Letters

Letters from our readers

The psyche, kindergarten, more mushroom verse

January-February 2011

Features

Daniel Lieberman tracks the evolution of the human head.

by Jonathan Shaw

Brief life of Harvard CIA agent who helped install the shah of Iran

Brief life of a Harvard conspirator: 1916-2000

by Gwen Kinkead

Bernardo Flores, Rafael Tapajós, and Hannah Horowitz ’11 learn how to analyze data gathered from a weather balloon under the supervision of Professor Steven Wofsy

Harvard scholars study the Amazon rainforest under global climate change

Students grapple with the fate of the rainforest in a changing climate.

by Jonathan Shaw

Matthew Nock sits in his lab’s control room, where researchers record subjects’ behavioral and physiological responses during experiments. For example, they might measure whether people who engage in self-injury show greater emotional distress, in response to frustrating tasks, than people who do not. (Nock’s lab manager and a postdoctoral fellow are seen in the adjoining room through one-way glass.)

Matthew Nock studies suicide and self-injury

Understanding suicide and self-injury

by Elizabeth Gudrais

RIGHT NOW Harvard research and ideas

Hyman professor of chemistry Charles Lieber has created a transistor so small it can be used to penetrate cell membranes and probe their interiors, without disrupting function. The transistor (yellow) sits near the bend in a hairpin-shaped, lipid-coated silicon nanowire. Its scale is similar to that of intra-cellular structures such as organelles (pink and blue orbs) and actin filaments (pink strand).

Charles Lieber's nanoscale transistors can enter cells without harming them

Chemist Charles Lieber and his colleagues have developed a nanoscale transistor so small it can enter, probe, and communicate with cells without harming them.

Amartya Sen proposes a measure of poverty that looks beyond income

A multidimensional poverty index, based on the ideas of Amartya Sen, reveals a different map of the world's poor.

A video game for anger management and emotional control

At Children's Hospital Boston, a video game offers emotionally explosive youths methods of self-control.

John Harvard's Journal University news

The Harvard Corporation revises its operations and organization

The senior governing board revises its "composition, structure, and practices."

Profile of new Harvard squash coach Mike Way

A new squash coach has arrived from Canada.

Harvard 2010 report on faculty development and diversity

Highlights from a recent report on faculty development and diversity

Faculty retirement incentive: one-quarter of eligible professors accept offer

A quarter of the eligible senior faculty accept Harvard's retirement offer.

Planning a Digital Public Library of America

Leaders of research libraries, foundations, and national cultural institutions gathered at Harvard to discuss the feasibility of creating a national digital library.

Task force recommends coordinated management structure for Harvard libraries

The Task Force on University Libraries recommends a coordinated management structure for the entire system.

Headlines from Harvard history

Harvard's 2010 fiscal year financial report

The University's annual financial report portrays an institution adapting to an era of reduced revenues and expenses.

Harvard issues bonds to refinance debt and pay for capital projects

The University's offerings will refinance debt and finance various capital projects.

Roundup of recent Harvard news

HBS building boomlet and innovation lab, Rhodes and Marshall Scholars, HMS Center for Primary Care, studying "institutional corruption," and other University news