Featured series 
Tag: Faculty of Arts and Sciences
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Health
Inconsistent? Good
Though variability is often portrayed as a flaw to be overcome, Harvard researchers now say that, in motor function, it is a key feature of the nervous system that helps promote better or more successful ways to perform a particular action.
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Health
Something doesn’t smell right
Harvard scientists say they’re closer to unraveling one of the most basic questions in neuroscience — how the brain encodes likes and dislikes — with the discovery of the first receptors in any species evolved to detect cadaverine and putrescine, two of the chemical byproducts responsible for the distinctive — and to most creatures repulsive…
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Health
Fin to limb
New research brings scientists closer to unraveling one of the longest-standing questions in evolutionary biology — whether limbs, particularly hind limbs, evolved before or after early vertebrates left the oceans for life on land.
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Science & Tech
Rethinking the roots of altruism
In a new study, Harvard researchers find that inclusive fitness — for decades a standard tool in understanding how altruism evolved — often leads to incorrect conclusions.
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Science & Tech
Measuring electrons
In making the most precise measurements ever of the shape of electrons, Harvard and Yale scientists have raised serious doubts about several popular theories of what lies beyond the Higgs boson.
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Health
Your gut’s what you eat, too
A new Harvard study shows that, in as little as a day, diet can alter the population of microbes in the gut – particularly those that tolerate bile – as well as the types of genes expressed by gut bacteria.
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Campus & Community
The gains from diversity
A diverse and inclusive workplace is good for business, said Eddie Pate, vice president of diversity and inclusion at Avanade Inc., in a dialogue session involving the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
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Campus & Community
A map for that
Visual and Environmental Studies students visited the Harvard Map Collection to see the spoils of a scavenger hunt for the longest map, the smallest map, and other cartographic treasures.
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Science & Tech
Muting the Mozart effect
Though it has been embraced by everyone from advocates for arts education to parents hoping to encourage their kids to stick with piano lessons, two new studies conducted by Harvard researchers show no effect of music training on the cognitive abilities of young children.
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Campus & Community
Liu named Marshall Scholar
Brandon Liu has been named one of 36 students nationwide to receive a Marshall Scholarship, which will allow him to study for two years at a university in the United Kingdom.
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Health
Polly want a vocabulary?
Irene Pepperberg, best known for her work with an African grey parrot named Alex — whose intelligence was estimated as equal to that of a 6-year-old child — recently relocated her lab to Harvard, where she continues to explore the origins of intelligence by working with birds.
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Campus & Community
Serving, thanks, and giving
The annual “Giving Thanks” open house was an opportunity for members of the Harvard community to write notes of gratitude to fellow staff members and provide support for community programs.
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Science & Tech
‘Deep pragmatism’ as a moral engine
Professor Joshua Greene talks about his new book, “Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them.” What makes an issue like abortion or Israeli-Palestinian relations seem insurmountable, he said, can be chalked up, in part, to brain wiring.
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Health
Malaria in 3-D
Using an imaging technique known as high-speed holographic microscopy, Laurence Wilson, a fellow at Harvard’s Rowland Institute, worked with colleagues to produce detailed 3-D images of malaria sperm — the cells that reproduce inside infected mosquitoes — that shed new light on how the cells move.
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Campus & Community
New dean for Harvard Summer School
Sandra Naddaff, director of the Freshman Seminar Program and director of studies in literature, will become the dean of the Harvard Summer School, said Huntington D. Lambert, dean of the Division of Continuing Education in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
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Campus & Community
Harvard leads in Fulbright awards
Harvard is the leading producer of Fulbright Scholars for 2013–14, with 44 students — 32 from Harvard College and 12 from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences — receiving the prestigious grants to conduct research or teach abroad. Of the 44, 39 accepted the awards.
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Campus & Community
Fighting prejudice by admitting it
Everyone is prejudiced, said a conference speaker. But there are ways to undermine and manage it.
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Health
Stages of bloom
Harvard researchers have solved the nearly 200-year-old mystery of how Rafflesia, the largest flowering plants in the world, develop.
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Campus & Community
Progress report
Harvard College interim Dean Donald Pfister and President Drew Faust welcomed the families of first-year undergraduates to campus Nov. 1 for the start of Freshman Parents Weekend, the annual two-day program of lectures, tours, and open houses.
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Campus & Community
Carving out a winner
The Class of 2017 got creative for the annual freshman pumpkin-carving contest. Entries were on display at Annenberg Hall just in time for Halloween.
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Campus & Community
The start that comes with aid
Approximately 60 percent of Harvard College students receive need-based scholarship aid, and 20 percent of families pay nothing. To keep Harvard College affordable for students from nearly every financial background, funding for this program is one of six top priorities in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ Capital Campaign.
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Campus & Community
Harvard launches Arts and Sciences campaign
FAS Dean Michael D. Smith formally launched the $2.5 billion Harvard Campaign for Arts and Sciences on Saturday morning at a standing-room only alumni event at Sanders Theatre.
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Campus & Community
Top-notch teachers
Edo Berger, the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences, and Anne Pringle, an associate professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, have been named the recipients of the 2013 Fannie Cox Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching.
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Campus & Community
Nine named 2013 Cabot Fellows
Nine professors in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences have been named Walter Channing Cabot Fellows. The 2013 honorees were awarded for their distinguished publications.
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Health
New insight on wild nights
New research suggests that, despite moonlight’s apparent hunting advantage, large predators such as lions are actually less active on the brightest nights, while many prey animals — despite the risk of being eaten — become more active.
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Campus & Community
Outlining academic integrity
A panel of faculty led a discussion about academic integrity with an audience of undergraduates, staffers, administrators, and other faculty members. This session was the first in a series of community-wide discussions on the topic.
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Science & Tech
The teaching launch
A new study found that middle school teachers can have a real impact not only on students’ short-term educations, but on whether they attend college and on the size of their future paychecks.
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Nation & World
A farewell to arms
Professor Matthew Meselson, a biologist and expert on chemical and biological weapons, talks about the surprise winner of the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.
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Science & Tech
What’s in a face?
Using scans of the brain, Harvard researchers show that patterns of neural activity change when people look at black and white faces, and male and female faces.
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Campus & Community
Cabot Library, re-imagined
The Science Center atrium and Cabot Science Library, already filled with bustling undergraduates, will undergo a transformation to support learning and teaching for the digital age while more effectively connecting the library to the atrium and plaza social spaces.
