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Letting Go of the “Ideal” Classroom
I love the way that patches of wild yellow-rayed goldfields slightly reflect the sunlight of the California coast. The stalks of these wildflowers can reach as high as my waist, and their deep green leaves shoot out from the entire length in fractals. …
Quantum Leaps
In the fall of 2009, between matinée and evening performances in The Nutcracker at the Boston Opera House , Merritt Moore ’11 would decompress in the basement of Harvard’s Jefferson Laboratory. “I’d take off the tutu and the pointe shoes and the crown, …
Issue: May-June 2024
The “Messy Experiment”
O n November 20, 1960, scientist Mary Ingraham Bunting unveiled her vision for the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study. Newly appointed as Radcliffe’s president, she made her announcement just weeks after the country had elected John F. Kennedy ’40, …
Issue: May-June 2020
“Drip, Drip, Drip”
Erwin Cai ’20 knew he should make a defensive move. The problem was execution. A sabre fencer since age eight, he predicted that his opponent was about to attack. If he could parry and riposte—block the Yale captain’s attack and go in for his own—he …
Issue: May-June 2020
Friends of Harvard Magazine
The Friends of Harvard Magazine group was established to demonstrate Harvard Magazine' s appreciation for donors who make an especially generous contribution of $100 or more. To recognize and strengthen that bond, Harvard Magazine holds special events …
Talk, Part I: On Service to Country
America is fighting two wars. Related issues arose twice during the formal Commencement-week activities. President Drew Faust, addressing her first Reserve Officers’ Training Corps commissioning ceremony on June 4, delivered a nuanced, historical analysis …
Issue: July-August 2008
An Argument for Music
The first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto ended, and Carnegie Hall erupted in applause. Joshua Bell, whose dazzling solos and severe good looks had fired the crowd, pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped it theatrically across his brow. …
Issue: July-August 2008
Harvard Credit for High-Schoolers
“This is a story about kids succeeding, about the success of an experiment,” says Cabot professor of American literature Elisa New, describing the online poetry course she taught last fall to an unusual set of enrollees: eleventh- and twelfth-graders from …
Issue: March-April 2020
Talented Eccentrics
Within living memory, computer programming was handicraft. Individual programmers strained to create works that were both useful and beautiful—the two virtues went together. In 1984, Steven Levy’s book Hackers thrillingly documented this heroic age of …
Issue: March-April 2007
Sweeping Change for Science
The University Planning Committee for Science and Engineering released on July 14 a preliminary report outlining a comprehensive and sweeping strategy to strengthen science at Harvard. Among the highlights, the 97-page report ( PDF ) calls for up to 140 …
Issue: September-October 2006
Is Nuclear Power Scalable?
Heinz professor of environmental policy John Holdren, who holds a joint appointment in the Faculty of Arts and Science’s department of earth and planetary sciences, counts himself among the environmentalists who believe a contribution from the expansion …
Issue: May-June 2006
Serving on the Corporation
D. Ronald Daniel : While the bylaws do not set any limits with respect to time or age, within the last 10 years the Corporation itself has more or less agreed that 10 years or age 72, depending on when somebody arrives at the Corporation, would be the …
Issue: May-June 2006
Spellbound on Stage
“If you want me to, you know, pretend to be a raccoon, I can do that really well,” says actor, singer, and author Aislinn Brophy ’17. “Anything that involves music and movement. That’s kind of an odd, specific theater thing. But I find that I get cast a …
Issue: March-April 2024
The Dark Side of Daylight Saving
Karin Johnson ’99 was paying close attention earlier this month when the U.S. Senate voted on the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent starting next year. When senators approved the bill—to the cheers of many Americans …
The Black…and the Red
H arvard achieved its sixth consecutive budget surplus—some $298 million, up from $196 million in the prior year—according to the University’s annual financial report for the fiscal period ended June 30, 2019, published in late October. The surpluses …
Issue: January-February 2020