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Realities of Empire
… Empires fascinate. Not only scholars, but writers of fiction, geographers, sociologists, videogame and movie producers. We historians ask why and how they are they formed: by conquest, surely, though sometimes … the theory in Jennifer Pitts’s 2005, A Turn to Empire: The Rise of Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France , 2005.) …
Issue: May-June 2022
School of Public Health Graduates Hear Blunt Critiques of Trump
… Less than a week after a devastating wave of federal funding cuts at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH), which saw more than 130 researchers …
The Great Red Enigma
… is hard to overlook. Prominently displayed on every poster of the solar system, that churning storm has been visible for … moons and that big, red dot. Yet the processes that gave rise to the storm and have kept it spinning all this time …
Issue: March-April 2021
Of Dumplings, Bok Choy, and the Politics of Emoji
… about upcoming dinner plans. Lee sent over a picture of dumplings, and Lu went to her iPhone’s emoji keyboard to … digital icon. None existed. For most people, this kind of omission would inspire minor annoyance but little, if … activist,” co-founder of Emojination, and vice-chair of the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee—a group that helps decide …
“The Promise of This New Presidency”
… Claudine Gay spent part of the last day of summer and the first day of the fall … black colleges and universities). But then there was a surprise: as the president’s party entered, Veronica Leahy ’23 …
Quantum Leaps
… In the fall of 2009, between matinée and evening performances … House , Merritt Moore ’11 would decompress in the basement of Harvard’s Jefferson Laboratory. “I’d take off the tutu … and quantum physicist Merritt Moore ’11 connects humans and machines. … Ballerina and quantum physicist Merritt Moore …
Issue: May-June 2024
The Applied Wisdom of the Heartland
… In their very origins, public institutions like the University of Michigan (UM), and their land-grant cousins, are perhaps … as a first responder,” addressing priorities as they arise on the ground. In that context, he said, bringing the …
Enlarging the Allston Enterprise Zone
… The hotel, conference center, labs and residences that will … Planning and Development Agency—detailing the first phase of construction, and sketching in a successor phase for …
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
Seeing Methane from Space
… a major climate change challenge: targeting emissions of methane, a gas with a much shorter lifespan in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide but 80 times the warming … for the gas, researchers spanning Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Harvard-Smithsonian …
On the Front Lines of the Coronavirus Emergency
… medicine—caring for climbers with altitude sickness in the Himalayas or victims of the tsunami disaster in Japan— Stuart Harris is a … those on the front lines as the number of coronavirus cases rises over the coming days and weeks. On Monday, the same …
Plumbing the Deep Sea
… Biological Laboratories, biochemist Peter Girguis frowns at the pressure vessel in his hand. The machined titanium cylinder, about the size of a French press, gleams as he works to release the cap, … plumes. Working from a research ship at the East Pacific Rise, he brought the delicate creatures up. “He was one of …
Issue: May-June 2023
Off the Shelf
… Giuliano da Sangallo and the Ruins of Rome, by Cammy Brothers ’91, Ph.D. ’99 … the tumult accompanying the popular democratic revolutions, rise of industrial capitalism, and decline of institutional …
Issue: May-June 2022
Is the Law a Creature of Corporations?
… How have corporations influenced the way law is taught, practiced, and discussed, as well as … At a January 27-28 Harvard Law School conference, critics of contemporary law—students, attorneys, legal commentators, … by which law students can challenge this “corporate capture of the law.” The conference sprang from Stone professor of …
The Politics of Disaster
… When a natural disaster strikes in the United States, only the president has the power to … a federal disaster area, making it eligible for a variety of assistance. In such apparently nonpolitical situations, … declaration, bar none, is actual need. The question arises in these marginal cases, when it's unclear whether to …
Issue: March-April 2004