Features
Harvard Commencement 2025
Harvard passes a test of its values, yet challenges loom.
Hubble space telescope photographs explained
The cosmic drama, as seen from a vantage in space: Harvard astronomers highlight important images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope
Saint Fiacre
Brief life of the gardener saint: 600-670
Making Credit Safer
It is impossible to buy a toaster that has a one-in-five chance of bursting into flames and burning down your house. But it is possible to...
George Bancroft
Brief life of a public historian: 1800-1891...
Shedding Light on Life
The scenes are familiar from biology textbooks. A long string of DNA is copied to form a matching strand. A virus infects a cell by stealing through its membrane.
Light Makes a Comeback
Today’s high-powered light microscopes bear little resemblance to the iconic instruments of high-school biology labs. This revolution...
Home of the Humanities
At a serene Harvard outpost, scholars find fertile ground for Byzantine, pre-Columbian, and landscape studies...
Ko K'un-hua
Yale was the first American college to offer instruction in Chinese, in 1877; apparently, no one signed up. The next year, a group of Boston and...
The Physics of the Familiar
Photograph by Jim Harrison Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan “Just because something is familiar doesn’t mean you understand it. That...
Saving Money, Oil, and the Climate
The United States is in urgent need of a comprehensive, rational, and—above all—honest policy to guide its energy future, a policy...