Featured series 
Tag: Research
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Health
Young smokers recruited with menthol, study finds
Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) explored tobacco industry manipulation of menthol levels in specific brands and found a deliberate strategy to recruit and addict young smokers by adjusting menthol to create a milder experience for the firsttime smoker.
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Health
Genetic mechanisms linked to Parkinson’s disease uncovered
A new genetic finding from a group of researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH), and the University of Ottawa may help pave the way for the discovery of therapies that could effectively treat Parkinson’s disease (PD).
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Science & Tech
A new era in search for ‘sister Earths’?
Research presented at a recent astronomical conference is being hailed as ushering in a new era in the search for Earth-like planets by showing that they are more numerous than previously thought and that scientists can now analyze their atmospheres for elements that might be conducive to life.
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Campus & Community
Banda and Beauchamp awarded prestigious Trudeau Scholarships
The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation recently awarded $150,000 prizes to Harvard doctoral students Maria Banda and Jonathan Beauchamp.
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Health
Research in brief
BLACKS, HISPANICS LESS LIKELY TO GET FOLLOW-UP RADIATION THERAPY, BLACKS MORE LIKELY TO CHOOSE AGGRESSIVE CARE AT END OF LIFE
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Health
Aquatic genome captures foreign DNA
Long viewed as straitlaced spinsters, sexless freshwater invertebrate animals known as bdelloid rotifers may actually be far more promiscuous than anyone had imagined: Scientists at Harvard University have found that the genomes of these common creatures are chock-full of DNA from plants, fungi, bacteria, and animals.
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Science & Tech
Indigenous culture clarifies nature and limits of how humans measure
The ability to map numbers onto a line, a foundation of all mathematics, is universal, says a study published in the journal Science, but the form of this universal mapping is not linear but logarithmic.
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Health
Protective mechanism fails when obesity sets in
Reporting in the journal Cell Metabolism, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) said they have shown for the first time that fat-storing cells, or adipocytes, contain a protective anti-inflammatory immune mechanism that prevents the cells from overreacting to inflammation-causing stimuli, such as fatty acids in the diet.
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Science & Tech
Small suds make a big splash at SEAS
The latest engineering feat to emerge from the laboratories at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has been largely accomplished with the aid of kitchen mixers. Researchers have whipped up, for the first time, permanent nanoscale bubbles — bubbles that endure for more than a year — from batches of foam made from a…
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Health
New report finds low vitamin D levels appear common in ‘healthy’ children
Many infants and toddlers may have low levels of vitamin D, and about one-third of those appear to have some evidence of reduced bone mineral content on X-rays, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
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Health
Video game technology may help surgeons
In a study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) featured on the cover of this month’s Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, cardiac surgeons from Children’s Hospital Boston report good results with a simple technology borrowed from the gaming industry: stereo glasses.
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Campus & Community
Hoopes Prize winners number more than 80
More than 80 Harvard College seniors have been named Thomas T. Hoopes Prize winners for outstanding scholarly work or research. The prize is funded by the estate of Thomas T. Hoopes ’19. The recipients, including their research and advisers, are as follows:
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Health
NIH awards HMS $117.5M, five-year grant for patient-centered research
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced that Harvard Medical School (HMS) will receive $117.5 million over the next five years for the establishment of a Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) that will transform patient-oriented, laboratory-to-bedside research at HMS and its affiliated hospitals.
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Campus & Community
CES announces student grant recipients
Continuing its tradition of promoting and funding student research on Europe, the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) has announced its selection of nearly 50 undergraduates for thesis research grants and internships in Europe this summer.
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Campus & Community
Herchel Smith Research Fellows to begin this summer
The Herchel Smith Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship provides financial support to Harvard undergraduates engaged in scientific research at established research centers and laboratories in the United States or abroad.
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Campus & Community
Committee on African Studies awards grants
The Harvard Committee on African Studies has awarded nine research grants to Harvard students for travel to sub-Saharan Africa during the summer of 2008.
