Active camouflage has taken a step forward at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), with a new coating that intrinsically conceals its own temperature to thermal cameras. In a laboratory test, a team of applied physicists placed the device on a hot plate and watched it through an infrared camera as the…

In the spirit of Veterans Day, Harvard Undergraduates Honoring Veterans (HUHV) will be hosting its first-ever charity benefit, Standing Tall for Veterans, on Oct. 26 at 4 p.m. in Lecture Hall B of Harvard’s Science Center, 1 Oxford St. At the core of the event, HUHV will honor prominent stand-up comic and television personality Kathy…

Political rallies stir passions, but do they impact the results at the ballot box and ultimately on policy choices? Those are the questions underlying a new research paper co-authored by Harvard Kennedy School Assistant Professors David Yanagizawa-Drott and Daniel Shoag. The paper, titled “Do Political Protests Matter? Evidence from the Tea Party Movement,” is published in the…

Now that the government shutdown is over and the Affordable Care Act has taken effect, how can and should policymakers judge the effectiveness of the new program? That is the question underlining a new paper, “The Affordable Care Act: A User’s Guide to Implementation,” co-authored by Sheila Burke, adjunct lecturer in public policy at Harvard…

The brainchild of a Harvard Kennedy School executive session provided the basis for new legislation recently introduced in the Senate. Jeff Katz MC/MPA 2000 and Listening to Parents, the organization he founded and currently heads, organized the 2011 executive session with 18 experts in adoption and family policy. The effort led to recommendations and a…

It’s not a good idea to cut out all fat from the diet because some fats are “good,” says Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) nutrition expert Dariush Mozaffarian. What’s more, eating some fat can satisfy the appetite longer — which can actually lead to consuming fewer calories. “Total fat intake has little or no impact…

The Arnold Arboretum opens its doors to international percussion group Ensemble Evolution as its first artists-in-residence this November. A collaboration cultivated by local percussionist Maria Finkelmeier, Ensemble Evolution will present a three-part residency in early November highlighting the creative connection between composing and performing music dedicated to and inspired by nature. On Friday, November 8,…

David J. Mooney, Robert P. Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and a core faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, is among seven Harvard affiliates newly elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies. Election to…

Men may be able to boost their sperm counts by eating less processed meats such as bacon, eating more fish, and getting more exercise, according to new research from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). Researchers who looked at lifestyle factors among approximately 150 male infertility patients at Massachusetts General Hospital presented their findings October…

To shed some light on the secret world of special operations forces, the Shorenstein Center invited Linda Robinson, senior international policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. Robinson, author of One Hundred Victories: Special Operations Forces and the Future of American Warfare, has been granted unique and special access to the covert operators, and she shared her thoughts about…

A large new study led by the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies (the Pop Center) aims to shed light on how people in Sub-Saharan Africa are faring as they age, given that both infectious and noninfectious diseases are becoming increasingly chronic, with people surviving longer but having to cope with long-lasting ailments. The study…

As one of only three people with direct contact to Edward Snowden, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bart Gellman shared with the Shorenstein Center how the Snowden leaks about the NSA have affected the U.S. government, marketplace, and democracy. Snowden’s greatest fear, Gellman said, was that either “he would be preempted” in his attempt to “drop a dime…

In fall 2011, Chih Chao “Justin” Yang, M.P.H. ’12, a physician pursuing a career in internal medicine, had an idea for his 1,000-word final project for Rose Goldman’s EH201, “Introduction to Environmental Health” class. With a strong interest in preventive medicine, Yang wanted to increase awareness of the need for governments to stop illegal food manufacturing…

Seven years after the end of Nepal’s armed conflict, civilian victims are still struggling in the absence of effective help from the government, according to a report released Sept. 26 by Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC), in partnership with the advocacy group Center for Civilians in Conflict. According to the report, a…

A year after Christopher Columbus Langdell assumed the deanship of Harvard Law School in 1870 with the promise of making the school competitive and meritocratic, the first woman applied for admission. Helen Sawyer, a 27-year-old New Hampshire resident, wrote: “I trust that under the present liberal tone of Harvard, my sex will post no misfortune…

