Featured series 
Tag: Faculty of Arts and Sciences
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Health
The motivation to move
Using an unusual decision-making study, Harvard researchers exploring the question of motivation found that rats will perform a task faster or slower depending on the size of the benefit they receive, suggesting they maintain a long-term estimate of whether it’s worthwhile for them to invest the energy.
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Campus & Community
Engaging in a new community
The innovative international scholar Tamar Herzog has been appointed the Monroe Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs in Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She also will become the Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
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Arts & Culture
Writing as discovery
Professor Jill Lepore delivered the third and final presentation in Harvard College Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds’ book talks in the Widener Library rotunda. The series was designed to bring students and faculty together outside of the classroom.
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Science & Tech
Warmth across 600 years
Harvard researchers are adding nuance to our understanding of how modern and historical temperatures compare.
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Science & Tech
Stars align at astronomy reunion
Harvard astronomers past and present gathered in Cambridge Friday (April 5) for the first-ever reunion of the Harvard Astronomy Department.
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Nation & World
Invading Inner Mongolia’s painful past
Harvard graduate student Sakura Christmas is drawn to a tumultuous time in the history of northern China, when invasion, migration, and culture change altered the lives of traditional people forever.
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Science & Tech
Online learning: It’s different
By interspersing online lectures with short tests, student mind-wandering decreased by half, note-taking tripled, and overall retention of the material improved, said Daniel Schacter, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Psychology, and Karl Szpunar, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology.
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Arts & Culture
Humanities in the digital age
A panel of experts discussed the study of humanities in the digital age, and how humanists’ skill set is well-suited for careers in this advancing world of technology. The discussion was part of a series supported by the FAS Office of Career Services.
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Campus & Community
Cultural Entrepreneurship finalists named
Harvard University today announced the selection of 10 teams of finalists in the inaugural Deans’ Cultural Entrepreneurship Challenge.
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Science & Tech
Evolutionary oomph
Scientists may soon be able to turn to one of the most powerful forces in biology — evolution — to help in their quest to develop new synthetic polymers.
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Campus & Community
Calvert Watkins dies at 80
Calvert Watkins, the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Linguistics and the Classics, emeritus, died March 20 at the age of 80.
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Campus & Community
A look inside the lab
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ Division of Science recently relaunched its “Science Research Lecture Series,” aimed at introducing the broader local community to research conducted by Harvard faculty members. The talks will be held once a month in the Science Center, and will be open to the public.
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Health
Major weight loss tied to microbes
In a study conducted by Harvard and MGH researchers, gut microbes of mice underwent drastic changes following gastric bypass surgery, and transfer of the microbes into sterile mice resulted in rapid weight loss.
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Science & Tech
Sharper view of matter
In a breakthrough that could one day yield important clues about the nature of matter itself, a team of Harvard scientists has measured the magnetic charge of single particles of matter and antimatter with unprecedented precision.
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Health
When timing is everything
In a new paper, Christopher Marx, associate professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, says that beneficial mutations may occur more often than first thought, but many never emerge as “winners” because they don’t fall within the narrow set of circumstances required for them to dominate a population.
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Arts & Culture
Poetic greetings
A Woodberry Poetry Room exhibition features the “Phone-a-Poem” archive, a Cambridge-based service that for 25 years allowed callers to dial in and listen to a famous poet recite his or her work as it was played back on an answering machine.
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Health
One gene, many mutations
In a new paper, Harvard researchers show that changes in coat color in mice are the result not of a single mutation, but of many mutations, all in a single gene. The results start to answer one of the fundamental questions about evolution: Does it proceed by huge leaps — single mutations that result in…
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Health
Q&A with Matthew Nock
Professor of Psychology Matthew Nock is the author of a new paper, co-authored with other Harvard faculty, which examines suicidal thoughts and behaviors among adolescents. In a recent conversation with the Gazette, Nock discussed his research, and the resources available at Harvard for students and others in the community.
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Nation & World
Stability amid revolution
Daniel Koss, a doctoral student in Harvard’s Government Department, has spent nearly a year in China, studying how such a large, diverse nation could remain intact through decades of warfare, revolution, and unrest, and emerge to wield growing influence on the global stage.
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Campus & Community
Recognizing outstanding staff
Fifty-seven FAS employees were honored at the fourth annual Dean’s Distinction awards ceremony and reception, held March 6 in the Faculty Room of University Hall.
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Campus & Community
First Santiago Ramón y Cajal Professor is named
Jeff Lichtman, the Jeremy R. Knowles Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, has been appointed as the first Ramón y Cajal Professor of Arts and Sciences.
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Campus & Community
Five win Sloan Research Fellowships
Five Harvard faculty members are among the 126 scholars selected to receive Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
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Campus & Community
A fireside chat with the dean
Harvard College Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds hosted a fireside chat at her home with Professor Henry Louis Gates and about 25 student participants who had been selected through a lottery system. The chat was part of a series of events designed to foster interaction between undergraduates and faculty outside the classroom.
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Nation & World
Busting the budget
With the sequester closing in, the Gazette asked Harvard analysts to weigh in on how the dramatic spending cuts might affect the economy, politics, and the funding of research universities.
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Health
Linking insulin to learning
Work led by Yun Zhang, associate professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, shows how the pathway of insulin and insulinlike peptides plays a critical role in helping to regulate learning and memory.
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Arts & Culture
100 years of Harvard University Press
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Harvard University Press (HUP), and as part of a yearlong celebration Houghton Library is hosting an exhibition of HUP publications, correspondence, and other materials.
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Campus & Community
New leader in teaching, learning
Robert A. Lue has been named the Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, placing him at the forefront of efforts to rethink teaching and learning, both on campus and off.
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Science & Tech
Weather warning
A report co-authored by Professor Michael McElroy and D. James Baker, a former administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, connects global climate change, extreme weather, and national security.
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Health
Go with your gut
Peter Turnbaugh and co-authors Corinne Ferrier Maurice and Henry Joseph Haiser show that as drugs are administered, the activity of human gut microbes can change dramatically. Understanding how those changes affect drug chemistry could help researchers to design drugs that work more effectively and antibiotics that more specifically target pathogens.
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Science & Tech
Robots with lift
Using small explosions produced by a mix of methane and oxygen, researchers at Harvard have designed a soft robot that can leap as much as a foot in the air. That ability to jump could one day prove critical in allowing the robots to avoid obstacles during search and rescue operations.
