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Harvardians Short-listed for National Book Awards
University affiliates were named finalists in all four National Book Award categories today. In nonfiction, Kemper professor of American history Jill Lepore was nominated for Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin. A Bancroft Prize winner …
Negatively Curved Crystals
In Norman Juster’s children’s book The Phantom Tollbooth , the land of infinity can be reached by following a line drawn on the ground for all eternity, then taking a left at the end. Fortunately, for viewers in a hurry, an exhibition now on display on …
Shedding Light on Life
The scenes are familiar from biology textbooks. A long string of DNA is copied to form a matching strand. A virus infects a cell by stealing through its membrane. Two white blood cells meet and confer before launching an immune attack. In textbooks, all …
Issue: May-June 2008
Harvard’s Endowment to Go “Greenhouse-Gas Neutral” by 2050
Harvard’s endowment will become greenhouse-gas (GHG) neutral by 2050, University president Lawrence Bacow announced in an email to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) today, one day before the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day. “With this commitment, …
Orchestrating Attention: “The Most Substantive Work You Can Do”
While quarantining , California-based artist and writer Jenny Odell, who sees walking as fundamental to thinking, found her usual refuge, Oakland’s Morcom Amphitheatre of Roses, closed. Instead, as she told viewers tuning into the Graduate School of …
Emerging Maine Artists
Maine-based art can sometimes exhibit tired tropes: lobster buoys piled on a wharf; sailboats dotting a sunny harbor; pine trees and craggy rocks along the ocean. There’s none of that, though, in As We Are. This show of works by 14 emerging Maine artists …
Issue: March-April 2025
NSF Announces New Family-Friendly Policies
The White House and the National Science Foundation (NSF) have announced a new series of policies, the “NSF Career-Life Balance Initiative,” that aim to give researchers—particularly women—more flexibility in balancing parenthood with workplace demands, …
Artful Campus
Visitors to Harvard Business School (HBS) know its corridors are enriched with a significant, thought-provoking, collection of contemporary art (see “Rethinking the Walls,” January-February 2013). Now the grounds are enlivened as well: not only with new …
Issue: November-December 2016
In Search of the Social Microbiome
The microbial flora that inhabits the gut, skin, lung, and oral cavity of humans and other animals is thought to play a critical role in regulating metabolism and immunity. Any disruption or imbalance in that mix, a growing body of literature suggests, …
Issue: September-October 2024
Elevating Climate Issues
In early September, as students were settling into their fall classes, the University announced the creation of a new post, vice provost for climate and sustainability, that signaled an elevated level of coordinated action and research on global warming. …
Issue: November-December 2021
Harvard 34, Holy Cross 6
A scintillating performance by senior quarterback Andrew Hatch helped Harvard to a 34-6 win over Holy Cross in a season-opening night game at the Stadium on Saturday. Hatch, who transferred from Louisiana State University in 2009, got the starting …
Harvard Headlines: Fiction by E.O. Wilson, David Cutler on Healthcare, and More
The New Yorker in recent weeks has been full of items with Crimson connections. Last week's issue (dated February 1) had two: Architecture critic Paul Goldberger's glowing review of the work of Jeanne Gang , M.Arch. ’93, including the new Aqua apartment …
New Corporation member
Patricia A. King, J.D. ’69 was elected to the seven-member Harvard Corporation on December 4, succeeding Conrad K. Harper, J.D. ’65, who resigned last July. The University news release is posted here. [Update: See “ The Corporation, Completed ,” from our …
Reconstructing the Berlin Wall
Growing up in Northampton, Massachusetts, novelist David Leo Rice ’10 sensed there was something lurking beneath the surface of things. Meandering through the aisles of his local video store, he was convinced the VHS tapes were portals to other worlds. At …
Issue: July-August 2025
Blanche Calloway, Cab’s Enterprising Older Sister
Before swing-era singer, actor, and bandleader Cab Calloway was a household name, he wasn’t even the biggest name in his household. That distinction went to Blanche Calloway, his vocalist older sister and the first woman to lead an all-male jazz …
Issue: May-June 2022