Never let it be said that a U.S. Supreme Court justice doesn’t keep his work close to his heart. During a lunchtime question-and-answer session at Harvard Law School (HLS) on Oct. 1, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small white booklet. “This a great document, the Constitution of…

In a new study, researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) found that newer combination antiretroviral (ARV) drug therapies for HIV appear to protect against puberty delays among children born with HIV. “We found that youth born with HIV do have a significantly later start to puberty than similar youth without HIV,” said lead…

HarvardX-affiliated researchers have received a grant to study how massive open online courses (MOOCs) might be adapted and personalized based on the demographic data and usage patterns of students. The study, called “MOOCs Personalization for Various Learning Goals,” will be led by Sergiy Nesterko, a HarvardX research fellow, and Svetlana Dotsenko ’10, founder of the…

Resilience — “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change” — is the quality that allows some people to survive the worst situations imaginable, writes Amy Spies, a member of the Harvard School of Public Health Leadership Council, in an October 8, 2013 blog on the Huffington Post. HSPH’s Theresa Betancourt, she writes,…

Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) is launching a master of engineering program in computational science and engineering (CSE) and is now accepting applications for fall 2014 admission. The master of engineering (M.E.) in CSE provides rigorous training in applied mathematics and computing skills. Students will develop and execute a computational approach to…

Racial disparities continue to exert a harmful influence on the health of non-whites in the United States, affecting such measures as obesity rates, infant mortality, and access to health care. Now, a new collaborative effort launched by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Martin Luther King, Jr.…

Older people exposed to aircraft noise, especially at high levels, may face increased risk of being hospitalized for cardiovascular disease, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH). Researchers found that, on average, zip codes with 10-decibel higher aircraft noise had a 3.5%…

Ta-Nehisi Coates, senior editor, writer, and blogger for The Atlantic, shared with the Shorenstein Center his thoughts on the dual society in America – its historical beginning, its impact on policy, and what implications it might have on the country’s future. Coates, who is also the Martin Luther King Visiting Scholar at MIT, said, “I have…

The Harvard University Native American Program in conjunction with the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology will host a visit and public talk by Kevin Gover (Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma), director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian. Gover is a former professor of law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of…

The Harvard University Department of Music is delighted to announce that the Parker Quartet will become part of the Music Department teaching faculty at Harvard University beginning in the fall of 2014. “Thanks to the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence Program, we have been fortunate to have had a Quartet-in-Residence for four weeks a year since 1985,” said…

According to the World Economic Forum’s first Human Capital Report, the U.S. ranked 43rd among 112 countries in the Health and Wellness category, which measured a country’s ability to develop and deploy a healthy workforce. It received particularly low scores in obesity, the impact on business of noncommunicable diseases, and stress. The report was co-authored by David Bloom, Clarence…

Financial reporting is crucial to a fair and functioning democracy, said Laurie Hays, senior executive editor for Beat Reporting at Bloomberg News. The challenge that financial reporters face, she said, is presenting complex economic issues in a way that large audiences can understand. Yet it is important because “the bottom line is…the bottom line,” she said,…

E-cigarettes may help reduce smokers’ exposure to toxins, but they also may cause harm, according to Vaughan Rees, deputy director of the Center for Global Tobacco Control at Harvard School of Public Health. Interviewed on KUOW (Puget Sound Public Radio) on October 2, 2013, Rees said that while e-cigarettes do contain some toxic compounds, they have far less…

From the calming and relaxing properties of lavender, to the antiviral offerings of lemon balm the Harvard Countway Community Garden offers a wealth of medicinal herbs in the heart of Boston’s urban medical area. On September 27, a bright and crisp fall day, Stephanie Zabel led a community talk on medicinal herbs as part of…

Regardless of the political wranglings around the Affordable Care Act (ACA), funding public health prevention efforts must continue, said HSPH Dean Julio Frenk in an op-ed in the Boston Globe on Oct. 2, 2013. He notes that spending on prevention within the ACA has already been reduced from a $15 billion commitment to $10 billion. “Prevention may seem expensive,…