Millions of undocumented immigrants could get a reprieve from the threat of deportation and a chance for legal employment in the U.S. under a recent proposed executive action from President Obama. Although the plan is currently under court injunction, if it’s implemented it could also boost access to health care and health insurance among immigrants—both…

Recent exposure to air pollution raises the risk for anxiety symptoms, according to a new study by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and colleagues. The study of 71,271 women participating in the long-running Nurses’ Health Study found that higher exposure to PM2.5 (particulate matter <2.5 μm in diameter), especially higher recent exposure, is…

Researchers have developed the first global model for predicting cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. The model—developed by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Imperial College London, and colleagues—will be of particular help to public health professionals, clinicians, and patients in developing countries for prevention of CVD. A paper on the new CVD risk prediction method,…

People often claim to ignore advertisements, but the messages are getting through on a subconscious level, pioneering author and ad critic Jean Kilbourne told an audience at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health on March 3, 2015. Kilbourne, best known for her groundbreaking documentary on images of women in the media, Killing Us…

Conor J. Walsh, assistant professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and a core faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, has been selected to receive a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). One of…

Employing an ingenious microfluidic design that combines chemical and mechanical properties, a team of Harvard scientists has demonstrated a new way of detecting and extracting biomolecules from fluid mixtures. The approach requires fewer steps, uses less energy, and achieves better performance than several techniques currently in use and could lead to better technologies for medical…

The Independent Panel on the Global Response to Ebola is holding its inaugural meeting in Boston this weekend. It will analyze the major weaknesses in the global health system exposed by the Ebola outbreak, and offer workable recommendations for medium- to long-term institutional changes required to address them. The panel is co-sponsored by the Harvard…

Spinning aerialists, fearless stilt walkers, seemingly boneless contortionists, daring acrobatic performances, gravity-defying swan ballerinas, multicultural local and nationally known musicians, and hula hoop artists … Such was the nature of the entertainment that sizzled during the fifth annual Harvard Masquerade Ball, which took place at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Boston on Feb. 28. More…

The modern era of public health education is generally credited to a May 27, 1915 report by William Welch and Wickliffe Rose, commonly known as the “Welch-Rose report.” But a March 6, 1915 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by Milton Rosenau, who at the time was the first director of…

Can super-tiny droplets of water sprayed at strawberries, spinach, and lettuce kill deadly food pathogens? Philip Demokritou, associate professor of aerosol physics and director of the Laboratory for Environmental Health NanoSciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, thinks so. And if this new technology can be successfully scaled up, he says it could…

The offensive fraternity chant recently caught on camera at the University of Oklahoma is a reminder that racism continues to envelop the U.S. “like a fog,” New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow wrote in an op-ed published March 11. Citing research by Nancy Krieger, professor of social epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of…

“The Dynamic Sun,” a new exhibit conceived, designed and built by researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), has just opened at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, D.C. It features a giant video wall intended to create a visceral impact and show visitors how an ever-changing Sun affects Earth.…

A desire for a new identity and a taste for excitement and violence are among the factors that are attracting a growing number of educated teens and young adults from middle-class backgrounds in the U.S., Canada, and Europe to join the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), according to Jessica E. Stern, Ph.D. ’92, a fellow at…

A new study by Chinese researchers has found that folic acid supplements are associated with significantly lower risk of stroke in people with high blood pressure. In an editorial accompanying the study — which appeared March 15 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) — two Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health…

Matthew L. Potts has a really long commute to work. Since 2013, when he was appointed Assistant Professor of Ministry Studies at Harvard Divinity School (HDS), Potts has been driving over 75 miles from Falmouth, Mass. — where he lives with his family and serves as the priest of Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church — to…

Alyssa A. Goodman, Harvard professor of astronomy and research associate of the Smithsonian Institution, has been selected the 2015 Scientist of the Year, part of the Harvard Foundation Albert Einstein Science Conference: Advancing Minorities and Women in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics.  The award will be presented at the annual conference luncheon on March 27. The…

