Featured series 
Tag: Science
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Health
Joint Harvard-Brazil program fights entrenched diseases
Recently (Jan. 6-21), 15 Harvard and 16 Brazilian students participated in an intensive experience: the first Harvard-Brazil Collaborative Course on Infectious Diseases. The course, which was offered by the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Santa Casa de Misericórdia de São Paulo Medical School (FCMSCSP) with the support of the Harvard University Brazil…
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Campus & Community
Frans Spaepen named interim dean of Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Materials scientist Frans Spaepen will serve as interim dean of Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) effective Sept. 15, Michael D. Smith, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, announced today (Aug. 15).
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Health
Science in brief
Researchers identify promising cancer drug target in prostate tumors; Scientists find how neural activity spurs blood flow in the brain: Newfound mechanisms could bolster understanding of brain imaging, aging’s effects; World Health Organization creates new surgical tool to make operations safer everywhere; Invasive treatment appears beneficial for men and high-risk women with certain type of…
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Health
When threatened, a few African frogs can morph toes into claws
Biologists at Harvard University have determined that some African frogs carry concealed weapons: When threatened, these species puncture their own skin with sharp bones in their toes, using the bones as claws capable of wounding predators.
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Health
Broad Institute earns grant to support pathbreaking diabetes study
Researchers at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT have received a grant to support novel, integrative research aimed at finding ways to encourage the human body to replenish the cells that are missing in type 1 diabetes.
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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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Health
Across species, genes evolve to minimize protein production errors
Scientists at Harvard University and the University of Texas, Austin, have found that genetic evolution is strongly shaped by genes’ efforts to prevent or tolerate errors in protein production.
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Campus & Community
Parkes named McKay Professor of Computer Science
David C. Parkes, a leader in research at the nexus of computer science and economics, has been appointed Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science in Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), The appointment was effective July 1.
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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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Campus & Community
HMS, HSPH rename ‘Global Health’ departments
Departments at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) are changing their names to reflect the increasingly international aspect of public health in the 21st century.
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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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Health
Cluzel named professor of molecular and cellular biology, applied physics
Philippe Cluzel has been appointed professor of molecular and cellular biology and Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics in Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, effective July 1.
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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
Weinberg, Phillips honored at PBK ceremony
Late this morning (June 3), Adam Goldenberg ’08 — in a fashionable bow tie and flowing academic robes — joined a long line of gowned seniors in the shade of trees outside Harvard Hall. A few months before, the Vancouver, B.C., social studies concentrator had dressed a little differently (in pink tights and a yellow…
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Science & Tech
Mars’ water appears to have been too salty to support life
A new analysis of the Martian rock that gave hints of water on the Red Planet — and, therefore, optimism about the prospect of life — now suggests the water was more likely a thick brine, far too salty to support life as we know it. The finding, by scientists at Harvard University and Stony…
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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
Winners of Howard T. Fisher Prize announced
The Committee of the Howard T. Fisher Prize in Geographical Information Science has named four students winners of the award for the 2007-08 academic year.
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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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Science & Tech
Ashton: A legacy written in trunk, limb, and leaf
They were in a bind, no doubt about it.
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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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Health
New Rx for doctors: Go back to school
This year six doctors are pursuing a one-year master’s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). The students are all part of the School’s flexible Special Study Program that allows them to design their own curriculum and tailor it to their individual interests.