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Science & Tech
Going beyond Einstein
Observations by two astronomers confirm one important theory about how a black hole’s extreme gravity can stretch light. The data also paint an intriguing image of how a spinning black hole can drag the very fabric of space around with it, creating a choppy spacetime sea that distorts everything falling into the black hole. Jon…
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Science & Tech
See-through galaxy
To peer into the galactic center of our own Milky Way galaxy, astronomers Silas Laycock and Josh Grindlay used the unique capabilities of the 6.5-meter-diameter Magellan Telescope in Chile. By gathering infrared light that more easily penetrates dust, the astronomers were able to detect thousands of stars that otherwise would have remained hidden. Their goal…
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Science & Tech
Spitzer puts a new spin on the Helix Nebula
Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) is a challenging stargazing target for amateur astronomers. It is one of the closest planetary nebulas – a type of nebula formed from gas ejected by a dying sunlike star. Yet it is so large and spread out in the sky that it appears very dim in a telescope eyepiece. Long-exposure…
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Science & Tech
Scientists find black hole’s ‘point of no return’
By a score of 135 to zero, scientists using NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer have compared suspected neutron stars and black holes and found that the black holes behaved as if each one has an event horizon, the theoretical border from beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape. The team found that X-ray light…
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Science & Tech
New calculations suggest economic cost of Iraq war much larger than previously recognized
A paper presented to the annual Allied Social Sciences Association meeting in Boston, in a session jointly sponsored by the American Economic Association and the Economists for Peace and Security, suggests that the costs of the Iraq war are much higher than previously reckoned, with conservative to moderate estimates ranging from slightly less than a…
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Health
Protein in urine may warn of preeclampsia risk in pregnant women
Preeclampsia, or toxemia, develops during pregnancy. In severe cases, it can rapidly escalate to eclampsia, a condition in which the mother suffers a series of potentially fatal complications. Ananth Karumanchi, MD, a nephrologist in the Department of Medicine at BIDMC and assistant professor of medicine, obstetrics and gynecology at Harvard Medical School, explains that while…
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Health
Study finds heavy drinking linked to higher stroke risk
A study found that while light and moderate drinkers appear to be at neither greater risk nor greater advantage than abstainers when it comes to ischemic stroke, the frequency of their alcohol consumption may modestly influence their risk. The findings reinforce the importance of the volume and frequency of alcohol consumption. “In this study, the…
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Health
Anti-psychotic drugs may be associated with increased risk of diabetes in schizophrenia patients
According to the article’s background information, “Recently, the newer ‘atypical’ antipsychotic agents have been linked to several forms of morbidity, including obesity; hyperlipidemia; type 2 diabetes mellitus; and diabetic ketoacidosis [a severe complication of diabetes].” David C. Henderson, M.D., from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues evaluated 36 non-obese outpatients with schizophrenia…
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Health
Researchers discover why we go gray
People turn gray, Harvard scientists found, when certain adult stem cells gradually die off. The stem cells provide a continuous supply of other, pigment-producing cells that give your hair its natural color. These same types of pigment cells, called melanocytes, can become cancerous in melanoma, the lethal form of skin cancer that killed about 8,000…
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Health
Study casts doubt on claims that the medical malpractice system is plagued by frivolous lawsuits
The debate over medical malpractice litigation, which raged during the last presidential campaign, continues as a hot-button political and health care issue in the U.S. The Senate is expected to vote soon on legislation to impose a federal cap on noneconomic damages in malpractice suits, following on similar bills that passed the House of Representatives…
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Health
Researchers find a gene for fear
A team of researchers from Harvard, Columbia, and Rutgers universities has found the seat of fear. It’s located in a pea-sized area deep in the brain of all mammals, from gerbils, to lions, to humans. And it’s involved in both inborn fear and the dread we acquire from dealing with people and things that hurt…
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Science & Tech
When oil became black gold
Texas, Alaska, Russia, the Middle East – these are the regions one is likely to think of when asked to name the world’s top oil- producing areas. Galicia, an area of Eastern Europe now divided between Poland and Ukraine, would probably not make it onto anyone’s list. And yet, 100 years ago, Galicia ranked as…
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Health
Extended release stimulant effective for long-term ADHD treatment
In the October 2005 issue of the Journal of the American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, a multi- institutional research team reported finding that treatment with Concerta, a once-daily form of the drug methylphenidate, successfully controlled ADHD symptoms in more than 200 children with ADHD. The study was supported by McNeil Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures…
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Health
Researchers identify gene’s role in suppressing longevity
SIRT1 is involved in cellular senescence, or limitation of cells’ reproductive lifespan, a process thought to ensure that aging cells don’t pass on harmful mutations. Frederick W. Alt, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues suppressed SIRT1 activity in cultures of mouse embryonic fibroblasts, or primitive cells…
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Health
Study suggests obesity has lesser financial impact on African-Americans
The study published in the January 2005 issue of the American Journal of Public Health is among the first to examine how patient demographic factors affect the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and health-care costs. “From the perspective of the health-care system, obesity may be less costly among African-Americans than among whites,” says Christina…
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Health
Faulty gene signaling could lead to development of Crohn’s disease
According to the study’s lead author, Brigham Women’s Hospital’s Derek W. Abbott, “The discovery of this faulty signaling process is a first step in helping us understand and ultimately address the underlying mechanism that causes Crohn’s disease to develop.
