Tag: FAS

  • Science & Tech

    A black hole, revealed

    Researchers at the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) just unveiled the first-ever image of a black hole, which captures what EHT Director Sheperd Doeleman called “a one-way door from our universe.”

    5 minutes
    Harvard Senior Research Fellow Shep Doeleman
  • Arts & Culture

    ‘East Side’ story

    Student-penned musical “The East Side” puts the spotlight on the Harvard Asian Student Arts Project.

    4 minutes
    Performers dancing and singing
  • Science & Tech

    Breaking down ‘Beowulf’

    Using a statistical approach known as stylometry, which analyzes everything from the poem’s meter to the number of times different combinations of letters show up in the text, a team of researchers found new evidence that “Beowulf” is the work of a single author.

    8 minutes
    Madison Krieger.
  • Campus & Community

    Coding for a cause

    Professor Jelani Nelson develops new algorithms to make computer systems work more efficiently, but also takes his educational efforts beyond Harvard’s walls. He founded AddisCoder, a program that teaches students in Ethiopia how to code.

    8 minutes
    Jelani Nelson sitting in front of a laptop
  • Campus & Community

    A new day for Adams House

    “Keep Adams House ‘weird’” was the message students, faculty deans, and staff residents delivered to architects as they planned work on the Harvard dorm, which is set for a “renewal” that will upgrade its amenities and improve its accessibility in three phases starting this summer.

    4 minutes
    Artist's rendering of Adams House Westmorly Pool Theater.
  • Campus & Community

    A distinct honor

    The Dean’s Distinction Awards mark a decade of staff recognition in FAS.

    6 minutes
    A woman holds her toddler.
  • Arts & Culture

    Curating a classic ‘Genji’ exhibit at the Met

    Harvard’s Melissa McCormick takes “The Tale of the Genji,” one of the world’s first novels, from classroom to gallery.

    6 minutes
    Banner advertising Gengi exhibit outside the Met
  • Science & Tech

    The genetics of regeneration

    Led by Assistant Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Mansi Srivastava, a team of researchers is shedding new light on how animals perform whole-body regeneration, and uncovering a number of DNA switches that appear to control genes used in the process.

    7 minutes
    Three-banded panther worms.
  • Science & Tech

    Should landlords have to share what’s been bugging them?

    It might seem crazy for landlords to tell potential tenants about past bedbug infestations, but Alison Hill believes it will pay off in the long run. In a study, Hill found that while landlords would see a modest drop in rental income in the short term, they would make that money back in a handful…

    5 minutes
    A bedbug.
  • Nation & World

    Dealing with disaster

    As part of the class “GeoSciFi Movies: Real vs. Fiction,” students took part in a role-playing game that had them play the parts of the government and citizens of the island of Montserrat, as well as a group of scientists monitoring the island’s volcano.

    4 minutes
    Jania Tumey speaks in the Harvard class “GeoSciFi Movies: Real vs. Fiction.”
  • Science & Tech

    Following conflict, a turn to the divine

    Working with a team of international researchers, Harvard scientists gathered survey data in several locations around the globe and found that, following the trauma of seeing a friend or loved one killed or injured during conflict, many became more religious.

    3 minutes
    Worshippers arrive for Sunday mass at St. Peter's Church in Kamakwie, Sierra Leone.
  • Campus & Community

    New faculty: Bruno Carvalho

    Romance languages and literature scholar of culture and the built environment, Bruno Carvalho is leading an effort to create a secondary field in urban studies.

    9 minutes
    Bruno Carvalho.
  • Arts & Culture

    Glee Club to honor W.E.B. Du Bois

    More than a century after W.E.B. Du Bois was denied entry to the Harvard Glee Club, the chorus celebrates his life and words.

    4 minutes
    The Glee Club rehearses.
  • Science & Tech

    Seeing things in a different light

    Harvard researchers are using a chemical process known as triplet fusion upconversion to transform near-infrared photons into high-energy photons. The high-energy photons could be used in a huge range of applications, including a new type of precisely targeted chemotherapy, in which low-energy infrared lasers that penetrate deep into the body could be used to transform…

    5 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Making sense of how the blind ‘see’ color

    A new Harvard study suggests that although the congenitally blind experience abstract visual phenomena such as rainbows and color differently, they still share with the sighted a common understanding of them.

