Featured series 
Tag: Nicholas Christakis
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Nation & World
Widespread trauma
Members of the Harvard community responded to the Boston Marathon attacks and offered thoughts about both the physical and mental injuries they caused.
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Nation & World
Doctor knots
Harvard researchers have developed a method to determine the effect of social networks among doctors on cost and quality of care across the nation.
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Nation & World
Rules of attraction
Nicholas Christakis, whose research explores how everything from obesity to smoking to happiness spreads among our social networks, is turning his attention to the past, exploring why and how we became the social animals we are.
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Nation & World
Architecture of experience
Harvard’s distinctive House system, a baker’s dozen of smaller communities, nurtures undergrads to find their passions, and themselves.
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Nation & World
Decision, decisions
Two of Harvard’s leading social scientists discussed the way that humans make decisions, and whether having more choices really makes us happier.
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Nation & World
Renewing Harvard-Army ties
In a ceremony March 28 at Hilles Hall, Harvard University resumed a connection with the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) that started in 1916.
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Nation & World
Ideas to improve the everyday
All-star Harvard faculty members at “Harvard Thinks Big” dazzled and provoked their audience in 10-minute talks Thursday that framed major questions about happiness, stem cell growth, runaway obesity, and the exploding American prison population.
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Nation & World
With a little help from our ancient friends
The social networks of the Hadza, a group of hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, show evidence that many elements of social network structure may have been present at an early point in human history.
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Nation & World
Nice guys can finish first
Nice guys can finish first — a new paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has found that complex social networks like those of everyday life encourage members to be friendlier and more cooperative, with the possible payoff coming in an expanded social sphere. The study said selfish behavior can lead…
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Nation & World
Connecting with freshmen
Harvard College freshmen got their first taste Aug. 26 of the world of ideas awaiting them over the next four years in a talk by Professor Nicholas Christakis, who delivered the 2011 Opening Days Lecture, “Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives.”
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Nation & World
Guiding discoveries to the public
Harvard’s Office of Technology Development tries to ensure that the public sees the benefits of Harvard’s research by licensing new technology to companies.
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Nation & World
Competing for a mate can shorten lifespan
“Love stinks!” the J. Geils band told the world in 1980, and while you can certainly argue whether or not this tender and ineffable spirit of affection has a downside,…
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Nation & World
Love life
A new Harvard study shows that ratios between males and females affect human longevity.
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Nation & World
In last semester, ‘Last Lectures’
As a prelude to graduation, seniors organize a “Last Lecture” series to receive advice from favorite professors.
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Nation & World
Posing the Big Questions
In 1900, renowned mathematician David Hilbert laid down a challenge to future generations: 23 handpicked mathematical problems, all difficult, all important, and all unsolved. Since then, countless mathematicians around the world have struggled…
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Nation & World
National Institute on Aging funds two new “Roybal Center” programs at Harvard
Harvard Medical School professor Nicholas Christakis, whose work focuses on social networks, and economics professor David Laibson, who examines how and why people make the decisions they do regarding savings…
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Nation & World
Want to live well?
Harvard faculty members from a range of fields give tips on how to live healthy.
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Nation & World
Nicholas and Erika Christakis new master, co-master of Pforzheimer
Nicholas and Erika Christakis have been appointed as master and co-master of Pforzheimer House.
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Nation & World
The genes in your congeniality:
Can’t help being the life of the party? Maybe you were just born that way. Researchers at Harvard and the University of California, San Diego, have found that our place…
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Nation & World
Having happy friends can make you happy
If you’re happy and you know it, thank your friends — and their friends. And while you’re at it, their friends’ friends. But if you’re sad, hold the blame. Researchers…
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Nation & World
Obesity is contagious
Public health officials have been working hard to account for the dramatic rise in U.S. obesity rates. Many obvious factors, such as poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle, certainly contribute…
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Nation & World
The ‘widow effect’ is real
In findings that highlight how health effects can reverberate through a social network, a researcher at HMS and his colleague report that the serious illness of an elderly spouse increases…
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Nation & World
Study says ‘widower effect’ is real
A spouse’s illness can not only be bad for your health, it can kill you, according to a new study of couples over age 65 that highlights the importance of…