all Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study stories

The cultural politics of pain, from Percodan to Kevorkian

404132862 — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:41:20 -0500

On a rainy Tuesday afternoon, physicians, historians of science, and members of the general public gathered in the Gymnasium at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study to hear about pain.

Reform, vigilance needed to boost women in science

404132862 — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 17:03:52 -0400

The pipeline isn’t the problem.

That was the message of speakers addressing the topic of low numbers of women in top academic positions in science and engineering Wednesday (Oct. 10). A national examination of data involving women’s participation in science described not the trickle of qualified candidates coming from high schools, as some had thought, but rather significant numbers of young women arriving at college interested in science.

Young scientists do summer research

50443248 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 09:23:22 -0400

During this short hot summer, approximately 120 undergraduate scientists spent more time on the laboratory bench than at the local beach. These fledgling biologists, chemists, and engineers were participating fellows in the Harvard College Program for Research in Science and Engineering (PRISE), a project that came out of the 2005 report of the President’s Task Force on Science and Engineering headed by Barbara J. Grosz, interim dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Women in science: Good news, bad news

50443248 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 13:52:24 -0400

It is the best of times, and it is the worst of times.

At Harvard’s fourth National Symposium on the Advancement of Women in Science, it was clear why female scientists need to keep meeting like this.

The proportions of women in many scientific fields, notably computer science, are not just low but falling. Some major funding organizations have done little to advance the cause of women in science. And work-at-home scientists, even those on the cutting edge of space exploration, still have to explain to their husbands at the end of the day why the children’s toys are strewn all over the living room.

On the other hand, participants described field after field as being in a “golden age” of one kind or another.

At Radcliffe, microbiologist explains 'biocomplexity'

50443248 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:24:01 -0400

The scientist who revolutionized the study of cholera paid a visit to Harvard this week.

On March 6, microbiologist and oceanographer Rita R. Colwell, a Johns Hopkins University public health researcher, delivered the last in a series of science talks in the 2006-2007 Dean’s Lecture series at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

In three decades of research, Colwell has made major contributions to the understanding of cholera, an intestinal disease so ancient that its symptoms were first described in Sanskrit.

Intersection of race, sex, science prompts questions

50443248 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:53:41 -0400

In 2002, there were no African-American, Hispanic, or Native American women in tenured or tenure-track positions in the top 50 computer science departments in the country.

That lone statistic illustrates that, despite progress made by women in academic science appointments over the past three decades, there is a long way to go, according to Anne Fausto-Sterling, professor of biology and of gender studies at Brown University.

Fausto-Sterling, who delivered an hour-long talk on race, gender, and science Thursday evening (Feb. 15) in the Fairchild Biochemistry Building, wove together statistics, anecdotes, and published firsthand accounts of would-be scientists to explain the problems still facing women interested in science as a career.

Hormones in milk can be dangerous

50443248 — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 09:58:49 -0400

Ganmaa Davaasambuu is a physician (Mongolia), a Ph.D. in environmental health (Japan), a fellow (Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study), and a working scientist (Harvard School of Public Health).

On Monday (Dec. 4), she drew on all those roles during a lunchtime talk to most of her fellow fellows.

Ganmaa's topic was lunch-appropriate: the suspected role of cow's milk, cheese, and other dairy products in hormone-dependent cancers. (Those include cancers of the testes, prostate, and breast.)

The link between cancer and dietary hormones - estrogen in particular - has been a source of great concern among scientists, said Ganmaa, but it has not been widely studied or discussed.

MacArthur Foundation honors Harvard faculty members, Radcliffe fellow

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:28:04 -0400

Harvard faculty members and a Radcliffe fellow probing the mysteries of stem cells, the early universe, the modern practice of surgery, and the significance of public sights and modern ruins were honored Sept. 19 with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's $500,000, no-strings-attached "genius grants."

The four are Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology Kevin Eggan, Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management and Assistant Professor of Surgery Atul Gawande, Professor of Astronomy and of Physics Matias Zaldarriaga, and Radcliffe fellow Anna Schuleit.

The four join 21 other MacArthur Foundation fellows engaged in a broad spectrum of endeavors - from deep sea exploring to journalism to sculpting - who have in common creativity and originality.

Wing color not just for looks

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:41:13 -0400

Harvard and Russian researchers have documented natural selection's role in the creation of new species through a process called reinforcement, where butterfly wing colors differ enough to avoid confusion with other species at mating time, helping the butterflies avoid creating less-fit hybrid offspring.

Though more distantly related species tend to be more physically distinct, researchers found this was not the case with species of the blue butterfly Agrodiaetus, found in a broad swath across much of Central Asia and Europe. Researchers found instead that species that might be expected to have the most trouble telling each other apart had the greatest differences in wing color.

That meant that newly diverged species living in the same area that could still mate and have hybrid young had more distinctive wing colors than other closely-related species that had diverged at an earlier time, as well as those living in different areas from each other.

Hessel Professor of Biology Naomi Pierce said a critical factor in this research is the fact that the butterflies are still closely related enough that they can - and sometimes do - interbreed. The hybrids created by this interbreeding, however, are less fit than the parents. That makes it advantageous for parents to ensure more offspring will survive by developing distinguishing characteristics, such as male wing color, and thereby avoiding the costly mistake of mating outside their own species.

