Tag: Research

  • Campus & Community

    Newsmakers

    It was announced Wednesday (Oct. 10) that the prestigious 2007 IZA Prize in Labor Economics goes to Harvard’s Richard B. Freeman. He was praised by the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Germany for “fundamental contributions that have monumentally shaped modern labor economics.”

    2–3 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Harvard-Yenching Institute names visiting scholars, fellows

    The Harvard-Yenching Institute recently welcomed 33 visiting scholars and fellows to the institute for the 2007-08 academic year.

    8–12 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Harvard Forest announces Bullard Fellows

    Harvard Forest recently announced the 2007-08 Charles Bullard Fellows in Forest Research. The purpose of this fellowship program, established in 1962, is to support advanced research and study by persons who show promise of making important contributions, either as scholars or administrators, to forestry defined in its broadest sense as the human use and study…

    4–6 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Harvard brings the Earth to high school

    Steam vents in Yellowstone National Park are part of the area’s unique environment, seen in a case study exploring Yellowstone and the reintroduction of wolves into the park. This case study is part of a new environmental science course for high school science teachers.

    3–5 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Ancient practice sans theory

    Move over, Archimedes. A researcher at Harvard University is finding that ancient Greek craftsmen were able to engineer sophisticated machines without necessarily understanding the mathematical theory behind their construction.

    2–4 minutes
  • Health

    Stem cells may enhance capability of heart cells to regenerate

    During a fatal heart attack, at least 1 billion heart cells are killed in the left ventricle, one of the heart’s two big lower pumping chambers that move blood into the body.

    4–6 minutes
  • Health

    Stem Cell Summit draws 500 participants

    Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick Wed-nesday (Oct. 3) called on those attending the second day of a Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI)-sponsored Stem Cell Summit to support his proposed $1 billion life sciences initiative “so we can get partnering with you.”

    4–6 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Chili pepper cocktail points to wide-awake surgery

    Imagine an epidural or a shot of Novocain that doesn’t paralyze your legs or make you numb yet totally blocks your pain. This type of pain management is now within reach. As a result, childbirth, surgery, and trips to the dentist might be less traumatic in the future, thanks to researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital…

    4–5 minutes
  • Health

    Research links panic and heart attack in older women

    New research has linked panic attacks in older women with an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, and death from all causes, adding panic attacks to the growing list of mental and emotional conditions with potentially deadly physical effects.

    2–3 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    American Indians bless search for Harvard roots

    With a ceremonial blessing and a cautionary reminder of native peoples’ historic oppression, a group of American Indian leaders joined an assemblage of experienced and budding archaeologists Wednesday (Sept. 26) to begin the search for Harvard’s Indian College roots.

    4–6 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Weatherhead Center names 2007-08 associates

    The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs is supporting 24 doctoral candidates as Graduate Student Associates for 2007-08. The associates represent a multidisciplinary group of advanced-degree candidates from Harvard’s departments of Anthropology, Government, History, Religion, and Sociology; the Kennedy School’s Public Policy Program; and the Law School’s S.J.D. program. All of the students are working on…

    3–5 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Weatherhead Center selects a dozen new international fellows

    The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA) recently announced its 2007-08 class of fellows.

    6–10 minutes
  • Health

    Children forgotten part of AIDS picture

    The forgotten faces of the AIDS epidemic belong to children: infected, neglected, and orphaned by a disease that ravages not only their bodies, but also their families and communities, according to a gathering of international AIDS experts Monday (Sept. 24).

    4–6 minutes
  • Health

    Harvard researchers find longevity, restricted diet link

    Researchers believe they’ve found the cellular link between extremely restricted diets and dramatically lengthened lifespan and hope to use the knowledge to develop new treatments for age-related diseases.

    3–4 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Harvard christens School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

    An afternoon of reflection, promise, and a bit of humor marked the official launch of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences on Thursday (Sept. 20), the first new Harvard school since the John F. Kennedy School of Government was created 71 years ago as the Graduate School of Public Administration.

    4–6 minutes
  • Health

    Losos’ lizards give evolutionary clues in island experiments

    Tiny islets in the Bahamas have proven useful laboratories to illustrate natural selection’s effects on island lizards, which saw their legs lengthen, then shorten as ground-dwelling predators drove them into the trees.

