Right Now
Is Ultraprocessed Food Really That Bad?
A Harvard professor challenges conventional wisdom.
Muscle of Optimism
Most people think of the human heart as a fist-sized, valve-studded chunk of muscle, a pump bright red as Superman's cape and nearly as strong...
Malls on the Median
On a sunny Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles, a woman buys a funky '50s-era dress. A recent immigrant from El Salvador sells a dozen blue-corn...
Cortices in C Minor
This is your brain on music: lighting up all over the place. Mark Jude Tramo, M.D., Ph.D. '98, an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard...
Microbes Eat the Past
In 1969, astronauts Edwin Eugene ("Buzz") Aldrin and Neil Armstrong bounced along the moon's dusty surface wearing the toughest work...
Zigzag Memory Lane
Shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, federal agents began a search for two men seen renting the van used in the attack. One of those...
Vaccine for Tooth Decay
For most of the twentieth century, the only way dentists could treat cavities was to "drill and fill." But what if cavities never...
Impermanent Art
The darkest recesses of our refrigerators can harbor ghastly things: spoiled milk, moldy bread, putrid fruit. When their odors offend, we...
Shards in the City
Urban archaeologists peel back the concrete skins of modern cities in search of the material remains of the past. The task challenges...
Brand-name Geniuses
The madding crowds of eighteenth-century England demanded fine china as fiercely as today's jittery crowds crave caffe lattes. For more than 200...
Demolish the Food Pyramid
In the wild, animals instinctively find and consume the foods best adapted to their bodies. Not so for humans. Agribusinesses, fast-food chains...