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AI Anxiety
… is successful, and three areas for potential improvement.” The machine spat out an answer instantly, and as I watched … 10 seconds. Not all the advice was useful, but as a semi-professional writer and editor, I felt reasonably confident … this paper was years old, and I used AI to revise it out of curiosity. I abide by the Harvard honor code, and all the …
Issue: March-April 2025
Trailblazer in Space Science: The Legacy of Harvard's Ursula B. Marvin
… are people who revel in discovery and disperse dusty clouds of ignorance. Among them was Ursula B. Marvin, who teased solar system secrets … evolution from Apollo samples, and helped create the field of planetary geology—becoming a pioneer among women …
Issue: July-August 2023
Does High Blood Sugar Blunt the Benefits of Exercise?
… Why do some people benefit more from exercise than others? The scientific literature on the subject points to … that these individuals can’t reap the full health benefits of aerobic exercise. The mystery of what causes that low response is more than a mere point …
Issue: September-October 2022
Theory of the "Marathon Man"
… You're watching the Boston Marathon, awestruck, as always, by the runners' … the elite runners at the front calmly keep up a pace most of us couldn't maintain for a single lap around the track. … at more-than-respectable speeds. Pulling up the rear, back-of-the-packers come grunting and groaning, huffing and …
Issue: May-June 2003
The Student Commencement Speakers
… The 372nd Commencement exercises on Thursday, May 25, will … taught science and math. From his aptly-named hometown of Athens, Georgia, Meadows improved his Latin, winning … exactly how they function: “I think they’re really nifty machines that can do amazing chemistry." When Chou applied …
Death of the Students' Dean
… Archie C. Epps III Jon Chase / Harvard News Office Archie C. Epps III , B.D. '61, Harvard College dean of students from 1971 to 1999, died August 21 of … that showed him being ejected from University Hall during the 1969 takeover, tie crisply in place, Epps is better …
Issue: November-December 2003
The Story of Teach For America
… if progress was made against poverty. Wendy Kopp thought there was another way to make a difference. She began recruiting graduates of top universities to serve as teachers in the toughest … have taught as corps members—a number that will surely rise again with dozens more expected to join after they …
“Global Whitemanism”
… a dark book about a dark subject. Walter Johnson burst onto the historical scene with the 1999 publication of his influential Soul by Soul , which positioned the slave … cotton prices that might drop, shipping costs that might rise, credit that might evaporate, paper money that might be …
Issue: September-October 2013
The Context: The Gig Economy and the Future of Work
… This is the eighth post of "The Context"—a biweekly series of archival …
The Gates of Harvard Yard
… year would bring. As he walked around Harvard’s campus, the beauty of the Yard’s 25 wrought-iron gates immediately struck him. … rather by the buildings that they’re next to. HM: What surprised you most about doing this project? BK: The beauty of …
The Art of Paper
… collaborated on 14 such books with her husband, Marc Brown, the prolific children’s-book illustrator and author (best … health, death, divorce, travel, and more through the eyes of dinosaurs (e.g., When Dinosaurs Die: A Guide to … Show (1995), that presented its subject in the guise of a vaudeville show starring zucchini, tomatoes, and other …
Issue: September-October 2012
The Great Global Experiment
… During a recent Alaska study cruise cosponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History, James J. McCarthy stopped at several … Canada, during the same period, temperatures have already risen 4 to 7 degrees. That impact dramatically illustrates a …
Issue: November-December 2002
In the Wake of War [Footnotes]
… Because “In the Wake of War” has been excerpted from a longer text, the numbering of the footnotes that follow does not correspond precisely …
Issue: September-October 2010
The Character and Language of Pain
… The difficulty of treating pain flows in part from the difficulty people have in expressing and characterizing … bodily pain. “English, which can express the thoughts of Hamlet and the tragedy of Lear,” she wrote, “has no words …
Issue: November-December 2005
An Exchange of Violence
… “Before I saw the guns, I saw the wounds.” That’s how anthropologist Ieva … her earliest encounters with the devastating effects of the U.S. gun industry on Mexican society. During a … American Guns, Mexican Lives, and the Vicious Circle of Violence,” Jusionyte outlined her recent research on the …