Research
Deans Launch New Contest
The 13 Deans of Harvard University announced two University-wide innovation challenges focused on culture and health on Thursday. Student teams in both challenges will win up to $75,000 in prize money.
HSPH Researchers Analyze Election Polls for Voter Opinions on Public Health Issues
Based on analysis of polls conducted during the November elections, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health have predicted tension in the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and in future budget negotiations regarding Medicare funding,
New Journal To Publish Short Student Research
Brevia, a new undergraduate research journal, is set to publish its first issue next semester. The journal gives students the opportunity to showcase their new research in under 500 words.
Myopic Misery: Protect Your Wallet This Holiday Season
This winter, you might want to save your holiday shopping for after finals period. Researchers from Harvard and other universities have found that sadness (a common condition among students trying to finish papers and projects at the end of the semester) not only leads to increased spending, it also impacts the quality of our financial decisions.
SEAS Researchers Collaborate on Developing New Device
A new device invented at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences will absorb unprecedented levels of infrared light, expanding possibilities for thermal detection and energy harvesting.
Predicting A Time of Death
Researchers at the Harvard Medical School didn’t intend to pinpoint a gene that can predict time of death, but somehow that’s exactly what happened.
Berkman Center Study Explores Parents' Concerns About Children's Online Activity
A survey of 802 households revealed that parents are largely aware of the dangers and consequences that could arise from their children’s unregulated access to social media.
Researchers Present Findings on Online Criminal Record Websites
Two Harvard researchers charged that a website which catalogs mug shots and criminal records, asking defendants for a fee to remove their images from their databases, engages in racial profiling in its advertising—just before the founder of a different criminal records website made his first public appearance.
History Professor Tracks Explorers
History Professor Joyce E. Chaplin sought to capture half a millennium of human efforts to traverse the globe in the pages of one book, and Thursday evening, she discussed the fruits of her labors in a talk at the Harvard Book Store.
Harvard Business School Plans Research Center in Istanbul
In addition to seven current research centers scattered around the world, Harvard Business School is on track to open a new research center in Istanbul in early 2013, Dean Nitin Nohria said in an interview with The Crimson last week.
Study: Interest Groups Influence Ballot Initiatives
A new study conducted by Harvard Kennedy School assistant professor Todd T. Rogers revealed that campaign efforts by independent political organizations have a significant influence on the outcome of ballot measures.
Bioengineer Discuses ‘Closing the Design Gap’
Bioengineer Christina D. Smolke presented her research on developing genetically encoded technologies that would advance cell-based therapies for diseases like cancer, brain tumors, and leukemia, at the Neekeyfar Lecture on Science and Mathematics on Thursday.
Researchers Create 3D Particles
Researchers from Harvard, New York University, and Dow Chemical have manufactured microparticles with the ability to assemble themselves into complex three-dimensional structures, a technology that could lead to developments in optical materials and ceramics
Scientists Propose New Model of Moon Formation
Two Harvard scientists proposed a new model to explain the formation of the Moon in a study published this Wednesday in Science Magazine.
Solar Geoengineering Holds Promise for Addressing Climate Change
Stopping or reversing climate change can be achieved with significantly reduced side effects if solar radiation management efforts are optimized for the different seasons and latitudes, according to a new study by a team of researchers at Harvard University, the California Institute of Technology, and the Carnegie Institution for Science.
Election, Automatic Budget Cuts Could Affect Harvard's Research Funding
Harvard received more than $600 million in federal funding for research in fiscal year 2010, according to the University’s annual fiscal report released in 2011. That funding may be at risk, depending on whether Democrat Barack Obama or Republican Mitt Romney—who hold disparate views on public funding—wins this November’s presidential election.
Students Present Research on Early Development
Students presented research on early childhood development in Brazil at a meeting of the Early Childhood Development Collective.
Vitamins May Not Help HIV Patients
HSPH researchers asserted in a study that high doses of multivitamins may have adverse side effects for HIV patients.
Keep Your Chin Up, Study Says
When you've found yourself suffering at the hands of melancholia, odds are, someone has offered you the sage advice "chin up!" And, odds are, the falsely cheery phrase elicited an exponential increase in your irritation. However, the next time life seems to be taking a toll on your mood, you might find it helpful to adhere to that suggestion, as it's now supported by scientific research.
Lab Rat: Angela Frankel '14
Angela Frankel '14, a Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology concentrator, participated last summer in a research program in India. There, she studied RNA-based regeneration in planarians.
Public Hospital Reporting Reduces Angioplasties
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first of its kind to look at public reporting for these procedures on a national scale.
Journal Expresses Concern About Professor's Criticized Study
A Harvard professor’s study led the Journal of the American Medical Association to issue an “expression of concern” for the first time ever.
New Dinosaur Species Lurked in Harvard Back Room for Decades
Before he trekked around the globe unearthing fossils as a University of Chicago paleontologist and "National Geographic" explorer-in-residence, Paul C. Sereno excavated piles of long-forgotten rocks in the back rooms of Harvard's Natural History Museum. It was there that he discovered the Pegomastax africanus, a new species of dinosaur in the heterodontosaurus genus. After decades of research, he unveiled the new dinosaur last week in the online journal "ZooKeys."
Coffee and Eyesight, Kissing and Swine Flu, and More
If you're straining to read this, put down the Starbucks—Harvard researchers recently found a link between glaucoma incidence in adults and consumption of more than three cups of coffee a day. Between squinting and sipping, Harvard researchers have made multiple discoveries in the past few weeks, from using genetics to figure out when the Neanderthals were most likely to have mated with modern humans to discovering that Mexicans are more likely than Britons to abstain from kissing to prevent the spread of swine flu.