Research & Ideas

Discover Harvard research, scholarship, and ideas shaping the world—from science and technology to policy, education, and the humanities.

A man in a suit waves while smiling, with greenery in the background.

Remembering Jack Reardon

He was Harvard’s quintessential people person.

by Jonathan Shaw

The tiny-billed tody bird

An entomologist at work on the Encyclopedia of Life

In the Dominican Republic, a project to write the first chapter in the encyclopedia of life

by Jonathan Shaw

Who Built the Pyramids?

Not slaves. Archaeologist Mark Lehner, digging deeper, discovers a city of privileged workers.

by Jonathan Shaw

Skulls of a Neanderthal from Amud (not pictured) and an early human from Skhul show morphological differences between the two groups.

Human origins driven by technological and cultural revolutions

Ofer Bar-Yosef argues that cultural and technological revolutions have been more important than biological ones during the past 100, 000 years.

by Jonathan Shaw

Thomas Forrest Kelly teaches about “First NIghts”—musical premieres

A look at Thomas Forrest Kelly’s Harvard Core course on five musical premieres