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Debating the Moral Status of the Embryo
Should stem-cell scientists be able to destroy even early-stage human embryos in order to advance medicine? That question has been framed in many different ways. When does life begin? At conception? At implantation? When the heart starts to beat at 22 …
Issue: July-August 2004
Arts' Rising Place
The practice of the arts is in the ascendant at Harvard. And even though there is not now enough space to contain this explosion of student talent and creativity, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), in a move that bodes well for future artistic …
Issue: May-June 2004
Thank the Rich for Low Rates?
Could wealth accumulation by the rich in the United States have contributed to a savings glut so great that it has forced down interest rates? The inexplicably low cost of borrowing that has persisted worldwide for nearly two decades is often attributed …
Issue: January-February 2022
Lighting the World
During the past few decades, colorful abstractions by Ellen Carey have exemplified the Greek origins of the word photography— pho - s for light, graphis for drawing. “I capture light working with film and chemistry” while mining the materiality of the …
Issue: November-December 2023
The First-Generation Gap
On any given day in Harvard Yard, you can find students wearing shirts that say “Primus Pride.” They are members of the First Generation Student Union (FGSU), a student organization created in 2013 that exists, according to its president Andrew Pérez ’20, …
Harvard Humor
At year-end, Harvard people are popping up in summaries of 2010, occasionally in humorous ways. Among the newsmakers highlighted by The Onion, the online satirical daily, is former Harvard Law School dean Elena Kagan, who graduated from her role as …
A Man and His Castle
Hammond Castle Museum is a romantic pastiche of medieval and Renaissance European architecture, a passionate testament to the past where John Hays Hammond Jr. foresaw the technological future. The prolific inventor built the massive dwelling, with its …
Issue: November-December 2020
Why We Eat What We Do
In the spring of 1910, the freshmen of the Harvard Class of 1913 sat down at New American House in Boston, white tablecloths and all, for a typically extravagant meal. The first course: a Cotuit cocktail, made with local Cotuit oysters. The eighth: …
Due Process
As recently as 10 years ago, Jeannie Suk Gersen was still telling people that the area of law she specialized in—sexual assault and domestic violence—didn’t hold much interest for the general public. A quiet corner of the profession, she thought. …
Issue: March-April 2021
How Physics Can Be Used to Manipulate a Coin Toss
Ever lost a coin toss? In theory, the odds could have gone your way or the other. The stakes may or may not have been low for you, but millions of dollars are regularly waged on the outcome of the Super Bowl coin toss. But what if a coin lands on its …
Sculpture That Breathes
“In sculpture , you are always fighting the deadness of a thing,” says Murray Dewart ’70, paraphrasing Victorian critic Walter Pater. “The secret of sculpture is getting the feeling that the life force is pushing from the inside out. You get it in bread.” …
Issue: November-December 2013
The Health Benefits of Owning a Pet
Today is National Pet Day , and pet owners have another reason to celebrate: their pets are helping them live healthier, longer lives. “Pet owners are less likely to die,” said Harvard Medical School clinical assistant professor Beth Frates, citing the …
The 2013 Centennial Medalists
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Centennial Medal, first awarded in 1989 on the occasion of the school’s hundredth anniversary, honors alumni who have made contributions to society that emerged from their graduate study at Harvard. It is the …
The Poco of Pocos
The “Poco of Pocos” was Bernard Butekan, a secondhand-clothes dealer (“clo’man”), a Harvard celebrity, and the first in a series of rag dealers who played a surprisingly large role in the culture of students, faculty members, and the broader University …
Issue: September-October 2021
An Earlier Bid for Mastery
New genetic knowledge may let us manipulate our nature: beef up our muscles, brush up our memory, make designer children. What’s wrong with that? Bass professor of government Michael J. Sandel proposes an answer in The Case against Perfection: Ethics in …
Issue: May-June 2007