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Health
Study finds that both weight and exercise are key to longevity
Over 115,000 participants who were free of cardiovascular disease or cancer, who were between the ages of 30 and 55 and had filled out biennial health and lifestyle questionnaires between 1976 and 2000, were chosen for the study from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital-based Nurses’ Health Study. The women answered questionnaires that asked on average…
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Health
Protein reverses engineering of chromosome structure
An enzyme, a histone demethylase, removes methyl groups appended to histones, nuclear proteins that organize DNA and regulate gene activity. Methyl groups and other chemical tags on histones regulate how the DNA wraps around the proteins to form a chromatin structure that either promotes gene activity or represses it. Chromatin, which contains DNA, RNA, and…
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Health
DNA splicing enzyme observed in action
Researchers in the lab of Tom Ellenberger, the Hsien Wu and Daisy Yen Wu professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Harvard Medical School, reported the doughnut shape of human ligase I in the Nov. 25, 2004 issue of Nature. The details revealed by the ringlike structure suggest new ideas about the functions of…
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Health
Molecule implicated in transcription termination
When a protein is made its DNA code must first be rewritten as messenger RNA (mRNA). This process of transcription requires a large enzyme complex, RNA polymerase, to begin at the start of a gene, work its way along copying the DNA into mRNA, and then stop when it gets to the end. Therein lies…
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Campus & Community
Annemarie Schimmel
At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences November 16, 2004, the following Minute was placed upon the records.
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Campus & Community
Dr. Edward Peirson Richardson, Jr.
Dr. Edward Peirson Richardson, Jr., Harvard Medical School Bullard Professor of Neuropathology, Emeritus, died November 30, 1998 after a long battle with lymphoma. EP, as he was known to generations of trainees and colleagues, was a gentleman and scholar of the highest standing. He was born at the Massachusetts General Hospital on April 3, 1918,…
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Campus & Community
Nathan Marsh Pusey
At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences December 14, 2004, the following Minute was placed upon the records.
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Campus & Community
How did Internet affect election?
From Howard Deans fundraising to the technology of voting, the Internet and online technology took a starring role in the 2004 election. But once the votes were tallied, did the Internet matter? Last week (Dec. 9 – 11), the Votes, Bits & Bytes conference at Harvard Law Schools (HLS) Berkman Center for Internet and Society…
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Campus & Community
Monane prize winners honored
Anna Franekova 05 and Cora Tsang 05 share the 2004-2005 Tazuko Ajiro Monane Prize, which is awarded each year to an outstanding student of Japanese who has completed at least two years of Japanese language study at Harvard. Tsang (above center) takes photos with friends at the ceremony honoring the winners.
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Campus & Community
In brief
Scholars at Risk Fellowship nominations sought The Harvard Scholars at Risk committee is now accepting nominations from Harvard faculty, staff, and students for its fellowship for persecuted scholars. The fellowship enables at least one scholar, persecuted for his or her work, ethnicity, religion, or political opinions, to come to Cambridge for up to one year.…
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Campus & Community
Newsmakers
Five seniors receive traveling Rockefeller Fellowships Concluding its annual meeting and interviews at Harvard on Dec. 10 and 11, the Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Fellowships Administrative Board has awarded fellowships to five graduating seniors. Rockefeller Fellowships contribute $16,000 toward a year of purposeful postgraduate immersion in a foreign culture for candidates at critical stages in…
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Campus & Community
Lead raises risk for cataracts
Despite an ongoing national effort to limit exposure to lead, most adults in the United States have accumulated a substantial amount of this noxious metal in their bones. A new Harvard study ties this lurking danger to an increased risk of cataracts, the leading cause of age-related blindness in the world.
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Campus & Community
Research in brief
DEAS researchers model how brain encodes information By mining direct recordings of neuronal activity in live animals as they viewed natural scenes, researchers in the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences have developed a more realistic model of how the brain encodes real-world visual information. The work, published in the Nov. 24 issue of The…
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Campus & Community
Zinni describes ‘way forward’
Resuming the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians is the single most important step the United States can take to regain its stature in the world, Gen. Anthony Zinni told a packed house Dec. 8 at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum.