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The Skinny on Weight
… Calvin Trillin has attributed an astute observation to his father, who said something like, "You can't gain more weight than that of the food you eat." That makes perfect sense to me, but … both a conundrum and a national obsession. A recent survey of 107,804 adults conducted by the Centers for Disease …
Pandemic in the Workplace
… tentative steps toward reopening, a pertinent study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health suggests that workplace transmission of the coronavirus accounted for 48 percent of the initial …
Off the Shelf
… Melvin Konner, Ph.D. ’73, M.D. ’84 (W.W. Norton, $27.95). The biological anthropologist/neuroscientist at Emory University examines the origins of faith from his upbringing (as an Orthodox Jew, who became … the human-planned catastrophes in the making, as seas rise, coastal development accelerates, and tax breaks and …
Issue: September-October 2019
The Windmill Movie
… The late filmmaker Richard Rogers '67, Ed.M. '70, who died … His documentary films range from Quarry (1970), a slice-of-life look at youths diving, swimming, and lounging around …
Issue: May-June 2009
The Allure of Japanese Prints
… Drawing from the Harvard Art Museums’ extensive collection of Japanese … modern portraits. The innovative artist Suzuki Harunobu, of the Edo era, was especially known for his renderings of …
Issue: May-June 2019
Horseplayer Extraordinaire
… even though its price—$5 to $6 a copy—makes it one of the most expensive papers in the world. In a way, that high … walk in, order a drink, and start gambling.” But if slot machines and lotteries have siphoned off income from …
Issue: March-April 2010
A Sino-American “Contest for Supremacy”
… In A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia (Norton, $27.95), Aaron … Friedberg ’78, Ph.D. ’86, dissects the present and future of Sino-American relations, stating that “despite several … columnist and author of When China Rules the World: The Rise of the Middle Kingdom and the End of the Western World …
The Eugenic Temptation
… The full-page advertisement in the Harvard Crimson a year ago came as no surprise. The text was straightforward: Intelligent, Athletic … medical issues. It was only the latest in a steady stream of smaller ads with similar messages--"healthy Caucasian," …
Working at Beauty
… O ne of the more frustrating things about learning math is that professors insist it is beautiful. Imagine not just asking … classrooms a short walk from the math department coffee machines, and try to pull beauty out of a pile of preprints. …
Issue: January-February 2020
The Undiscovered Planet
… Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton— these are familiar names. During a 150-year span in the … that placed the sun, rather than the earth, at the center of things astronomical. But have you ever heard of Carl … that these molecules may have appeared as a response to the rise of oxygen in the atmosphere, so the timing of their …
Issue: November-December 2007
The "New Normal"
… reversals, President Drew Faust delivered an “opening-of-year” address in Sanders Theatre on September 24, in lieu of the e-mail messages sent … declined in fiscal year 2009; that current-use giving had risen, but that gift income overall, as reported, had …
Issue: November-December 2009
A Slowing China
… Central bankers around the world have been criticized for not raising their … rates in lockstep with the United States, but Boas professor of international economics Kenneth Rogoff points out … place. Although “we’re not going to start producing washing machines in the U.S. overnight,” notes Rogoff, “seasoned …
Issue: November-December 2022
Center of Attention
… Amid Harvard’s vast Commencement spectacle, the formal center—on the dais constructed beside Memorial … still the venue for small gestures that go to the heart of the University and its people. Herewith, a close reading of some 2011 events not prescribed by the “Form of …
Issue: July-August 2011
Drying Out "The Game"
… Reacting swiftly to the alcohol-related problems at last November's edition of The Game (see "Unsavory Record," January-February, page … for future contests at Harvard Stadium. In December, dean of the College Harry R. Lewis let it be known that …
Issue: November-December 2001
The Unruly Academy
… L. Rudenstine, Ph.D. ’64, a “recently minted assistant professor,” found himself walking by Mallinckrodt Hall, where a crowd of students had blocked the entry to impede the work of a Dow Chemical Company … of a piece with his worldview and character. It is no surprise that he mounts a vigorous, ringing reaffirmation of …
Issue: March-April 2025