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The Health Benefits of Owning a Pet
Today is National Pet Day , and pet owners have another reason to celebrate: their pets are helping them live healthier, longer lives. “Pet owners are less likely to die,” said Harvard Medical School clinical assistant professor Beth Frates, citing the …
The Quiet Campaign
The contested election for Harvard’s Board of Overseers seems anomalous in this noisy U.S. presidential election year. There are no airport rallies, no televised attack commercials or Super PACs, no polls. The voters—Harvard degree-holders—are dispersed …
FAS: Faculty and Fisc
At a November 8 reception in University Hall, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) celebrated Michael D. Smith for his 11 years of service as dean, concluded last August, conferring on him an amusing rendering of all the faculty’s leaders, from the …
Issue: January-February 2019
Inhaling Distress
After 40 years of scientific and news reports on tobacco's hazards, smoking today may be a fundamentally irrational act. But is it linked with genuine psychological disturbance? Perhaps so, according to a new study that asserts that mentally ill smokers …
Issue: March-April 2001
A Quantum Science Initiative
Quantum science—the physics and engineering of the world at sub-microscopic scales—got a boost today as Harvard formally announced an initiative that will combine basic and applied research into the realm of the very small, as well as foster …
Laughing at Slavery
In his 1997 book Rock This! the black comedian Chris Rock sends up the “Uncle Tom” stereotype of a subservient African American who kowtows to the majority culture. Rock affectionately describes his gay uncle, whose name is Tom. “We call him Aunt Tom,” he …
Issue: March-April 2009
The Post-Roe World
“Clarity is power,” said Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH) dean Michelle Williams, at the school’s panel last week on the post- Roe United States. “American people need a clear understanding of the science and consequences of depriving …
Raiders Rehabilitated
Gordon gekko, the antihero of the 1987 movie Wall Street , epitomizes the excesses of the U.S. financial sector in the 1980s. Gekko embraces insider trading and the strip-and-flip model of the hostile takeover—buy a company, ruthlessly lay off workers, …
Issue: July-August 2008
Well Done
The Harvard Alumni Association Awards were established in 1990 to recognize outstanding service to Harvard University through alumni activities. This year’s recipients were to be honored on October 18, during the Harvard Alumni Association’s board of …
Issue: November-December 2007
Directing Development
Tamara Elliott Rogers ’74 has been appointed the University’s vice president for alumni affairs and development, President Drew Faust announced on September 7. The appointment, concluding an extended nationwide search, fills the vacancy left by the …
Issue: November-December 2007
An Unexpected Risk Factor
One risk to continued strong endowment performance not addressed in Mohamed A. El-Erian’s annual letter was the uncertainty arising from unanticipated change in Harvard Management Company’s (HMC) leadership and perhaps in other senior investment …
Issue: November-December 2007
Directing Development
Tamara Elliott Rogers ’74 has been appointed the University’s vice president for alumni affairs and development, President Drew Faust announced on September 7. The appointment, concluding an extended nationwide search, fills the vacancy left by the …
From Anecdote to Equation
The idea seems simple enough: Get detailed information about the participants in a given social program—public-housing residents, say, or applicants for organ transplants. Then, given that we live in a world of limited resources, use that information to …
Issue: September-October 2007
Breathing New Life into “The Eyesore on Church Street”
Yesterday evening in a meeting open to the public, Cambridge business owners and residents gathered around a projector at the back of Beat Brasserie in Harvard Square to learn about the future of 10 Church Street. The redesign process for the long-vacant …
Public Health Messaging in a Pandemic
On June 21 via Zoom, a panel of five medical and public health experts discussed the last two years of the pandemic—the successes and the failures—from academic, scientific, public health and policy perspectives. These researchers and clinicians, along …