Tag: Faculty of Arts and Sciences

  • Nation & World

    Small media, big payback

    Researchers found that if just three outlets write about a particular major national policy topic, discussion of that topic across social media rises by more than 62 percent.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    In praise of Henry Rosovsky at 90

    Colleagues, friends honor longtime Harvard administrator Henry Rosovsky at 90.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Pain, joy, and wisdom

    Four Harvard professors engage students in a weekly dialogue that looks at wisdom as it relates to how we experience the world, and the strategies we need to have a moral life amid uncertainty. 

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A step forward in DNA base editing     

    Scientists at Harvard University and the Broad Institute have developed a new class of DNA base editor that can repair the type of mutations that account for half of human disease-associated point mutations. These single-letter mutations are associated with disorders ranging from genetic blindness to sickle-cell anemia to metabolic disorders to cystic fibrosis.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    How to defend against your own mind

    Harvard psychology chair Mahzarin Banaji is working with a research fellow to launch a new project called “Outsmarting Human Minds.”

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Welcome renewal at Winthrop

    After more than a year of renovations at Winthrop House, returning students have discovered a residence that combines neo-Georgian character with 21st-century amenities.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Making eight legs look like six

    Using high-speed cameras, Harvard researchers have shown that ant-mimicking jumping spiders don’t walk on six legs in an attempt to appear more ant-like, but instead walk with all eight and take tiny, 100-millisecond pauses to lift their front legs to make them resemble ant antennae.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Voting-roll vulnerability

    Online attackers may be able to purchase enough personal information to alter voter registration information in as many as 35 states and the District of Columbia, a new study says.

    7 minutes
    Professor of Government and Technology in Residence, Department of Government Latanya Sweeney
  • Nation & World

    New insight on height, arthritis

    New findings point to a surprising link between a genetic variant that favors shortness and an increased risk of osteoarthritis.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Probing protein diversity

    A team of researchers has found that the stability plays a key role in the evolution of different protein structures.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Inequality’s influence

    A new study has found that, following momentary exposure to inequality, support for a “millionaire’s tax” dropped by more than 50 percent.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    How the brain handles tools

    A new study shows that, despite having no experience using tools with their hands, the brains of people born without hands represent tools and hands much the same as seen in the brains of people born with hands.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    From drinking straws to robots

    Inspired by arthropod insects and spiders, scientists George Whitesides and Alex Nemiroski have created a type of semi-soft robot capable of walking, using drinking straws, and inflatable tubing. The team was even able to create a robotic water strider capable of pushing itself along the water’s surface.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Inquiring minds rewarded

    Ideas in language, health, and astronomy are winners in this year’s Star Family Challenge, a grant that funds high-risk, high-reward research.

    8 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Figuring out superconductors

    A team of physicists has taken a crucial step toward understanding superconductors by creating a quantum antiferromagnet from an ultracold gas of hundreds of lithium atoms.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Grants back study-abroad initiatives in Italy, Canada

    Plans for immersive student experiences in Canada’s far north and in Italy received grants from the President’s Innovation Fund for International Experiences.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Sanes receives Gruber Neuroscience Prize

    Joshua R. Sanes, the Jeff C. Tarr Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and founding director of the Center for Brain Science, has been named recipient of the 2017 Gruber Neuroscience Prize.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The power of picturing thoughts

    A new Harvard study shows that people create visual images to accompany their inner speech even when they are prompted to use verbal thinking, suggesting that visual thinking is deeply ingrained in the human brain.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    5 awarded Harvard College Professorships

    The five faculty members named Harvard College Professors this month all share a talent for making their respective subjects come alive in the classroom.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The internal marriage tax of women M.B.A.s

    Study says that female M.B.A. students may downplay their career ambitions if they sense doing otherwise will harm their marriage prospects.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    ‘Innovative’ teaching is recognized

    Professors Elena Kramer and Martin Nowak have been named the recipients of the 2016 Fannie Cox Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The machinery of hearing

    New research not only sheds new light on how hearing works, but could help clarify how it deteriorates over time.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    FAS staff acknowledged for their contributions

    The dozens of FAS staff who gathered in University Hall on March 9 were honored as Dean’s Distinction award winners, with 59 recipients receiving a total of 61 awards.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Why sing to baby? If you don’t, you’ll starve

    A new study suggests that infant-directed song evolved as a way for parents to signal to children that their needs were being met, while leaving time for other tasks, like food foraging or caring for other offspring.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Making math more Lego-like

    A trio of Harvard researchers has developed a new 3-D pictorial language for mathematics with potential as a tool across a wide spectrum, from pure math to physics.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A mother’s influence

    Researchers have shown, for the first time, that chimpanzees learn certain grooming behaviors from their mothers. Once learned, chimps continued to perform the behavior long after the deaths of their mothers.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Gut details

    New findings have the potential to help researchers more accurately identify microbiome enzymes and quantify their relative abundance.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    When bias hurts profits

    Based on data collected from a French grocery store chain, a new Harvard study has found that minority workers were far less efficient in a handful of important metrics when working with biased managers.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    To advance sustainability, fight inequality, researcher says

    A new Harvard study argues that technological approaches to sustainability must be accompanied by efforts to reduce inequality.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Catalyzing discovery

    In a trio of studies published earlier this month, researchers have shown that the process of catalysis is more dynamic than previously imagined, and that molecular forces can vastly influence the process.

    5 minutes