’s University Operations Services.
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Nation & World
North Korea: Country behind a curtain
Many nations are watching the succession of Kim Jong-un to the leadership of North Korea, hoping a smooth transition will lead to economic reforms and opportunities to limit the further development of nuclear weapons, a Harvard panel said.
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Science & Tech
Planets, planets everywhere
The rapid rise in discoveries of planets circling other stars is changing astronomers’ views of the galaxy and the Earth’s place in it, giving impetus to the search for extraterrestrial life, astronomer and Radcliffe Fellow Ray Jayawardhana says.
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Nation & World
India, front and center
Harvard is increasing its engagement in India and surrounding South Asian nations in an effort to better understand a part of the world that is growing in global importance. Harvard President Drew Faust visits India this month.
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Health
Health reform in the crosshairs
With health care costs set to gobble up more of the federal budget, analysts say that additional reforms are inevitable, though national indecision over what they should look like could mean a rocky path ahead.
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Science & Tech
A humanitarian comes home
Harvard Medical School Instructor Stephanie Kayden’s educational life came full circle this semester, when she taught a humanitarian studies course in Emerson Hall, where, as an undergraduate philosophy concentrator she honed her own reasoning skills years ago.
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Science & Tech
Baking in the details
A long-term Semitic Museum project labors to conserve thousands of 3,500-year-old clay tablets that detail everyday life in an ancient city.
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Health
Relief for the weary
Ninety instructors and junior faculty members at Harvard Medical School have received fellowships from the Eleanor and Miles Shore 50th Anniversary Fellowship Program for Scholars in Medicine. The program provides grants for recipients to hire lab help or to gain protected time by easing clinical duties.
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Science & Tech
Of helixes, neurons, and chemicals
Science writer Carl Zimmer talked about the surprising number of science-oriented tattoos gotten by scientists, who wear their love of science proudly, and his related book, “Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed,” during a lecture at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
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Health
The plight of adolescents, worldwide
Children and youths globally are suffering from neglect and abuse, living on the streets, being recruited into militias, and contracting serious ailments. A two-day conference examined the troubles facing the world’s adolescents.
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Nation & World
Germany, again a linchpin
For the third time in a century, Germany stands ready to change the fortunes of Europe — this time, analysts believe, for the better, said a founder of Harvard’s Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies.
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Science & Tech
Scaling a mountain of trash
With half of U.S. trash still going into landfills, discussions are ongoing about how to handle the nation’s waste, with recycling, composting, incineration, and reuse all part of the mix, says Samantha MacBride, who studies such issues.
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Health
Plotting the demise of AIDS
Hundreds of scientists, activists, doctors, and others who have been on the front lines battling the HIV virus, gathered on Harvard’s Longwood campus for a conference reflecting on progress against the ailment, while rededicating themselves to end the epidemic.
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Science & Tech
Optimism on solar energy
Energy Secretary Steven Chu says China has “Henry Ford-ed” the U.S. solar industry, building a global empire on advances made in the U.S.
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Campus & Community
Rosenthal to depart HUHS
David Rosenthal, who has been director of Harvard University Health Services for 23 years and oversaw both physical and electronic modernization, is stepping down at the end of the academic year.
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Science & Tech
A vote for more natural gas
James Hackett, chairman and chief executive officer of the Anadarko Petroleum Corp., described an energy future driven by new, abundant supplies of natural gas. He spoke during a Future of Energy talk sponsored by the Harvard University Center for the Environment.