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Campus & Community
Newsmakers
DEPT.OF SLAVIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES AWARDS PRIZES HUMBOLDT FOUNDATION ELECTS VISITING PROFESSOR KOBAYASHI GILDER LEHRMAN SCHOLAR NAMED ACKERMAN PRESENTS ADDRESS AT ITALIAN CONFERENCE CHA’S KEEFE RECEIVES LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD GOMES TO FETE ORDINATION ANNIVERSARY
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Campus & Community
Weatherhead awards doctoral candidates with research grants
The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs has selected 11 Harvard doctoral candidates to receive pre- and mid-dissertation grants to conduct research on a project related to the core research interests of the center. In addition and for the first time in 2008, the center is awarding four foreign language grants to doctoral students to assist…
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Campus & Community
Yivo institute honors Summers
The YIVO Institute for Jewish research honored Charles W. Eliot University Professor Lawrence H. Summers on May 13 at its 83rd annual benefit dinner. The ceremony was held at the Center for Jewish History in New York City.
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Campus & Community
Kieffer awarded International Reading Fellowship
Michael Kieffer, an advanced doctoral student in language and literacy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is the recipient of the International Reading Association’s (IRA) Jeanne S. Chall Research Fellowship.
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Health
Prostate cancer treatments are contrasted
Jim Hu and colleagues at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) assessed surgical utilization and complications, lengths of hospital stay, and cancer outcomes in more than 2,700 men who underwent prostate cancer surgery.
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Health
Undergrads volunteer for Nalgene bottle BPA study
For a while last month, whenever Scott Elfenbein ’11 was thirsty he’d take a pull or two from a Nalgene bottle. But Elfenbein was quaffing from Nalgene for science, not for convenience. He was one of about 80 Harvard College students who volunteered for a two-week April study intended to track levels of bisphenol A…
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Campus & Community
THURJ provides forum for students
Spanning topics as diverse as cancerous tumors and the overfishing of grouper in the Turks and Caicos Islands, a new journal aims to highlight the serious scientific research regularly undertaken by Harvard undergraduates.
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Nation & World
Candidates emphasize hot-button issues
D. Sunshine Hillygus, Frederick S. Danziger Associate Professor of Government in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, and Todd G. Shields, professor of political science at the University of Arkansas, extensively studied campaign strategy during the 2004 general election, work that may illuminate strategy in the current presidential race.
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Nation & World
Joint Center for Housing sees mortgage turmoil hitting rental market
The current mortgage turmoil reaches deep into rental markets. New research on rental housing market dynamics from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies finds that the current housing debacle not only adds to the number of households competing for low-cost rentals but also threatens renters living in foreclosed properties with sudden eviction.
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Health
TB talks honor outgoing HSPH dean
Tuberculosis specialists came from universities around the country to discuss the state of the disease at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and to honor Harvard School of Public Health Dean Barry R. Bloom, who has announced that he will be stepping down.
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Health
Researchers report successful new laser treatment for vocal-cord cancer
An innovative laser treatment for early vocal-cord cancer, developed at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), successfully restores patients’ voices without radiotherapy or traditional surgery, which can permanently damage vocal quality.
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Health
Research reveals workings of anti-HIV drugs
Using ingenious molecular espionage, scientists have found how a single key enzyme, seemingly the Swiss Army knife in HIV’s toolbox, differentiates and dynamically binds both DNA and RNA as part of the virus’s fierce attack on host cells. The work is described this week (May 7) in the journal Nature.
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Health
Risk of death reduced within years of quitting smoking
Women who quit smoking significantly reduce their risk of death from coronary heart disease within five years and have about a 20 percent lower risk of death from smoking-related cancers within that time period, according to a study in the May 7 issue of JAMA.
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Nation & World
Rothschild explores economics’ human side
Blackmail and attempted murder are not typically studied as part of economic history. However, a credit crisis among 18th century French silk and brandy merchants led to just such dramatic incidents, the accounts of which piqued the interest of Emma Rothschild, a historian of economic life, empires, and Atlantic connections.