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The Way of The Blockbuster
… In 2006, Chris Anderson, then editor of Wired magazine, published The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More . He argued that the …
Issue: January-February 2014
For the Joy of It
… Last year, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (HRO), formerly known as the Pierian Sodality of 1808, celebrated its bicentennial. It could claim to be … Orchestra (1900) arrived decades later (see “ Two Centuries of Sound ,” May-June 2008, page 23). But in its early years, …
Issue: September-October 2009
The Way of Trout
… across a calm pond. At least that's true for many kinds of fish, whose body structure allows them to capitalize on turbulence and use the water's energy to propel themselves forward by bouncing off eddies in an alternating side-to-side motion, like a …
Issue: March-April 2004
A Space-Age Project for Harvard’s Plant Collection
… plants from space. Plants don’t just power ecosystems—they are the foundation of life, harnessing the sun’s energy to produce food, wood, … ago, they reshaped the biosphere, influencing the evolution of nearly all living organisms. Understanding plant …
Issue: July-August 2025
Seeds of Greatness
… Of all the seed-bearing plants on earth, the angiosperms, or … plants, have been the most successful. There are 250,000 of them, as compared to a mere 750 of everything else: a … the fruits, vegetables, and grains, for example. The rise of the angiosperms 140 million years ago, in the early …
The Magic of Luigi Lucioni
… The Shelburne Museum’s exhibition “Luigi Lucioni: Modern Light,” through October 16, offers a close look at the artist, who, when pressed, … world as “super realism.” It’s the first comprehensive show of his paintings, works on paper, and ephemera at a major …
Issue: September-October 2022
Duel for the Heart of Texas
… Everything is bigger in the Lone Star State--including the political fights. This … implications. Last Man Standing: Politics Texas Style, part of PBS's P.O.V. series, takes a behind-the-scenes look at … to tell us about the politics that George W. Bush came out of," says Stekler, a former political consultant who now …
Issue: July-August 2004
Beasts of the Big Screen
… “We wanted to see dinosaurs in places we’ve never seen them before.” It’s not the sort of mission statement you hear every day, especially since … the creatures in question have been extinct for millions of years. But Emily Carmichael ’04 is talking about Jurassic …
Issue: July-August 2022
"Hypochondria of the Heart"
… In 1688 a Swiss doctor, Johannes Hofer, identified a new medical syndrome, nostalgia : "the sad mood originating from the desire for return to one's native land." Various displaced Swiss of the seventeenth century suffered from the …
Issue: September-October 2001
The Federal Fisc
… L ONG BEFORE the presidential primaries, or a paralyzing pandemic, … by the national elections, that mattered to the future of the country—and that would probably be addressed … terms of health value received for dollars spent, may surprise you. It has certainly proven resistant to political …
Karen Dynan , Douglas Elmendorf
Issue: May-June 2020
The Curse of Adonis
… When professor of psychiatry Harrison G. Pope Jr. '69, M.P.H. '72, M.D. … in 1980, it was seen as "rare and exotic. Certainly not the kind of thing that a Harvard faculty member would do," … faculty pump iron at gyms, along with Pope and millions of others across the country. "There's been a drastic …
The Resurrection of the Marlboro Man
… Battles about the future of smoking have always been waged over children. … tobacco companies, the young represent the next generation of smokers. Public-health advocates like Barry Bloom and Jay …
Issue: September-October 2019
A New Story of Suffrage
… If the women’s suffrage movement took place today, what would … to spread the word about their cause. Today’s world of online activism can feel deprived of that vitality—which … during this period, including industrialization and the rise of wage labor, might provide a richer explanation for …
Issue: May-June 2019
Education for the Soul
… In India, where she has conducted research, and in the United States, where she teaches, Martha C. Nussbaum … and a flourishing business culture”—but at the expense of humanistic education to “promote a climate of responsible … over the world will soon be producing generations of useful machines, rather than complete citizens who can think for …
Issue: July-August 2010
The Law of Gravity
… What goes up indeed comes down. Following the breathtaking 32.2 percent return on investments for the … in 1983. The change in direction could hardly surprise anyone who paid attention to an environment that HMC … percent endowment return exceeded the aggregate performance of HMC's "policy portfolio" (the weighted mix of different …
Issue: November-December 2001