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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 …
Rendering Dreams in Art
… An ice-cream store worker in Seoul wants to explore the Arctic. A Taiwanese nut-seller yearns for her happier days in primary school. In Beijing, a waiter dreams of becoming a chef and serving his grandmother a splendid … complex in Seoul. Although each unit in the generic high-rise buildings is identical, Yeondoo captures the …
Issue: May-June 2025
The New Histories
… In May 1968 , the university’s students wanted to change the world. … that is because the May 1968 unrest at the University of Dakar in Senegal was part of the same general mood around … now see that the same patterns—colonialism, or the rise of small elites controlling vast resources—emerge …
Issue: November-December 2014
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
Seeking the First Speakers of Indo-European Language
… A new study of ancient DNA from 727 individuals who lived in the regions cradling the southern half of the Black Sea, and … root words. But where and when did the original language arise, and who spoke it? Answering such questions has in the …
The Dance of Intellect
… what relationship, if any, poetry has to rational thought. The majority view is that poetry is the literary genre most … entertaining the idea, to drench the idea in a weather of sensibility so as to register its emotional effects. The … chapter on Whitman, she shows us how Whitman's use of reprise as an organizing principle, moving from some perceptual …
Issue: January-February 2005
Art of the Future?
… The Fogg and Busch-Reisinger Museums at 32 Quincy Street … exhibition hinting at the design approach unfolding in the offices of project architect Renzo Piano. All but the original 1927 …
Issue: May-June 2008
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
The Flatland of Photography
… Photographs and comment by Rosamond Wolff Purcell The densely striped Javan tiger, Panthera tigris sondaica, … in the museum, the sine qua non in the metamorphosis of the animals. Layers of organic matter have been stripped away, leaving all flesh …
Behind the Scenes: The Power of Human Connection
… A couple of years ago, a friend of mine—like me, a writer and reporter , and also like me a … very true. People like us, he said, go into journalism for the writing , only to discover that it’s the reporting …
Harvard Sues Over Funding Freeze
… On Monday, Harvard filed suit against the federal government, sending the battle between the … the established procedures for curtailing campus violations of civil rights, such as antisemitism. The demands imposed … later reported that the Trump administration was surprised that Harvard publicly released the letter. In …
Things Fell Apart
… Nicholas Lemann ’76— past dean of Columbia Journalism School, New Yorker staff writer —has … (standardized testing, selective admissions, etc., in The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy … and How It Changed America ). In Transaction Man: The Rise of the Deal and the Decline of the American Dream …
Issue: September-October 2019
“The Path of Most Resistance”
… activist Cecile Richards’s Convocation speech at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH) on Wednesday could not have been … inaction on gun violence, as urgent public-health crises. “Since I’ve left Planned Parenthood, I’ve joined …
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 … to die,” said Harvard Medical School clinical assistant professor Beth Frates, citing the American Heart Association’s … In a talk yesterday at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Frates and Megan Mueller, associate …
Events of the Week
… The commencement festivities conclude with addresses by … JUNE 5 50th Reunion Symposium, at 1:30. "A Half Century of Change: Race, Admissions, and the Harvard Community," … Jones, and John Simon; moderated by Adams University Professor emeritus Bernard Bailyn. Sanders Theatre. Top …