Tag: Research

  • Science & Tech

    Icebreaker

    Every month, Sarah Stewart-Mukhopadhyay fires her 20-foot gun in the basement of Harvard’s Hoffman Lab, sending shivers through the concrete and steel structure that can be picked up by seismometers upstairs.

    4–6 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    ‘Aura’ migraines a stroke risk

    Young women who have migraines with auras are twice as likely to have a stroke, researchers have confirmed. The investigators from the US, France and Germany did not find any link between migraines and heart attacks or death due to cardiovascular disease but there was a 30% increase in the risk of angina (heart pain).

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Study says 1 in 5 children lack vitamin D

    At least 1 in 5 US children ages 1 to 11 don’t get enough vitamin D and could be at risk for a variety of health problems including weak bones, the most recent national analysis suggests. By a looser measure, almost 90 percent of black children that age and 80 percent of Hispanic children could…

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Few turning to civilians’ police board

    The report was conducted by a team of researchers led by Christopher E. Stone, a professor of criminal justice at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Stone said the review board and the police department’s internal affairs system are suffering for a variety of reasons, some of them quite simple: They are not keeping…

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Faust takes the long view

    President Drew Faust addresses the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, discusses tough economic times, recommitment to expansion, and ties with Allston neighborhood.

    2–3 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Funds available for faculty conducting research on Kuwait and the Gulf

    The Harvard Kennedy School is now accepting applications for the fall 2009 funding cycle for the Kuwait Program Research Fund.

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Phys Ed: Is Running Barefoot Better for You?

    Daniel Lieberman, PhD, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, studies and periodically practices barefoot running. His academic work focuses in part on how early man survived by evolving the ability to lope for long distances after prey, well before the advent of Nike shoes. There “is good evidence that humans have been…

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Results of AIDS vaccine trial ‘weak’ in second analysis

    In an editorial accompanying the journal paper, Dr. Raphael Dolin of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston said the overall findings were nonetheless “of potentially great importance to the field of HIV research” because they might yield information about the kinds of immune responses necessary to provide protection against the virus….

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Alcohol hinders having a baby through IVF, couples warned

    Doctors at Harvard Medical School, in Boston, asked 2,574 couples about their drinking habits shortly before they embarked on a course of IVF treatment.

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    A Cancer Visible To The Naked Eye, But Doctors Aren’t Looking

    “We were very, very surprised,” Geller recalls. “About three-quarters of them were never trained in the skin cancer exam, and more than half never once practiced the examination during their primary care residency.” Geller, who’s a senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, says those high levels of inexperience are really worrisome.…

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    In Milliseconds, Brain Zips From Thought To Speech

    An unusual experiment is offering some tantalizing clues about what goes on in the brain before we speak. The study found that it takes about half a second to transform something we think into something we say. And three very different kinds of processing needed for speech are all happening in a small part of…

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Harvard team grows heart muscle

    Harvard researchers have created a strip of pulsing heart muscle from mouse embryonic stem cells, a step toward the eventual goal of growing replacement parts for hearts damaged by cardiovascular disease.

    1–2 minutes
  • Health

    From stem cells to heart muscle

    A team of Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and collaborators at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has taken a giant step toward possibly using human stem cells to repair damaged hearts.

    4–6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Stimulus funds provide research boost

    The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has helped stimulate research across the University, laying the foundation for future economic growth through innovation.

    8–13 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Around the Schools: Faculty of Arts and Sciences

    As part of an effort to develop creative solutions to Harvard’s projected long-term budget deficit, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and Harvard College recently launched an online Idea Bank where community members can submit recommendations for reducing costs and generating revenues.

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    HSPH professor Stephen Lagakos dies at 63

    Stephen Lagakos, an international leader in biostatistics and AIDS research and professor of biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), died in an auto collision on Monday, October 12, 2009 in Peterborough, N.H. He was 63 years old.

    1–2 minutes
  • Health

    What makes a successful society?

    New research argues that the health of the population and the success or failure of many public health initiatives hinge as much on cultural and social factors as they do on doctors, facilities, or drugs.

    3–4 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Rubin elected a corresponding fellow by British Academy

    Donald B. Rubin was elected a corresponding fellow for distinction in research at the Annual General Meeting of the British Academy on July 16.

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Harvard Forest announces Charles Bullard Fellows in Forest Research for 2009-10

    Harvard Forest recently announced the 2009-10 Charles Bullard Fellows in Forest Research. The fellowship program was established in 1962 to support the advanced research of individuals who show promise in making important contributions to forestry.

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics invites applications for 2010-11 fellowships

    The Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics is now accepting applications for 2010-11.

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Around the Schools: Harvard Business School

    The Business School has named Nobuo Sato (MBA ‘82) executive director for its Japan Research Center in Tokyo.

    1–2 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Stem cells: Mending a broken heart?

    Dr. Kenneth Chien speaks about a cardiac stem cell discovery that may be the first step on the path to regenerating healthy heart muscle.

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Study Finds Pro and Cons to Prostate Surgeries

    People intuitively think that a minimally invasive approach has fewer complications, even in the absence of data,” said Dr. Jim C. Hu, the study’s lead author, who is director of urologic robotic and minimally invasive surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Stephen Lagakos, talented biostatistician with a common touch

    “His seminal contributions to the field of AIDS research helped provide crucial statistical foundations upon which we could better combat this terrible disease,’’ Julio Frenk, dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, said in a statement issued yesterday.

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Tweens convene for learning, support on body image

    In a study about weight and body satisfaction, researchers measured the height and weight of 4,254 schoolchildren from Nova Scotia and asked them how much they agreed with the statement “I like the way I look.”

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Body’s Own Antioxidant May Slow Parkinson’s Decline, Study Says

    Today’s study “suggests a new approach in slowing down the rate of the disease,” said Schwarzschild, an associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, in an Oct. 9 telephone interview. “People live with Parkinson’s disease for decades. We want to make those decades much more manageable and keep people much more mobile….”

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    U.S. study shows mammograms save lives

    “The most effective method for women to avoid death from breast cancer is to have regular mammographic screening,” Dr. Blake Cady of Cambridge Hospital Breast Center and Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts told reporters in a telephone briefing…

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Understanding the Anxious Mind

    Jerome Kagan’s “Aha!” moment came with Baby 19. It was 1989, and Kagan, a professor of psychology at Harvard, had just begun a major longitudinal study of temperament and its effects. Temperament is a complex, multilayered thing, and for the sake of clarity, Kagan was tracking it along a single dimension: whether babies were easily…

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Autism’s genetic roots examined in new government-funded study

    Researchers at Harvard University and Children’s Hospital Boston will sequence the genomes of at least 85 people diagnosed with autism in a bid to tease out the genetic basis for some cases of the neuropsychiatric disorder.

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Earth’s ‘Boring Billion’ Years Blamed on Sulfur-Loving Microbes

    “If we really want to understand what’s happed in the history of Earth, we really have to understand this cross talk between the physical and biological processes,” says study coauthor Andrew Knoll of Harvard University.

    1–2 minutes