    5 minutes
    Conceptual illustration of MRI scans.
  • Campus & Community

    Big Fish in a web pond

    John Fish ’21 started his YouTube channel as part of a technology communications class during his senior year of high school in Waterloo, Ontario. Coincidentally, it was up and running…

    4 minutes
    John Fish records video.
  • Arts & Culture

    Writing about what scares you

    Propelled by her viral short story, Harvard alumna Kristen Roupenian publishes her first collection, visits Cambridge.

    6 minutes
    Kristen Roupenian
  • Science & Tech

    Brainy birds

    A new study shows that African grey parrots can perform some cognitive tasks at levels beyond those of 5-year-old humans. The results not only suggest that humans aren’t the only species capable of making complex inferences, but also point to flaws in a widely used test of animal intelligence.

    5 minutes
    Scientist Irene Pepperberg with African grey parrot, Griffin.
  • Science & Tech

    Focusing on the fovea

    Researchers have created the first cellular atlas of the primate retina and discovered that, while the fovea and peripheral retina share most of the same cell types, the cells are in different proportions, and show different gene expression patterns.

    5 minutes
    detail of an eye
  • Campus & Community

    Coed Hasty Pudding makes its debut

    This year marked the first in the group’s 171-year history that women took the stage as part of the Hasty Pudding cast. Six men and six women make up this year’s onstage talent in the original student musical “France France Revolution!”

    4 minutes
    Hasty Pudding Theatricals performs “France France Revolution!”
  • Science & Tech

    The impact of ocean acidification

    In a first-of-its-kind study, findings suggest that continued ocean warming and acidification could impact everything from how fish move to how they eat.

    4 minutes
    Valentina Di Santo
  • Science & Tech

    And now, land may be sinking

    A new study, which used everything from tide gauges to GPS data to paint the most accurate picture ever of sea-level rise along the East Coast of the U.S., is suggesting that in addition to rising seas, communities along the coast may also have to contend with the land sinking.

    4 minutes
    Heavy seas come ashore in Massachusetts.
  • Science & Tech

    Solving colibactin’s code

    In an effort to understand how colibactin, a compound produced by certain strains of E. coli, may be connected to the development of colorectal cancer, Harvard researchers are exploring how the compound damages DNA to produce DNA adducts.

    5 minutes
    Emily Balskus.
  • Campus & Community

    Government Department’s climate survey finds satisfaction varies

    The Harvard Government Department’s Committee on Climate Change, formed last March in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations, has released its climate survey report.

    9 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Rapid evolution, illustrated

    A study in which mice were released into outdoor enclosures to track how light- and dark-colored specimens survived confirms that mice survive better in similarly colored habitats, providing insights into evolution.

    6 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Microbial manufacturing

    Emily Balskus and a team of researchers untangled how soil bacteria are able to manufacture streptozotocin, an antibiotic and anti-cancer compound.

    3 minutes
    Emily Balskus standing in her office
  • Health

    Spending dips on health care for the Medicare elderly

    Health care spending among the Medicare population age 65 and older has slowed dramatically since 2005, and as much as half of that reduction can be attributed to reduced spending on cardiovascular disease, a new Harvard study has found.

    5 minutes
    David Cutler
  • Science & Tech

    Looking at lunglessness

    A recent study shows that a gene that produces surfactant protein c — a key protein for lung function — is expressed in the skin and mouths of lungless salamanders, suggesting it also plays an important role for cutaneous respiration.

    6 minutes
    Desmognathus fuscus. That is one of the lungless salamanders featured in the study
  • Campus & Community

    Tracy K. Smith ’94 to receive Arts Medal

    U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith ’94 will be awarded the 2019 Harvard Arts Medal by Harvard President Larry Bacow in a May 2 ceremony.

    2 minutes
    Tracy K. Smith.