Features

Star-filled night sky with the Milky Way arching over a rocky silhouette.

We’re Thinking About Darkness All Wrong

There’s a growing movement to curb light pollution. It starts on your front porch.

by Matt Crossman

Fairfield Porter's “Self-Portrait in the Studio,” painted in 1948

An Underknown Twentieth Century Realist Artist

Brief life of an American realist artist and critic: 1907-1975

by Jane Borthwick

An illustration of a graduate in a cap and gown shouting into a megaphone labeled with a "U," facing a man shouting into a megaphone with an American flag design. The background is bright yellow.

Academic Freedom and Free Speech

Robert Post explains how they differ—and why it matters, especially now

by Lincoln Caplan

Catherine Dulac stands beside a whiteboard filled with colorful handwritten notes and diagrams, wearing a dark blazer and patterned scarf.

Social Interaction and Human Health

Why social interactions are as vital as food and water

by Erin O’Donnell

A young girl with pink headphones uses a tablet for an educational reading game at a classroom desk.

A Right Way to Teach Reading?

The science, art, and politics of teaching an essential skill

by Nina Pasquini

An illustration of generations of computers, from large machines to smartphones and the cloud

Six Decades of Computer Science at Harvard

Reflections on six decades of relations with computers

by Harry R. Lewis

David Gruber on the North Shore of Massachusetts

Harvard Researchers on Speaking to Whales

Project CETI’s pioneering effort to unlock the language of sperm whales

by Jonathan Shaw

May 1976, John Finley’s last lecture, Sanders Theatre

The Remarkable Master of Eliot House at Harvard

Brief life of a masterful House Master: 1904-1995

by Constantine Archimedes Valhouli

Green landscape with path in foreground leading to a pond and grassy open area.

Harvard's Landscape Architect Bas Smets on Cooling Cities

Bas Smets harnesses nature to cool cities.

by Max J. Krupnick

Mina Cikara in a classroom with two groups of students

Why Do Groups Hate?

Mina Cikara explores how people come into conflict, in politics and beyond

by Max J. Krupnick

Benton Taylor with cottonwood saplings in a greenhouse at the Arnold Arboretum

Can Plants Sequestering Carbon Slow Climate Change?

How long will the world’s forests impound carbon below ground?

by Jonathan Shaw