November-December 2005

SO YOU WANT TO BE 120 Is aging necessary? (“The Aging Enigma,” by Jonathan Shaw, September-October, page 46). You bet it is…

If you “can’t see the forest for the trees,” you’ve focused too much on the details to take in the larger situation…

Vladimir A. Lukhtanov saw Agrodiaetus butterflies of several species flying together, and even though they all looked much the same in most…

Since the 1950s, the United States has led the world in science and technology, training an unrivaled pool of physicists, engineers, biologists…

It began with Isaac Newton. With the publication of his Principia in 1687, Newton became the first scientist to demonstrate that nature’s…

The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of Desire, by Richard Adams Carey ’73 (Counterpoint, $26) is a captivatingly…

François Jacob, one of the pioneers in molecular biology, was interviewed a few years ago for an educational video now used in…

Harvard’s Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals, by William Wright (St. Martin’s Press, $25.95). A…

F. Markoe Rivinus requests the title and the other words of a song he heard in the late 1950s; he remembers two lines: “You ain’t no…

The diverse array of activities offered in and around Harvard Square this winter ranges from Turkish films, holiday concerts, and stargazing to…

Success is making a bit of trouble for Gabriel Bremer and Analia Verolo. Two years ago they bought Salts, a popular bistro near Central Square…

Robert Bunshaft ’39, M.B.A. ’41, and his wife, Doris, played tennis almost every day for 50 years. Now in their 80s, they still meet…

Pellegrino University professor emeritus Edward O. Wilson, a scholarly giant of biodiversity and sociobiology, remains at heart a teacher. His…

In the Carpenter Center theater last May, a seminar-size class in “Filming Science” is scattered among the seats, waiting for an…

 “It’s Ali Baba’s cave,” says internationally renowned filmmaker Dusan Makavejev of the Harvard Film Archive (HFA)…

“The people I work with here are the filmmakers I respect most in the world. To watch their work evolve and to have them watch my work…

During a football game in 1904, William Clarence Matthews, the sole African-American player on the Harvard squad, sat on the bench while the…

The Reverend Stephen Fulton falls a lot. Once he toppled into a freezer case at the grocery store. He has difficulty walking, and he can’t…

The difficulty of treating pain flows in part from the difficulty people have in expressing and characterizing their painful sensations. In her…

 “When we treat pain, the first thing we do is try to eliminate the source of pain, say, by relieving compression on a nerve,&rdquo…

Baker Library at the Business School reopened officially on September 19 after a two-year makeover. The new facility was designed by Robert A.M…

Faster revenue growth, plus expenses rising at almost the same rate, yielded an operating surplus of $43.6 million for Harvard’s fiscal…

Donations to the University totaled $590 million in the fiscal year ended June 30 — the second highest sum in Harvard’s history…

Mallinckrodt professor of physics Roy J. Glauber ’45, Ph.D. ’49, has a new title: Nobel laureate. The Royal Swedish Academy of…

Ending his 15-year run as president of Harvard Management Company, Jack R. Meyer, M.B.A. ’69, and his investment colleagues turned in a…

Though the two official news releases announced the same agreement, their content diverged sharply regarding the settlement of a long-running…

Ronald Kessler Photograph by Stu Rosner In on-line biomedical databases, Ronald Kessler ranks as the most widely cited author in…

The campus discussion about faculty diversity—particularly the academic development and careers of women—that was launched last spring…

An undertaking greeted by Harvard librarians as potentially “a revolutionary new information-location tool” and “an important…

Data from an annually updated Harvard Business School case comparing 1949 and current-year graduates, by professors of business…

In response to Hurricane Katrina, Harvard College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School of Education, and Harvard Law…

With a fiscal gun at the University’s head, Harvard Law School (HLS) has reversed its position on military recruiting on its campus. The…

Vice President’s Ciao Ann E. Berman Stephanie Mitchell / Harvard News Office Vice president for finance Ann E. Berman will…

Savaged by insects, ravaged by disease and old age, the elms of Harvard Yard were much diminished by 1990 (see photographs, below), when Michael…

At the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) meeting on September 27, its dean, William C. Kirby, said, “We begin this academic year having…

1915 Professor Theodore Richards becomes the first American to receive a Nobel Prize in chemistry. Illustration by Mark Steele 1930…

Like many stories, this one began at an improbable distance in space and time from where it ended. The saga of how the Harvard Review (see…

Founded in 1992, the Harvard Review (http://hcl.harvard.edu/harvardreview) is a biannual, 200-page literary journal that includes poetry…

Finding a FellowThe search for a new member of the Harvard Corporation—to fill the vacancy created by Conrad K. Harper’s resignation…

I wore the wrong shoes to my first day of work this summer. I don’t know what inspired me to choose the pointy black pair with elastic…

Ask Michael Mitnick ’06 what kind of singing voice he has and he replies, “A bad one.” Inquire about his piano-playing skill…

For pure, sustained excitement in an Ivy League football contest, it would be hard to beat this season’s Harvard-Brown game — or last…

Last winter, in the waning minutes of the Harvard men’s home basketball game against Princeton, a tight contest with several lead changes…

Soccer After a 1-0 loss to Vermont, the men’s side (4-3-1) ran off three wins over Coastal Carolina, Maine, and Fairfield before dropping…

In a glass case stand a dozen carved statues of gypsum alabaster — male figurines with their hands folded at their chests and their…

She Changes, by artist Janet Echelman ’87, is a giant multilayered mesh net suspended above a traffic circle next to a beachside promenade…

The Harvard Alumni Association awards were established in 1990 to recognize outstanding service to Harvard University through alumni activities…

University clubs offer a variety of social and intellectual gatherings. Following is a partial list of Harvard-affiliated speakers appearing at…

A group of 19 European Harvard club leaders gathered in Istanbul from September 9 to 11, along with HAA executive committee members and leaders…

Several college programs match students with paid and unpaid jobs and internships. To find out more about how alumni can provide these learning…

Upcoming Alumni Colleges include “Women in the War Zone” and “Harvard in the Olympics.” The events are organized by the…

A contributing editor of this magazine, John de Cuevas ’52, is an inveterate perpetrator of puzzles with cryptic clues, and 35 of his…

John A. Graham ’64’s conflict-resolution work has taken him from apartheid-torn South Africa to meetings in Geneva, Switzerland…

Ardent flight instructor, aerobatics competitor, and self-proclaimed space junkie James E. Smolen ’71, Ph.D. ’76, has a distinctive…

Douglas Brockmeyer ’82 comes in exactly where more risk-averse people head for safety. At work, he thrives as a pediatric neurosurgeon…

To assemble a collection of poems that capture the American experience yet are also accessible to children is a daunting task. That’s what…

"Your wooden arm you hold outstretched to shake with passers-by." “Does Harvard ‘brand’ matter…

A bust of Werner Jaeger (1888-1961) presides over the common room of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. He is…