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Campus & Community
Growth Factor Raises Cancer Risk
High levels of a well-known growth factor significantly increase the risks of colorectal, breast, and prostate cancer, medical researchers have found. At the same time, they determined that a protein that binds to the growth factor seems to neutralize it and reduce the risk of these malignancies, which are three of the four biggest cancer…
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Science & Tech
Harvard students uncover Martha’s Vineyard history
Some significant details emerged from the items uncovered by Harvard archaeology students at a dig on Martha’s Vineyard in 1999. For instance, the site has been used by humans much longer than archaeologists first expected. A stone spear tip indicated the spot was inhabited by humans as long as 10,000 years ago — just 1,000…
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Health
Paying attention to attention: How active is hyperactive?
McLean Hospital researcher Martin Teicher and his team believe that the surest way to separate youngsters who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) from those with other problems is to look at their brain activity. His team carefully monitored the motions of thousands of children, including 700 first- and second-graders. They found that specific patterns…
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Health
Diving into the gene pool
Maryellen Ruvolo, professor of anthropology, specializes in the analysis of human and primate family trees using DNA data, a subfield of molecular evolution. She is probably best known for her work showing that people are more closely related to chimpanzees than to gorillas, contrary to previous thinking. She has also worked on the search for…
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Science & Tech
Discovering a new earthquake fault under Los Angeles
“Los Angeles is caught in a vise,” says John Shaw, an associate professor of structural and economic geology at Harvard who was half of a research team that discovered a large, active crack in the earth, capable of causing destructive earthquakes, under Los Angeles. The researchers announced their discovery in March 1999. The crack, or…
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Science & Tech
Physicists Slow Speed of Light
Light, which normally travels the 240,000 miles from the Moon to Earth in less than two seconds, has been slowed to the speed of a minivan in rush-hour traffic — 38 miles an hour. An entirely new state of matter, first observed four years ago, has made this possible. When atoms become packed super-closely together…
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Campus & Community
Two Harvard Scientists Win National Medal of Science
The National Medal of Science, the highest scientific honor in the United States, has been awarded to George Whitesides, Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry, and William Julius Wilson, Lewis F. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor.
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Campus & Community
Exercise Can Reduce Stroke Risk, Study Says
Here’s a research finding that should bring you to your feet. A brisk, hour-long walk, five days a week, can cut your risk of having a stroke almost in half. Too much? Try 30 minutes a day, five days a week. That could decrease your risk by a quarter, or 24 percent. Said another way,…
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Campus & Community
Amartya K. Sen Wins 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics
Sen, Lamont University Professor Emeritus and a current adjunct and visiting professor at Harvard, was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics Wednesday “for his contributions to welfare economics.” He is Harvard’s 37th Nobel laureate.
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Science & Tech
Charles Schaff brings knack for finding fossils to field — and Harvard
Charles Schaff ‘s official job description isn’t “fossil hunter.” He is a curatorial associate at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Schaff, however, makes regular trips to look for fossils in places as far-flung as Africa, South America and Greenland. Though the trips provide high points of excitement, most of Schaff’s time is spent watching over…
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Campus & Community
Children need attention and reassurance, Harvard researchers say
America’s “let them cry” attitude toward children may lead to more fears and tears among adults, according to two Harvard Medical School researchers. Instead of letting infants cry, American parents should keep their babies close, console them when they cry, and bring them to bed with them, where they’ll feel safe, according to Michael L.…
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Health
Electromagnets used in treating depression
Recent studies by Harvard researchers at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., have enlarged the body of knowledge about a promising, though still experimental, treatment for a variety of psychiatric disorders. The treatment is called “transcranial magnetic stimulation,” and essentially involves placing a powerful electromagnet on a person’s scalp. The electromagnet alters brain activity by inducing…
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Campus & Community
Business Professor R. Jaikumar Dies on Mountaineering Trip
Ramchandran Jaikumar, the Daewoo Professor of Business Administration at the Business School and a renowned authority on manufacturing management and technology, died Tuesday, Feb. 10, of a heart attack while mountain climbing in Quito, Ecuador. He was 53. A prolific researcher and writer, Jaikumar was a pioneer in the study of flexible manufacturing systems. A…
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Campus & Community
Jessye Norman To Receive Radcliffe Medal
Concert and opera singer Jessye Norman will receive the Radcliffe Medal from the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association (RCAA) on Friday, June 6, at the RCAA’s annual luncheon in Radcliffe Yard. The annual award honors individuals whose lives and work have had a significant impact on society. Whether portraying operatic heroines, interpreting lieder, or appearing with…
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Campus & Community
Cultivating friendship amid diversity
Since its inception, the Harvard Foundation has worked to promote cultural understanding and harmony among students, faculty, and staff. It has done so through a variety of lectures, debates, dinners, and arts festivals, and through support for student cultural organizations.
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Campus & Community
Newsmakers
John T. McGreevy, Dunwalke Associate Professor of American History, has won the American Catholic Historical Association’s John Gilmary Shea Prize for his book, Parish Boundaries: The Catholic Encounter with Race in the Twentieth Century Urban North, which was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1995. The award is given each year to the…
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Health
Aging Brains Lose Less Than Thought
It’s considered a dreaded inevitability of growing old—you lose thousands of brain cells every day. This idea has been a centerpiece of scientific dogma and popular lore for 40 years. When new technology became available to actually count cells in different parts of the brain, neurologists at the Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital…
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