News

    New Data Posted

    October 4, 2011

    Please note that new data has been posted for our Genomics: Knowledge, Attitude, and Politics survey.  The data includes top line results for all respondents as well as by race.  The data is available on the Advisory Committee page. 

    New Esri Patch Available for Business Analyst

    November 7, 2011

    A new patch is now available to improve the accuracy of analyses when you use custom data (custom BDS layers) in Esri Business Analyst Desktop 10. If you’re using Business Analyst Desktop 10, you should download the patch now, even if you don’t use the custom data function. Installing the patch won't take long and it provides you with the latest updates to ensure optimal performance of Business...

    Read more about New Esri Patch Available for Business Analyst

    WorldMap Map Warper Online Geo-referencing Tool

    November 7, 2011

    The CGA Map Warper (http://warp.worldmap.harvard.edu/) is a new WorldMap (http://worldmap.harvard.edu) tool for digitally aligning/rectifying/geo-referencing scanned historical or other kinds of maps such as satellite or aerial photography images. Visitors can browse already rectified maps or upload their own maps and georeference them. Any rectified image can then be exported as GeoTIFFs or as web services...

    Read more about WorldMap Map Warper Online Geo-referencing Tool

    GIS for Humanists: 2-day workshop at Harvard - deadline 11/15

    November 7, 2011

    This two day workshop offers hands on instruction in basic GIS tools and techniques for Humanists addressing an array of questions for both their own research interests and class pedagogy. Short research overviews by Harvard scholars who are using GIS in the Humanities will encourage discussion on how GIS can enhance and indeed transform research. Registration is limited to 30 participants. No previous GIS experience is necessary. Learn more and apply online on our...

    Read more about GIS for Humanists: 2-day workshop at Harvard - deadline 11/15

    Searching for the origins of life... and our future (BBC News)

    November 8, 2011

    By Karen Weintraub Cambridge, Massachusetts
    November 8, 2011

    Hollywood is wrong about aliens. They don't have oddly shaped
    heads, bulging eyes or even an eery green hue. Dimitar Sasselov is
    pretty convinced of that.

    He's not even sure we'll know them when we see them. Prof
    Sasselov, an astrophysicist, thinks that if life exists elsewhere - and
    he believes it does - it will likely be based on different building
    blocks than ours, and so may not even be recognizable as life.

    A project he's heading at Harvard University, called the Origins of
    ...

    Read more about Searching for the origins of life... and our future (BBC News)

    Is There a City on Pluto? Before You Answer, Consider: We've Never Looked.

    November 10, 2011

    Link to Time Magazine article

    Before Ed Turner and Avi Loeb tell you about their research, they want to make one thing perfectly clear: they do not claim there's a city on Pluto. But if there were, they say, we could see it. And, as they suggest in a paper they've submitted to the journal Astrobiology, it's worth taking a look, just in case.

    ... Read more about Is There a City on Pluto? Before You Answer, Consider: We've Never Looked.

    Site established!

    December 5, 2011

    To make good on Alyssa Goodman's promise at the "Milky Way 2011" meeing held in Rome this past September, the site "universe3d.org" has been established.  By 2012, it will be populated with links to existing data sets, software, and other useful material.    Much of this population will come from twitter posts by people like YOU, using the hashtag #universe3d.  Feel free to start now!  We'll help organize whatever you...

    Read more about Site established!

    NASA’s Kepler Spacecraft Announces Two Earth-Size Planets Are Discovered

    December 21, 2011

    Astronomers from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft announced Tuesday that they had discovered a pair of planets the size of Earth orbiting a distant star. The new planets, one about as big as Earth and the other slightly smaller than Venus, are the smallest yet found beyond the solar system. Harvard Astronomy Professor David Charbonneau was a member of the team that made the observations, led by his colleague Francois Fressin.... Read more about NASA’s Kepler Spacecraft Announces Two Earth-Size Planets Are Discovered

    Tough Science: Five Experiments as Hard as Finding the Higgs - feature Astronomy Alumni

    January 10, 2012

    This article appeared in Nature magazine entitled "Tough Science: Five Experiments as Hard as Finding the Higgs," by science writer Nicola Jones,The five projects with highlighted researchers that he selected are:

    Seventh Harvard-Smithsonian Conference on Theoretical Astrophysics: Testing General Relativity (GR)

    January 30, 2012

    		 Registration is now open for the Seventh Harvard-Smithsonian Conference on Theoretical Astrophysics: Testing General Relativity (GR) with Astrophysical Systems, to be held May 14th through 17th, 2012 in Cambridge, MA. For the scientific program, list of speakers and information, please visit http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/events/2012/sackler/... Read more about Seventh Harvard-Smithsonian Conference on Theoretical Astrophysics: Testing General Relativity (GR)

    The Art of Science Exhibit - Feb 11 - April 7, Kimball Art Center

    February 6, 2012

    Many of you watched the spiral arm movie on the ITC display near the elevator. This beautiful movie, produced by the ITC members: Elena D'Onghia, Mark Vogelsberger, and Lars Hernquist, has been selected to be exhibited between 2/11-4/7, 2012 at the Kimball Art Center, in Park City, Utah, http://www.kimballartcenter.org/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibitions
    ... Read more about The Art of Science Exhibit - Feb 11 - April 7, Kimball Art Center

    ABLConnect

    February 7, 2012

    In the coming weeks PEBLSS will be rolling out a new system, "ABLConnect", that will collect and categorize materials for lessons used in classes with the Activity Based Learning designation by the Bok Center. This will be a searchable database that is coded for easy access and searching. It will let faculty around the campus see how ABL is concretely being used.

    Faculty interested in having their materials collected, categorized, and presented should contact Leslie Finger, leslie.finger@gmail.com, PEBLSS program manager, for more information.

    Read more about ABLConnect

    Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy to Heather A. Knutson, Astronomy PhD '09

    February 8, 2012

    The Annie Jump Cannon Award for outstanding research and promise for future research by a woman goes to Heather Knutson (Caltech) "for her pioneering work on the characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres." Knutson's groundbreaking observations of wavelength-dependent thermal emission of exoplanets over large fractions of their orbit have revealed details of atmospheric dynamics, energy transport, inversion layers, and chemical composition. Her work has expanded the rich field of planetary characterization by providing new windows into the atmospheres of planets beyond the confines of our solar system.

    ... Read more about Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy to Heather A. Knutson, Astronomy PhD '09

    Synopsis: Tidal Disruption of a Star (N. Stone and A. Loeb)

    February 9, 2012

    NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Swift

    The cores of most galaxies are thought to harbor black holes with masses of a million or more suns. But many remain unseen until an unlucky star passes too close and is pulled apart by tidal forces. The stellar debris gathers into a disk and spirals towards the black hole in the center. As it does, it may form a jet of material that beams high-energy light like a flashlight. Last spring, the Swift satellite measured a flare of x rays and gamma rays from a distant galaxy that has the hallmarks of such a jet that happens to point right at us.... Read more about Synopsis: Tidal Disruption of a Star (N. Stone and A. Loeb)

Pages