Features

A silhouette of a person stands before glowing domes in a red, rocky landscape at sunset.

Getting to Mars (for Real)

Humans have been dreaming of living on the Red Planet for decades. Harvard researchers are on the case.

by Olivia Farrar

Can the U.S. compete? A discussion with Harvard Business School faculty members

A discussion with Harvard Business School faculty members

Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, in Lenox, Massachusetts. The hall opened in 1994. With the “barn door” open, picnickers enjoy a concert.

Architect William Rawn, who designs buildings for the public realm, is profiled

William Rawn’s designs begin not with the eye, but the ear.

by Craig Lambert

Students at work (clockwise from left): Denver Ogaro, Naomi Wills, Jun Sup Lee, undergraduate course assistant Ben Adlam, and Raina Gandhi

Harry Lewis on the Genesis of CS 20, an innovative computer science course

Anatomy of a new course—and a new approach to teaching it

by Harry R. Lewis

Ronald Reagan wrote in his presidential diary for September 12, 1988: “Then a briefing for a pleasant interview which took place at 11:30 with Warren Brooks [sic] my favorite Ec. columnist.”

Warren Brookes, "pneumatic" journalist, by Charles G. Kels

Brief life of a “pneumatic” journalist: 1929-1991

by Charles G. Kels

For 15 years, William Francis Gibbs greeted the SS <i>United States</i> every time the liner he had designed arrived in New York City.

Naval architect William Francis Gibbs, designer of the SS United States

Brief life of America’s greatest naval architect: 1886-1967

by Steven Ujifusa

Study of a Red and Yellow Macaw <i>(Macrocercus aracanga),</i> now known as Scarlet Macaw <i>(Ara macao).</i> Watercolor over graphite on paper.

Harvard exhibits bicentennial Edward Lear animal art

A bicentennial exhibition features the little-known, masterful animal artistry of Edward Lear.

by Christopher Reed

African Americans vote in Alabama in 1966, in the wake of the Voting Rights Act.

Harvard's Alexandar Keyssar analyzes voter suppression measures

Voting rights and partisan practices in a highly contested election year

by Alexander Keyssar

Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson urge compromise in U.S. politics

Continuous campaigning and gridlocked governing in American politics

by Amy Gutmann , Dennis Thompson

Lawrence Lessig

Lawrence Lessig explains how money corrupts Congress

Lawrence Lessig thinks American democracy requires a constitutional overhaul to counter the “economy of influence.”

by Jonathan Shaw

The human urge to create art appears magnificently in the Paleolithic paintings from roughly 30,000 years ago at Chauvet Cave, in southern France. Here, the Panel of the Horses.

Harvard sociobiologist E.O. Wilson on the origins of the arts

Sociobiologist E.O. Wilson on the evolution of culture