Harvard Magazine

10/30/2025

How do the world's most successful tech firms build their valuation from the ground up? And how do they survive as technology changes? For more than 40 years, David B. Yoffie has examined questions like these, tracking the way technology transforms the rules of competition—from the rise of the personal computer to today’s revolution in generative AI.

David Yoffie has spent decades at Harvard studying how tech reshapes business strategy and competition, from semiconductors to AI.

10/29/2025

Four faculty members—molecular biologist Catherine Dulac, constitutional scholar Noah Feldman, economic historian Claudia Goldin, and theoretical physicist Cumrun Vafa—were named University Professors, Harvard University’s highest distinction, on Wednesday. These appointments take immediate effect.

“Catherine, Claudia, Noah, and Cumrun are outstanding colleagues and superb University citizens,” said President Alan M. Garber in a news announcement. “They represent not only the potential of individual scholars but also the timelessness of our mission to expand the frontiers of knowledge for the benefit of humanity. It is an honor to acknowledge their achievements.

Catherine Dulac, Noah Feldman, Claudia Goldin, and Cumrun Vafa receive the University’s highest faculty distinction.

10/29/2025

Under the shade of red-leafed maples, a woman in a blue kimono sits on a platform beside a river, while a serving girl holds a tea set. In the distance: a footbridge with a lone pedestrian. This is Meiji-era Japan. It is a place, shrouded in memory, as it will never be again.

Dating to about 1890, this scene is one of more than 5,000 hand-painted photographs that collector E.G. Stillman, A.B. 1908, brought home from Japan and donated to Harvard University in the 1940s. Harvard’s Fine Arts Library houses much of the Stillman collection, and the rest is at Widener Library and Harvard-Yenching Library.

Harvard’s Stillman collection showcases glimpses of the Meiji era.

10/28/2025

October, the month when things creep and crawl, is a fitting time to meet one of nature’s strangest hunters: the glue-shooting, carnivorous velvet worm.

A new exhibition at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, “Velvet Worms: A Fierce Hunter with a Secret Weapon,” turns a spotlight on the creatures. Curated by Gonzalo Giribet, a professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, the exhibit delves into the worm’s ancient biology—and includes Giribet and his team’s discovery of a new species in Singapore this year.

In the shadows of Singapore’s forests, an ancient predator lies in wait—the velvet worm.

10/28/2025

Born in Chicago, illustrator Edward Gorey ’50 majored in French literature at Harvard University. His art focused primarily on pen-and-ink drawings, many favoring Victorian and Edwardian settings with narratives featuring off-kilter people and animals, oddly humorous deaths, and all manners of bad behavior.

Houghton Library celebrates these signature talents and the centennial of his birth in the exhibition "Edward Gorey: The Gloomy Gallery," through January 12. Some 100 items are on display—books, theater posters, and toys, along with some never-before-seen drawings.

Winter exhibits at Houghton Library

10/27/2025

Last Saturday at Princeton, Harvard Football fell behind for the first time all season. But thanks to a multipronged offense, a very determined defense, and their foe’s strategic blunder, the Crimson shook off this setback and ran off the final 25 points to defeat the Tigers 35-14. The victory kept Harvard undefeated.

Still undefeated after subduing the Tigers, the Crimson await Dartmouth.

10/24/2025

Today begins our Annual Day of Giving Campaign, as we celebrate 127 years of Harvard Magazine leading up to our anniversary on November 7th.

For more than a century, Harvard Magazine has shared the stories that shape Harvard University: innovation, research, student and alumni achievements, and the ideas transforming our world. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we’re proud to make these stories available free to all.

Your fully tax-deductible donation helps ensure that Harvard Magazine remains an independent voice in academic journalism for generations to come. At this ever-changing moment in the history of higher education, we are deeply grateful for your support and the thoughts of all our readers.

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10/24/2025

Harvard University released its new demographic figures for the Class of 2029 on Thursday.

The percentage of first-year Black students matriculating at Harvard College declined for a second consecutive year in the wake of new, court-driven admissions policies, while the percentage of Asian American students has increased.

Meanwhile, international student enrollment at the College remains steady, despite the Trump administration’s multipronged efforts to impose travel restrictions on foreign students and faculty.

International students continue to enroll amid political uncertainty; mandatory SATs lead to a drop in applications.

10/23/2025

Philippe Aghion, Ph.D. ’87, was one of three scholars awarded a Nobel Prize in economics this week for his role in illuminating how the phenomenon known as “creative destruction” drives economic growth.

Aghion offered an example. For many years, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook—“superstar firms that initially harnessed the IT revolution so well”—boosted growth in the American economy. “But since 2005,” Aghion said, “growth has been dampened because they became so pervasive that they ended up discouraging new firms.”

Aghion’s work with Howitt describes how economic growth is sustained by a perpetual flow of new companies and innovations challenging old ones. They emphasize the need for governments to regulate market economies to keep this motion in balance.

Philippe Aghion helped show how “creative destruction” drives growth.

10/22/2025

Fewer than half of Americans get a flu shot each year. While their reasons vary, many feel that the vaccines just don’t work very well.

Harvard University Castle professor of medicine Dan Barouch, his former graduate student Catherine Jacob-Dolan, and colleagues recently came up with a proposed solution. To improve vaccine efficacy, immunity should be delivered precisely where it's needed—namely, the nose.

Next-gen vaccines delivered directly to the site of infection are far more effective than existing shots.

10/21/2025

Two hundred fifty-two million years ago, the rapid buildup of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere caused one of the largest mass extinctions in the history of life on our planet: the Permian extinction.

Andrew H. Knoll, Harvard University Fisher professor of natural history and earth and planetary sciences, emeritus, was one of the scientists who first hypothesized that this buildup of CO2 resulted in the death of 90 percent of Earth’s animals.

A paleontologist who helped us understand earth’s biggest extinction event.

10/20/2025

In its game last Saturday at the Stadium, Harvard Football took down Merrimack 31-7. Harvard—which entered the game ranked No. 18 in the Stats Performance Football Championship Series poll and rose to No. 14 with the win—remains undefeated, moving to 5-0 overall (and 2-0 in Ivy play).

The Crimson stay unbeaten and uncover a new star.