All articles


  • Campus & Community

    Breakthrough on Open Access

    On Monday, Harvard University was among five leading universities that announced a new “Compact for Open Access Publishing Equity” pledge to develop systems to pay open access journals for the articles they publish by the institutions’ scholars.

  • Campus & Community

    A Free Lesson in Justice from Harvard Professor Michael Sandel

    Is it ethical to torture a suspect to get information? Is it all right to steal a drug that your child needs to survive? Should we tax the rich to help the poor? These are a few of the moral questions thousands of Harvard students have grappled with in professor Michael Sandel’s legendary class: Justice……

  • Campus & Community

    Guidance Office: Answers From Harvard’s Dean, Part 4

    In today’s installment, he discusses how the admissions committee weighs the essay portion of the application, and tracks admissions decisions long after the applicant in question has graduated Harvard.

  • Health

    Transition from egg-laying to live-born

    A new analysis of extinct sea creatures suggests that the transition from egg-laying to live-born young opened up evolutionary pathways that allowed these ancient species to adapt to and thrive in open oceans.

  • Science & Tech

    Genetic sex determination let ancient species adapt to ocean life

    A new analysis of extinct sea creatures suggests that the transition from egg-laying to live-born young opened up evolutionary pathways that allowed these ancient species to adapt to and thrive in open oceans. The evolutionary sleuthing is described today in a letter in the journal Nature by scientists at Harvard and the University of Reading…

  • Arts & Culture

    Longfellow online exhibition recognized by ACRL

    The ACRL Rare Books and Manuscripts Section has selected the online exhibition “Public Poet, Private Man: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at 200” as a winner of the 2009 Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab “American Book Prices Current” Exhibition Award.

  • Arts & Culture

    Harvard Film Archive acquires Just Film Stills

    Lothar and Eva Just have recently made their collection of film stills and other publicity materials available to the Harvard Film Archive (HFA).

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard University to offer groundbreaking doctoral program for education leaders

    Harvard University today announced the launch of a new, practice-based doctoral program to prepare graduates for senior leadership roles in school districts, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector.

  • Nation & World

    Kudos, criticisms for U.S. Constitution

    In honor of Constitution Day, a panel of constitutional scholars will discuss the historic document’s merits and shortcomings. The event will also include a conversation between retired U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice David Souter and Noah Feldman, Bemis Professor of Law.

  • Campus & Community

    Guidance Office: Answers From Harvard’s Dean: Part 3

    In today’s installment, William R. Fitzsimmons discusses how the admissions committee considers extracurricular activities (as with anything in admissions, there is no one-size-fits-all approach), as well as the importance of teacher and counselor recommendations. (Such references, the dean writes below, are sometimes projected onto a screen during committee deliberations, so that all can see them.)

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard ed school offers 1st new degree since 1935

    Citing what it calls a “leadership deficit” in the nation’s schools, Harvard University is introducing a doctoral education program aimed at attracting top talent to transform the U.S. education system by shaking up the status quo.

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard to offer a doctorate in education leadership

    The Harvard Graduate School of Education will announce today that it will offer a new, tuition-free doctoral degree in education leadership, its first new degree in 74 years.

  • Campus & Community

    Is all that scanning putting us at risk?

    Last year, when Dr. Aaron Sodickson and his colleagues counted the number of medical scans patients underwent in the emergency room at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, some patients clearly stood out. One 45-year-old woman with a history of kidney stones had 70 CT scans over 22 years.

  • Campus & Community

    Is Happiness Catching?

    Nicholas Christakis began taking a new look at this question in 2000 after an experience visiting terminally ill patients in the working-class neighborhoods of Chicago.

  • Nation & World

    Firm allies, past and present

    In a rare double ambassadorial appearance to Harvard, moderated by Graham Allison, ambassadors Han Duck-soo of South Korea and Kathleen Stephens of the United States reflect on the U.S.-South alliance, and what might put it at risk.

  • Campus & Community

    Grazing rights

    In honor of his retirement from the Divinity School’s Hollis Chair, Harvey Cox exercised his right to graze a cow in Harvard Yard.

  • Campus & Community

    Deep into Harvard’s roots

    Fall 2009 archaeology dig in Harvard Yard kicked off with a ceremony involving regional Native American leaders.

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard unleashes a historic sacred cow

    Retiring Harvard professor Harvey Cox, who for 44 years has held the oldest endowed chair at a US university finally lay claim to the Hollis Professor of Divinity’s centuries-old right to graze his cow in Harvard Yard, which a colleague of his said was the equivalent of parking privileges in the 1700s.

  • Campus & Community

    The first tailors? Researchers find ancient fiber

    “Making strings and ropes is a sophisticated invention,” said Ofer Bar-Yosef, a professor of prehistoric archaeology at Harvard University. “They might have used this fiber to create parts of clothing, ropes, or baskets — for items that were mainly used for domestic activities.” The fibers were discovered in an analysis of clay deposits in Dzudzuana…

  • Campus & Community

    Guidance Office: Answers From Harvard’s Dean, Part 1

    Over the last two days, The Choice has fielded nearly 900 questions for William R. Fitzsimmons, the longtime dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard.

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard Management Company announces fiscal 2009 results

    Harvard University’s endowment declined 27.3 percent during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009, one of the most challenging periods in modern times for financial markets.

  • Campus & Community

    Fundraising results signal continued strength

    Despite a global economic downturn, Harvard University raised $602 million through fundraising efforts in fiscal year 2009.

  • Arts & Culture

    Oldest-known fibers to be used by humans discovered

    A team of archaeologists and paleobiologists has discovered flax fibers that are more than 34,000 years old, making them the oldest fibers known to have been used by humans.

  • Science & Tech

    China could meet its energy needs by wind alone

    A team of environmental scientists from Harvard and Tsinghua University has demonstrated the enormous potential for wind-generated electricity in China.

  • Health

    Wilson, Watson reflect on past trials, future directions

    A conversation between DNA discoverer James Watson and biologist E.O. Wilson was moderated by Robert Krulwich. They reflected on their lives and careers and talked about the future of biology at Sanders Theatre in Memorial Hall at Harvard University.

  • Campus & Community

    Does Infection Boost Prostate Cancer Risk?

    In the new study, Jennifer Stark of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and colleagues analyzed blood samples from 673 men with prostate cancer who participated in the Physicians’ Health Study, a large, ongoing study examining a variety of health issues.

  • Campus & Community

    Business not ready for flu, study says

    Many American businesses are unprepared to deal with widespread employee absenteeism in the event of a swine flu outbreak, a Harvard School of Public Health study says. The survey, released yesterday, found that two-thirds of more than 1,000 businesses questioned said they could not maintain normal operations if half their workers were out for two…

  • Nation & World

    Designs for enduring structures

    As the hurricane bears down on the village, the people do what many all over the world do: head to the local school for shelter. A place of learning in normal times becomes a place of refuge during disasters.

  • Health

    Drug for MS reactivates virus causing deadly brain disease

    The virus responsible for progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare brain disease that typically affects AIDS patients and other individuals with compromised immune systems, has been found to be reactivated in multiple sclerosis patients being treated with natalizumab (Tysabri). The findings by Harvard researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and collaborators at Johns…

  • Nation & World

    Getting justice right

    The Institute of Politics hosts the first public discussion of Michael Sandel’s new book, “Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?” coming out later this month.