"The fact that the hybrids are less viable drives the divergence between the parent species," Pierce said. "Wing colors must be one of the first traits the butterflies use to recognize the right mate."

The research was published in the July 21, 2005 issue of the journal Nature.

Getting to fear you

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:22:12 -0400

Researchers showed some 20 young black and white women and men pictures of a snake and a spider, followed by pictures of a bird and a butterfly. Humans, apes, and monkeys have a harder time shaking off a learned fear of snakes than of butterflies. Would humans demonstrate the same difference of feeling for people of a difference race who they perceived as a threat? To make a long story short - yes.

All this goes to help determine if fear of outsiders is inborn or acquired by experience. Is biology to blame, or is it an acquired dislike?

In the next part of the experiment, 37 black men and women and 36 whites were shown pictures of two frightening black and two frightening white male faces. Male faces were used because they are considered more intimidating than females.

Following that, everyone received a mild electric shock along with a showing of one of the white and one of the black faces. Finally, the subjects viewed all the faces without the discomfort of an electric jolt. The question to answer was whether blacks would show greater fear of intimidating white faces than of threatening black faces, and vice versa.

Psychologists use a time-tested way to measure fear - how much someone sweats. Fear opens the pores of sweat glands in the skin more than neutral emotions.

You may have guessed the result. Fear of the face from the other race persisted longer than fear from the face of the same race. Both found it easier to overcome fears of faces of their own race.

Although the study did not directly speak to dread of terrorists of the same and other races directly, it is suggestive. "The greater persistence of fear to members of other groups suggests that we may persist in our fear of acts of terrorism committed by those who are different than us," says Mahzarin Banaji, a professor of psychology at Harvard who participated in the research. "So, an unknown Muslim terrorist may provoke a greater persistence of fear than, say, Timothy McVeigh (the Oklahoma bomber) may have in Americans."

Task Forces on Women release findings

50443248 — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:04:42 -0400

Harvard's Task Forces on Women Faculty and on Women in Science and Engineering, appointed three months ago to address concerns of women faculty and women in science throughout the University, Monday (May 16) released reports calling for large-scale changes in the way the University recruits faculty and supports women and underrepresented minorities pursuing academic careers.

Radcliffe conference looks at biological systems

50443248 — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:00:41 -0400

With the rapid advance of technology opening new frontiers of knowledge, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study looked at the increasingly detailed understanding of biological systems last week (May 6) as well as the potential of that knowledge for future applications.
The Radcliffe Institute's "Designing Biology" conference drew about 300 to a daylong program of talks, panel discussions, and poster sessions about the cutting edge of biology and how our increasingly detailed understanding of biological systems can be used to influence how they operate.

Brain shows unconscious prejudices

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:30:49 -0400

A brain area involved with fear flashes more actively when white college students are exposed to subliminal views of black versus white faces. The students didn't actually "see" the faces, which were sandwiched between two patterns they viewed while undergoing brain scans. But they had a clear, deep-brain reaction to them. The same type of bias shows up in Web site tests taken by hundreds of thousands of other people. They reveal unconscious prejudice against the elderly, gays, women, the obese, and a wide range of other groups. Such brain and behavior tests might lead you to view the world as a grim place suffused with hidden hate and fear. But evidently things are not that bad. When white subjects undergoing brain scans see the black face long enough for it to register consciously, brain areas involved with controlled thinking become active. The differences in reactions to black and white faces then decrease. "The imprint of culture is what we see in the subliminal exposure," explains Mahzarin Banaji, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University. "Seeing the face consciously allows thoughts and feelings to generate a more reasoned response to the face in view."

Radcliffe conference presents research on lethal school violence

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:22:26 -0400

Educators, policy-makers, law enforcement officials, and adolescent-development specialists came to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study on May 21, 2002, for the National Conference on Lethal School Violence. The conference centerpiece was the report "Deadly Lessons: Understanding Lethal School Violence," a qualitative and quantitative study of incidents of lethal school shootings released by the National Academies of Science on May 17. The report, commissioned by Congress, studied six incidences of lethal school violence in the 1990s. While the conference offered no quick fixes or easy answers, researchers found that spotlight-grabbing culprits such as family instability and violent media images played a role in some but not all of the shootings.

Psychology professor Mahzarin Banaji probes prejudices we won't admit

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:20:29 -0400

From the classroom to the cocktail party, opinions like "men are better at math," "Asians make the best violinists," or "women cannot be strong corporate leaders" are unpopular. Yet, says psychologist Mahzarin Banaji, we all carry prejudices like these. We just don't admit to them, because in many cases, we don't know they're there. Banaji is interested in teasing out these unconscious -- or implicit -- attitudes about social group membership. Often, she says, they stand in contrast to the feelings and beliefs that we comfortably trot out in public. Banaji has been studying implicit attitudes for nearly 20 years. She is now moving her work beyond the laboratory and into arenas like law or medicine, where attitudes and prejudices might affect decisions daily.