All articles


  • Science & Tech

    Electrons, up really close

    Working in a basement lab at Harvard, a group of researchers led by John Doyle, the Henry B. Silsbee Professor of Physics, have been part of a team making the most precise measurement of the shape of the field around an electron. The results suggest that some theories for what lies beyond the standard model…

    John Doyle.
  • Nation & World

    New thinking for Germany

    In an interview, a former high-ranking German official and Harvard fellow suggests his country would benefit from new thinking and policies.

    Sigmar Gabriel.
  • Nation & World

    Du Bois as eminent sociologist

    As a sociologist, W.E.B. Du Bois expanded his field in major ways, often without credit or recognition, a researcher says in address.

    W.E.B. Du Bois, 1949.
  • Arts & Culture

    Immigration, under the stage lights

    At Harvard, a Houghton Library exhibit showcases the influence of immigration on American theater.

  • Science & Tech

    A measure of success for groundwater storage

    A recent study used seismic noise to measure the size and water levels in underground aquifers, focusing on California’s San Gabriel Valley aquifer, which had to meet the demands of 1 million people during a five-year drought.

    Marine Denolle.
  • Arts & Culture

    Stories that haunt them

    In the days before Halloween, we asked Min Jin Lee, Maria Tatar, and other serious campus readers to share with us the stories that have scared them most — and why.

    Illustration of frightened reader peering over "Dracula."
  • Arts & Culture

    A professor’s journey to belief

    As part of a speaker series, Professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad shares his winding past toward belief.

    Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Khalil Abdur-Rashid.
  • Campus & Community

    ‘Frankenweek’ will take the measure of the monster

    “Frankenweek at Harvard” marks the bicentennial of novelist Mary Shelley’s classic invention.

    Frankenstein.
  • Arts & Culture

    Watching ‘Scandal’ in a Faulkner state of mind

    For “Faulkner, Interracialism and Popular Television,” Harvard’s Linda Chavers pairs the white Southern writer’s work with the TV series “Scandal” from African-American writer-producer Shonda Rhimes.

    Linda Chavers
  • Work & Economy

    Racial and economic disparities intertwined, study finds

    While African-Americans have moved to higher ranks on the income distribution scale in the decades since the Civil Rights Movement, those improvements have largely been blunted by rapid income growth for the richest members of society and income stagnation among lower- and middle-income families.

    Robert Manduca
  • Nation & World

    ‘Network Propaganda’ explored

    “Network Propaganda,” which is based on a three-year study, examines American politics and the media ecosystem surrounding the 2016 presidential election.

    Book cover
  • Campus & Community

    Not just a humanities cat

    Meet Remy, Harvard’s resident cat by day, whose campus rambles have inspired a Facebook page with more than 1,000 followers.

  • Campus & Community

    For Harvard, a look at the financials

    Reflecting on the end of the fiscal year June 30, the Gazette sat down with Executive Vice President Katie Lapp and Chief Financial Officer and Vice President for Finance Thomas Hollister to talk about the last budget year and the opportunities and challenges ahead.

    Tom Hollister.
  • Campus & Community

    Summit celebrates Asian American ‘innovators, instigators, and inspirers’

    Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance organizers envision the Oct. 26‒28 summit as something that will “inspire innovation and be a starting place for instigating local and global transformation.”

  • Nation & World

    Giving Du Bois his due

    Dean Lawrence Bobo, W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences, discusses the vast intellectual legacy of Du Bois and how the field of sociology has finally begun to reconsider his rightful place in the discipline’s history books.

    W.E.B Du Bois.
  • Campus & Community

    Mostafavi to step down as GSD dean

    Mohsen Mostafavi, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) since January 2008, announced Oct. 24 that he will step down from the position at the end of the 2018-19 academic year.

    Mohsen Mostafavi.
  • Health

    At Harvard Chan School, nano safety is no small concern

    Philip Demokritou, director of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Center for Nanotechnology and Nanotoxicology, sat down with the Gazette to talk about the aims of the center, its recent work on novel nanoparticles, and the potential benefits of a safer-by-design approach.

    Philip Demokritou.
  • Arts & Culture

    The plot, and the fog, thicken

    Fujiko Nakaya’s climate-responsive fog sculpture at Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum set the stage for a special twilight performance of “Macbeth.”

  • Nation & World

    Finding their place in the world

    To kick off Worldwide Week at Harvard, students share stories of trips abroad that changed their career choices and their lives.

  • Campus & Community

    New faculty: Ellis Monk

    Ellis Monk, assistant professor in Harvard’s Department of Sociology, focuses on social inequality through a comparative global lens, with particular attention to race in the United States and Brazil.

    Ellis Monk.
  • Campus & Community

    ‘Pathway to public service’

    Lexi Smith ’18, who is the latest Harvard Presidential City of Boston Fellow, wants to serve at the city level because that’s where she sees the tangible action for environmental change.

  • Nation & World

    Admissions lawsuit enters second week

    Harvard officials continue to take the stand in the second week of a trial in U.S. Federal District Court. The case challenges the University’s admissions process and the right to consider race as one factor among many when considering applicants for admission as discriminatory to Asian American applicants.

    Harvard University
  • Science & Tech

    Breaking down backbones

    Harvard scientists are using the fossil record and a close examination of the vertebrae of thousands of modern animals to understand how and when specialized regions in the spines of mammals developed.

    Fossil-vertebrae
  • Nation & World

    Uncovering the economics of foot-binding

    A recent study is suggesting that the real underpinnings of foot-binding may have been economic.

    Melissa Brown
  • Campus & Community

    7 projects win Global Institute grants

    Seven projects that feature interdisciplinary, cross-collaborative research and span five Harvard Schools will receive grants from the Harvard Global Institute.

  • Arts & Culture

    The beetles have landed

    “The Rockefeller Beetles,” a new exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, features hundreds of specimens from an exceptional collection that reflects the story of a man whose childhood pursuit grew into a lifelong passion.

    Family Buprestidae, Species Chrysochroa fulminans beetles
  • Nation & World

    Judges and their toughest cases

    At Harvard Law School Library, a panel drew lessons from a new book containing firsthand accounts of the some of the hardest cases in judges’ careers.

    Charles Fried.
  • Arts & Culture

    Coetzee recalls a reading childhood

    Accepting the Mahindra Award for Global Distinction in the Humanities, Nobelist author J.M. Coetzee treated the audience filling Sanders Theatre to thoughts about his earliest reading and the concept of a mother tongue.

    J.M. Coetzee.
  • Nation & World

    A minority turns on the light

    In an interview, Alejandro de la Fuente, Robert Woods Bliss Professor of Latin American History and Economics, professor of African and African American studies, and director of the Afro-Latin American Research Institute, talks about his organization and the emerging Afro-Latin American social movement.

    Alejandro de la Fuente.
  • Arts & Culture

    The search for a California sphinx

    At what other event would you hear, “This time there would be no Jell-O?” mused Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian last Wednesday at the Harvard Art Museums. It sounded like a…

    Scene from “The Ten Commandments,” 1923.