Mary Caswell Stoddard,  a junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows and member of the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, is one of three U.S.-based women scientists who will be recognized in Paris on March 18 as International Rising Talents for their ongoing and exceptional contributions to the fields of science,…

The new journal Health Systems and Reform (HS&R) launched in March 2015 with an issue featuring authors affiliated with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The quarterly peer-reviewed journal aims to bridge theory and practice in the field by including research articles with national and cross-national perspectives on health systems around the world, as…

The recent measles outbreak that spread through 17 states brought the issue of childhood vaccination into the headlines, leaving some with the impression that a growing movement of parents is questioning this cornerstone of public health. But there is good news, said K. “Vish” Viswanath, professor of health communication at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public…

Harvard Graduate School of Education Dean James Ryan announced today the appointment of Eric Shed and Stephen Mahoney – both long-term educators with experience teaching and heading teacher preparation education efforts in higher education and K–12 schools – as director and associate director of the Harvard Teacher Fellows (HTF) program, respectively. HTF, launching this fall,…

The 2015 recipients of Harvard Divinity School’s Peter J. Gomes STB ’68 Memorial Honors include a diplomat, a chaplain, an activist, an adviser, and a scholar. While these individuals—and their professions—may seem disparate, Dean David N. Hempton says that the group embodies HDS’s effort to “illuminate, engage, and serve.” “The Gomes Honorees exemplify Harvard Divinity…

Controversy over fluoride levels in drinking water in Massachusetts has made headlines in recent months as Cambridge, Gloucester, Newburyport, and other towns in Massachusetts relook at the decades-old practice of adding fluoride to public drinking water to reduce dental caries (cavities). Some of the controversy between scientists, dental professionals, anti-fluoride activists, town officials, and others…

Exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDC) is estimated to cost the European Union more than €150 billion ($209 billion) a year in health care expenses and lost earning potential, according to studies by a team of 18 international researchers, including two Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health faculty. Conditions linked to the chemicals included lowered…

Anne Peretz, founder of Parenting Journey (formerly The Family Center, Inc.), and Chris Byner, interim executive director of Boston Centers for Youth and Families (BCYF), will be honored at this year’s Summer Urban Program Auction, an annual fundraiser held by Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA). The auction, which will take place at Harvard University’s Knafel…

Samples of the Wyss Institute’s human organs-on-chips were acquired by The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and are on display in MoMA?????s latest Architecture and Design Exhibition, “This Is For Everyone: Design For The Common Good”, until January 2016. The human organs-on-chips were recognized by Paola Antonelli, the museum’s senior curator in the Department of…

Reducing air pollution was associated with increased lung function in children ages 11 to 15, according to a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The new findings suggest that it’s important to continue efforts to improve air quality, say two Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health professors who wrote an editorial…

Ebola continues to afflict West Africa, with a spike in infections reported in February blamed on unsafe burials. Infectious disease expert Barry Bloom recently looked back at the early days of the current epidemic to dissect the global health response and highlight the contributions of researchers affiliated with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.…

Drug resistance is a major public health challenge for malaria treatment and eradication. In new research, Dyann Wirth and colleagues have found new ways that the parasite that causes malaria—Plasmodium falciparum—is able to develop resistance to the antimalarial drug halofuginone over time. It’s been known that P. falciparum develops resistance to antimalarial drugs through genetic…

A new NPR/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health poll finds that more than six in ten people living in the U.S. (62%) are concerned about their future health. Nearly four in ten (39%) said that they had one or more negative childhood experiences that they believe had a harmful impact on…

Harvard’s Tsai Auditorium in CGIS South was filled to the brim on Monday evening for Microemgas: The Very Small, the Very Large and the Object of Digital Humanities, a lecture presentation by Franco Moretti. Moretti, professor of humanities at Stanford and author of six books including “The Bourgeois” and “Distant Reading,” is considered a forerunner in…