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“Magical Digressions”
Remember that Seinfeld episode where Kramer was collecting skeletons and refurbishing them to museum quality by washing the bones in Jerry’s dishwasher so he could sell them off? No? Maybe that’s because it never happened. Television writer, director, and …
Issue: January-February 2021
The Shows Go On
Tune into WHRB, Harvard’s student-run radio station, just after midnight on a Sunday and you’ll hear the thumping bass of hip-hop, the staccato pulses of rap, and the soulful cadences of R&B. These beats, part of WHRB’s black music department, The Darker …
Issue: January-February 2021
The Harvard Center for Gastrophysics?
Surprise is Ferran Adrià’s stock in trade. He delights the diners at elBulli, his restaurant near Barcelona, with creations such as gelatin served hot; a “bubble tea” drink in which the liquid tastes of prosciutto and the bubbles of melon; and …
Issue: March-April 2009
Extracurriculars
Seasonal • April 30 to May 3 www.fas.harvard.edu/arts 617-495-8690/76 The annual Arts First festival, free and open to the public, offers an undergraduate Smörgåsbord of dances, concerts, plays, and other performances. President Drew Faust honors this …
Issue: March-April 2009
Endowment Declines 22 Percent through October 31
Going beyond the disclosures made on November 10 and November 18 , the University on December 2 released new information to deans and financial administrators indicating that the value of Harvard's endowment had declined 22 percent through October 31. (It …
$125-Million Gift for Bioengineering
Hansjörg Wyss, M.B.A. ’65, who became president of the U.S. division of Synthes in 1977 and drove the company to global leadership as a manufacturer of medical devices during the ensuing 30 years (he stepped down as CEO in 2007), has given the University …
Anthologizing Yourself
After squeezing nearly 1,000 years of creativity into the Norton Anthology of Poetry , Mary Jo Salter ’76 began the smaller but still consuming task of anthologizing her own verse. The result, A Phone Call to the Future , revives selected poems from her …
Issue: July-August 2008
Global Gains
Photograph by Justin Ide/Harvard News Office Jorge I. Domínguez Harvard’s engagement with the world widened significantly during the fall term. New or enlarged programs of scholarship and study involving Brazil, Egypt, and South Asia were launched. A …
Issue: January-February 2008
Beyond the Genome
During the past few decades , most scientific research into the causes of autism has been focused on the structural wiring of the brain and on the genes that control it. Evidence of chronic sickness or general physical discomfort in autistic children has …
Issue: January-February 2008
Think Tank for Aid Workers
After Michael J. VanRooyen finished his residency in emergency medicine in 1991, he went to Somalia. Eager to see how his medical training would translate into the context of a poor nation torn by civil war, VanRooyen concluded very quickly that it …
Issue: November-December 2007
Reading the Tea Leaves
Commencements provide annual practice in uniting the Harvard community and celebrating its members, performing rituals, and parading around in funny costumes. Installations may appear similar, but are relatively infrequent (Claudine Gay’s, on September …
Issue: September-October 2023
Off the Shelf
This Is Not My Memoir, by André Gregory ’56 and Todd London (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $26). The avant-garde director, famous for his role in My Dinner with André , commits a memoir in cinematic short takes. They are bluntly, memorably framed, as in the …
Issue: November-December 2020
The Dark History Behind Chocolate
On a Thursday afternoon in late March, social anthropologist Carla Martin begins her lecture with a warning that might seem out of place at first in a course all about chocolate, one of the most delicious and beloved substances in the world. “You’re going …
The Will of the Donor
As an intern at Harvard’s Villa I Tatti in the summer of 2023, I spent my days in a sun-drenched Tuscan villa, studying in the wood-paneled library and sharing homemade Italian lunches paired with Harvard-label wine. Fresh focaccia was served every …
Issue: November-December 2024
"The Gates of Paradise"
The main baptistery doors of the Duomo in Florence, created by Lorenzo Ghiberti between 1425 and 1452, are among the masterpieces that ushered in the Renaissance. Michelangelo himself declared them “worthy to be the gates of Paradise.” Each bronze door …
Issue: March-April 2007