Featured series 
Tag: FAS
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Health
Bacterial blockade
Harvard researchers have identified a pair of genes that appear to be responsible for allowing a specific strain of bacteria in the human gut to break down Lanoxin — a widely prescribed cardiac drug — into an inactive compound, as well as a possible way to turn the process off.
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Science & Tech
Perfecting digital imaging
Despite advances, the best software and video cameras cannot seem to get computer-generated images and digital film to look exactly the way our eyes expect them to. Harvard’s Hanspeter Pfister and Todd Zickler are working to narrow the gap between “virtual” and “real” by asking the question: How do we see what we see?
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Health
Clues to cholera resistance
Researchers have long understood that genetics can play a role in susceptibility to cholera, but a team of Harvard scientists is now uncovering evidence of genetic changes that might also help protect some people from contracting the deadly disease.
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Arts & Culture
Roles of a lifetime
To mark the 100th birthday of screen legend Burt Lancaster, the Harvard Film archive launches a retrospective that samples his decades of great movies.
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Campus & Community
From all over
This year, Harvard Summer School’s size and span — 6,000 students; the 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and American Samoa, and more than 100 countries; an age range of 14 to 81 — demonstrate anew the University’s commitment to diversity.
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Health
New plan of attack in cancer fight
Harvard Professor Martin Nowak and Ivana Bozic, a postdoctoral fellow in mathematics, show that, under certain conditions, using two drugs in a “targeted therapy” — a treatment approach designed to interrupt cancer’s ability to grow and spread — could effectively cure nearly all cancers.
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Campus & Community
Planting for peace
Mexican artist Pedro Reyes visited the Arnold Arboretum to plant a hydrangea — using a shovel made from the metal of surrendered firearms — as part of his Palas por Pistolas (Shovels for Guns) program.
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Arts & Culture
Revolutionary discovery
Harvard’s Houghton Library recently uncovered documents from 1767 that foreshadow the American Revolution: eight sheets of signatures — more than 650 in all — protesting Colonial taxation.
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Health
Target: New ways to battle disease
“The Road to Vital Therapy,” part of the Broad’s Institute’s midsummer science lecture series, discussed how researchers are tapping the human genome, hoping to create effective treatments for vexing afflictions.
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Campus & Community
Daniel M. Wegner famous for ‘thought suppression’
Daniel M. Wegner, a pioneering social psychologist who helped to reveal the mysteries of human experience through his work on thought suppression, conscious will, and mind perception, died July 5 at age 65.
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Science & Tech
Efficiency in the forest
Spurred by increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, forests over the past two decades have become dramatically more efficient in how they use water, a Harvard study has found.
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Arts & Culture
Every stitch of Hitch
In a summer retrospective, the Harvard Film Archive is presenting all of Alfred Hitchcock’s feature films and nine of his silent movies. Starting July 11, the series runs through Sept. 28.
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Campus & Community
Pfister named interim dean
Donald Pfister, Asa Gray Professor of Systematic Botany and dean of the Harvard Summer School, has been appointed interim dean of Harvard College. Pfister’s career at Harvard spans nearly 40 years.
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Science & Tech
Designing a cleaner future
A slum on the outskirts of Accra, Ghana, received major media attention when the world realized it’s where computers go to die. That was when Harvard undergraduate Rachel Field ’12 devoted her senior thesis project to addressing the problem. Her solution was an award-winner.
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Campus & Community
A globe-trotter, by design
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences graduate William Marks departs Harvard with a hat trick of achievements: a Fulbright Scholarship, a Gates Cambridge Scholarship at Cambridge University in England, and an offer of admission to Harvard Business School’s 2+2 M.B.A. program.
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Campus & Community
Collaborative museums
Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, the new public face of the FAS science museums, has enjoyed a successful first year with new programs and exhibits and a record number of visitors.
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Arts & Culture
Journalism, cinema-style
A new summer film series on journalism opens with a documentary that asks: Will print, and original news reporting, survive the digital avalanche? “Meet John Doe,” presented by James Geary, Nieman ’12, will be shown July 9.
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Campus & Community
Watching Spanish grow
The Instituto Cervantes Observatory of the Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultures in the United States at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University will be a center for tracking Spanish language growth.
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Science & Tech
Right down the middle, explained
The ability to throw an object with great speed and accuracy is a uniquely human adaptation, one that Harvard researchers say played a key role in our evolution.
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Campus & Community
Coach for the ages
Legendary crew coach Harry Parker, who joined Harvard in 1960 and helmed the Crimson’s heavyweight program starting 50 years ago, died June 25. He was 77 and had mentored generations of Harvard rowers and U.S. Olympians.
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Science & Tech
Map to renewable energy?
Researchers hoping to make the next breakthrough in renewable energy now have plenty of new avenues to explore — Harvard researchers this week released a database of more than 2 million molecules that might be useful in the construction of organic solar cells for the production of renewable energy.
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Campus & Community
Down home
House life is a vibrant experience in which undergraduates learn from and mingle with other students, tutors, House masters — and their families — from sophomore year until graduation. A glimpse inside as seen through the photographers’ lens.
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Health
Following the swarm
Australian scientist Stephen Simpson’s locust research has led to insights on human nutrition.
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Arts & Culture
Sandel in Central Park
During an evening in Central Park, germane readings from Shakespeare’s plays were followed by a forum led by Professor Michael Sandel, whose book “What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limit of Markets” examined the social repercussions of letting so many life choices come with a price tag.
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Campus & Community
Feeling especially secure
Members of the Harvard University Police Department and Securitas were honored for their efforts during the Boston Marathon bombings and their aftermath.
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Science & Tech
Science, front and center
A Harvard/MIT conference brought together young scientists and experts to explore best practices in communicating science to wider audiences.
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Campus & Community
Floating classroom
Putting problem sets, papers, studying, and exams behind them, a small group of Harvard students brought together by Professor Melissa Franklin built their own boat, going from raw materials to finished product in just five days and then launching the vessel on the Charles River.
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Campus & Community
The sudsiest night of the year
The 11th annual Mather Lather brought excitement, and soap, to House life.
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Science & Tech
Looking at chimp’s future, seeing man’s
The fate of chimpanzees in Africa is largely in the hands of increasing numbers of poor, rural dwellers crowding the primates’ forest homes. That is why an educational project begun near Uganda’s Kibale National Forest focuses on 14 schools teaching almost 10,000 children, researchers say.
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Campus & Community
A pragmatic way to teach science
Harvard scientists at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have been helping fifth graders in Boston’s Hennigan Elementary School this spring, bringing technical expertise and life experiences to help students better understand science and engineering, and visualize college careers of their own.
