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Attention to Detail
On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, interspersed amid Michelangelo’s famous frescoes—God’s fingertip reaching out toward Adam’s, the sun and planets coming into creation, Adam and Eve banished from Eden—is a series of 10 bronze-painted medallions …
Issue: March-April 2021
Why Americans Love to Hate Harvard
Derek C. Bok , Harvard’s president from 1971 to 1991 and again on an interim basis during the 2006-2007 academic year, faced the challenge of helping the University recover from the shattering Vietnam-era crisis that divided the campus and threatened the …
Issue: March-April 2024
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Massachusetts Hall , for many people, is Harvard. It guides visitors through Johnston Gate into what is now Harvard Yard. Its compact design—pleasingly proportioned Early Georgian red brick with white trim, devoid of frills—defines the architectural idiom …
Issue: July-August 2020
Leaning into Winter
Standing outside Foam Brewers and gazing across parklands and a pedestrian path that skirts the lake, it’s hard to imagine that the land was once packed with abandoned mills and petroleum tanks. “In the ’70s and ’80s, the Burlington waterfront was an …
Issue: November-December 2022
Of Ants and Earth
Formal retirement hasn't slowed E. O. Wilson down at all. Since assuming emeritus status as Pellegrino University Research Professor in 1997, Wilson—the father of sociobiology and biophilia, the most acute student of ants among contemporary scholars, …
Issue: March-April 2003
Brevia
Merkel in May Harvard’s guest speaker following the Commencement exercises on May 30 will be Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany since 2005. President Lawrence S. Bacow called her “one of the most widely admired and broadly influential statespeople of …
Issue: March-April 2019
A President Mended, A University Challenged
President Lawrence S. Bacow, recovered from COVID-19, spoke about his condition, and Harvard’s, during a telephone conversation on Friday, April 3, from his official residence, Elmwood. He has been working there since March 14, according to his …
Alumni News
Aloian Winners Established in 1988 to honor the late David Aloian '49, a former executive director of the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) and master of Quincy House, the Aloian Memorial Scholarships recognize two seniors who have made unique …
Issue: November-December 2002
AI and Adversarial Attacks
The privacy and security issues surrounding big data, the lifeblood of artificial intelligence, are well known: large streams and pools of data make fat targets for hackers. AI systems have an additional vulnerability: inputs can be manipulated in small …
Issue: January-February 2019
Home Sweeter Home
Don’t curb your enthusiasm: Spring is the ideal time to maximize your home’s value, whether by sprucing up your surroundings with a small renovation or leveraging equity for bigger changes. Real-estate, organization, and mortgage experts in and around …
Issue: March-April 2020
Seafaring America
“There are people who come to Mystic just so they can get stuck in traffic at the drawbridge,” says historian Nancy Steenburg ’72, a resident of the picturesque Connecticut town since 1980. The captivating bascule bridge that connects to the village …
Issue: July-August 2022
Video: An Operatic Honorary Degree
At the Morning Exercises , Harvard President Drew Faust conferred an honorary degree on Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg , L ’59. Fellow honorand Plácido Domingo sang the end of the conferral to her. View a video here: …
News Briefs
College Admissions Challenges In late june , the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the limited use of race in admissions decisions, ruling in its second pass at Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin that properly constrained processes for reviewing applicants …
Issue: September-October 2016
Lepore and Longfellow
In "How Longfellow Woke the Dead," Kemper professor of American History Jill Lepore (who also chairs the history and literature program) offers a serious reading of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride," rescuing it from the status of …
Why the Internet of Things Is Big Business
For those outside Silicon Valley , the “Internet of Things” is a buzzword often associated with seemingly superfluous toys for early-adopting consumers: the expensive Apple watch, the oft-ridiculed Google Glass, or a “smart” refrigerator that senses when …
Issue: July-August 2015