    3–4 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    ‘Hot’ ice could lead to medical device

    Harvard physicists have shown that specially treated diamond coatings can keep water frozen at body temperature, a finding that may have applications in future medical implants.

    2–4 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    CfA reveals Magellanic Clouds are first-time visitors

    The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) are two of the Milky Way’s closest neighboring galaxies. A stunning sight in the southern hemisphere, they were named after the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who explored those waters in the 16th century. For hundreds of years, these galaxies were considered satellites of the Milky…

    3–4 minutes
  • Health

    Scientists synthesize memory in yeast cells

    Harvard Medical School (HMS) researchers have successfully synthesized a DNA-based memory loop in yeast cells, an experiment that marks a significant step forward in the emerging field of synthetic biology.

    4–5 minutes
  • Health

    State’s health care plan assessed

    An architect of Massachusetts’ year-old experiment with universal health coverage said Monday (Sept. 17) that because of the experiment 170,000 people have insurance today who otherwise would not, but that the problem may be bigger than initially thought.

    3–5 minutes
  • Arts & Culture

    Pair of music professors to collaborate on improvisation project

    Headed by University of Guelph English professor Ajay Heble, the international “Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice” project recently secured a $2.5 million grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Harvard affiliates Ingrid Monson, Quincy Jones Professor of African-American Music, and Jason Stanyek, visiting associate professor of music, are among the project’s…

    1–2 minutes
  • Arts & Culture

    Ulrich explains that well-behaved women should make history

    Most bumper sticker slogans do not originate in academic publications. However, in the 1970s, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich penned in a scholarly article about the funeral sermons of Christian women that “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” The phrase subsequently gained wide popularity, appearing on T-shirts, coffee mugs, and other items — and it’s now the title…

    3–4 minutes
  • Arts & Culture

    Study abroad program sings

    This summer, five Harvard College students exchanged dorm life for West African village life to investigate the role of music and dance in Malian culture. As participants in Harvard’s summer study-abroad program “Music and Dance in Mali — Ethnography in Practice,” the students had the opportunity to live among and learn from some of the…

    3–4 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    China Fund issues first round of funding

    Three research proposals were recently selected to receive primary funding from the Harvard China Fund. Launched in July 2006, the fund supports China-related activities University-wide and University activities in China.

    2–3 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    HCA announces its 2007 Australia-Harvard Fellowships

    The Harvard Club of Australia (HCA) recently announced four winners of its 2007 Australia-Harvard Fellowships. The recipients are associate professor of ambulatory care and prevention Matthew W. Gillman of Harvard Medical School; Avi Loeb, professor of astronomy, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Michael N. Starnbach, associate professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at Harvard Medical School;…

    1–2 minutes
  • Health

    Humanitarian aid professionals strategize

    The public and private agencies that respond to war and disasters sometimes respond disastrously — and it’s time to do something about it. That was the basic message of a three-day Humanitarian Health Conference at Harvard Sept. 6-8, which drew more than 120 emergency physicians, epidemiologists, and professional aid workers from 68 organizations.

    5–7 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    ‘We are all teachers and we are all learners’

    The threat of thunderstorms on Sunday (Sept. 9) persuaded planners of the Opening Exercises for the Class of 2011 to move the event from the tree-shaded lawns of Tercentenary Theatre to the varnished vaults of Sanders. The venerable auditorium, Harvard’s largest indoor venue, was filled to capacity by the crowd of freshmen and their parents.

    5–7 minutes
  • Arts & Culture

    Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art announces landmark gift

    The Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art (CTSMA), a leading research center of the Harvard University Art Museums, has announced a major gift of Barnett Newman’s studio materials and related ephemera through the generosity of The Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation.

    3–4 minutes
  • Health

    Stem cells make new heart valves

    Researchers have coaxed adult stem cells into forming artificial heart valves that could one day mean fewer surgeries for children suffering from heart defects.

    2–4 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Mathematician Taylor wins Shaw Prize

    Herchel Smith Professor of Mathematics Richard Taylor has been awarded the Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences for work that unified the diverse fields of prime numbers and symmetry. Taylor shares…

    2–3 minutes