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Few would deny that the DVD is a remarkable invention. Its hard not to be astonished by a process that can put a two-hour movie on a plastic disc small enough to drop into your breast pocket.

Harvard Universitys endowment last year made up ground lost during the prior two years difficult investment climate, earning a 12.5 percent return during the 2002-03 fiscal year, bringing the endowments overall value to $19.3 billion.

The treasures of Harvard Universitys six museums – from fine art to flowers of glass, tarantulas to dinosaur eggs, prehistoric pottery to 20th century masterpieces – are priceless. But on Sunday (Sept. 28), theyll also be free, at the first-ever Harvard University Museums Community Day, an open house from 1 to 5 p.m.

Nine after-school programs in Boston have joined the Harvard After School Initiative (HASI) this fall, receiving more than a quarter million dollars in grants and the opportunity to work with Harvard Graduate School of Education (GSE) faculty and coordinators with other after-school organizations supported by HASI.

President Lawrence H. Summers will hold office hours for students in his Massachusetts Hall on the following dates:

Blue light outshone white in a Harvard University experiment to find better ways to reset our body clocks.

More than 15,000 butterflies from Australia have moved into Harvards Museum of Comparative Zoology. They wear iridescent blue, green, and silver boast black, red, and white spots and flaunt color combinations beyond the imagination of hip fashion plates.

For this cyclist, the daily commute had become a grind. And a pop, a squeak, a scrape, and a sort of ching-ching-ching between gears.

Richard Alden Howard, botany professor and director for 23 years of the Arnold Arboretum, died Sept. 18 at his home in Cohasset. He was 86.

The Loeb Fellowship at the Graduate School of Design (GSD) has announced 11 individuals who have been awarded fellowships to participate in one year of independent study using the curriculum and programs of GSD as well as other resources at the University. The only program of its kind in the nation, the Loeb Fellowship provides…

Harvard junior Brad Smith added the voice of his generation to the debate over Social Security reform this past summer, appearing before the U.S. Senates Special Committee on Aging to ask lawmakers to reform the system now to avoid substantial benefit cuts later.

Send resumes online Beginning this month, resumes and applications for positions at the University will only be accepted online. In order to be considered for any position(s), applicants must apply…

Two administrators join Summer School The Harvard Summer School has announced the addition of two new administrators. Robert A. Lue has a joint appointment as dean of the Harvard Summer…

The new film conservation center will not only help the Harvard Film Archive care for films already in its possession it will also encourage those with valuable film collections to entrust them to the archives stewardship.

Seven leaders in community development and housing were recently appointed fellows to Harvards Joint Center for Housing Studies. The fellowship program offers leaders in the field of housing an opportunity to explore emerging research areas and to work closely with the centers research team. Fellowships are awarded for an academic year and in some cases…

The Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) will host 21 fellows during the 2003-04 academic year. Established in 1958, CSWR fosters excellence in the study of world religions on the broadest scale and from many perspectives. International in composition and subject matter, CSWR facilitates the exchange of ideas…

It was politics as not-quite-usual Friday afternoon (Sept. 19), as members of the Kennedy family joined Harvard faculty and students and other political dignitaries to rename the forum at Harvards John F. Kennedy School of Government (KSG) for John F. Kennedy Jr. The event, in celebration of the forums 25th anniversary, was a moving testament…

Harvard Law School held its first-ever reunion for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender graduates last weekend, Sept. 19-20. The reunion commemorated the founding of the first gay student group at the School, the Committee on Gay Legal Issues, which was founded in October 1978. The event began with a reception Friday night (Sept. 19) at…

Harvard Neighbors will host an open house on Oct. 1 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Loeb House. Open to University faculty and staff (and their spouses or partners), Harvard Neighbors sponsors a range of educational and cultural events throughout the academic year. The Oct. 1 welcoming reception will highlight this falls schedule of events,…

Hundreds of years ago, Chinese architects designed a special city where the Ming emperors could rest on their way to visit their ancestral tombs.

The Law School (HLS) has announced the creation of a fund to support courses, seminars, research, and conferences on ways to combat discrimination and prejudice. The Sheldon Seevak/Facing History and Ourselves Fund, established with a $2 million gift from Sheldon Seevak, will be managed by the William Henry Bloomberg Professor of Law Martha Minow.

The Department of African and African American Studies is launching a new African Language Program. Beginning this fall, undergraduate students can study Hausa and Swahili with two experts in the field of African language, as well as travel to Kenya, Niger, and Ghana for further study.

Without a glint of self-aggrandizement, Bridget Terry Long describes her work as grappling with the million-dollar question.

D. Ronald Daniel, M.B.A. 54, the Universitys treasurer and currently the longest-serving member of the Harvard Corporation, intends to conclude his service in those roles at the end of the 2003-04 academic year.

Nano-seminars, Murphys sons law, an opera about a scientist who falls in love with an oxygen atom, and the ever-popular Win-a-Date-With-a-Nobel-Laureate Contest, will take center stage at Sanders Theatre Oct. 2 during the annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony.

When Theodore Roosevelt left the presidency in 1909, he went on safari to British East Africa, toting gear, provisions, and a 60-pound aluminum carrying case full of his favorite books. The new exhibition in the Theodore Roosevelt Gallery, Pusey Library – Roosevelt Reading: The Pigskin Library – highlights this famed literary collection.

Thomas M. Reardon, a driving force behind Harvards last two major fundraising campaigns, has announced his plans to step down this fall as the Universitys vice president for alumni affairs and development, while remaining active in fundraising matters as senior adviser for University development.

The Medical School (HMS) made a significant commitment to the emerging field of systems biology in the creation of the Department of Systems Biology (DSB), one of the first department-level systems biology programs in the nation. The announcement was made Sept. 23.

Lord Robert May, current president of the venerable British scientific institution the Royal Society will be speaking at the Science Center on Oct. 6 at 4 p.m.