Harvard University

This ambitious, speculative work won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1978. Edward O. Wilson, professor of science at Harvard University, is probably best known as a proponent for the discipline of sociobiology, which combines biological principles with the social sciences. "On Human Nature" applies Darwin's evolutionary theory to social organization--to heredity, sex, altruism, religion, aggression--with fascinating conclusions.

  President Obama nominated a former Treasury official from the George H.W. Bush administration and a Harvard economist to fill two vacancies on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. The nominees, Jerome H. (Jay) Powell and Jeremy C. Stein, would serve 14-year terms on the board if they are confirmed by the Senate. "I am grateful that these individuals have agreed to serve their nation at this important time for our economy," Obama said Tuesday. "Their distinguished backgrounds and experience coupled with their impressive knowledge of economic and monetary policy make them tremendously qualified to serve in these important roles.

Khadijah Williams stepped into chemistry class and instantly tuned out the commotion. She walked past students laughing, gossiping, napping and combing one another's hair. Past a cellphone blaring rap songs. And past a substitute teacher sitting in a near-daze. Quietly, the 18-year-old settled into an empty table, flipped open her physics book and focused. Nothing mattered now except homework. "No wonder you're going to Harvard," a girl teased her. Around here, Khadijah is known as "Harvard girl," the "smart girl" and the girl with the contagious smile who landed at Jefferson High School only 18 months ago. What students don't know is that she is also a homeless girl.

Caltech celebrated the announcement Wednesday that it has been ranked the world's best research university by a British higher education magazine, beating Harvard University in the listing for the first time. The Pasadena institution, which specializes in science and engineering, was first in the World University Rankings by the Times Higher Education magazine in London. Harvard had topped the list since the ranking began in 2004 but slipped to second this year, tied with Stanford University.

Cosmology--the study of the universe and its origin--is perhaps science's grandest stage. But galaxies don't lend themselves to experiments as, say, atoms do. As a result, cosmology has historically occupied a place on the edge of science, say MIT physicist and essayist Alan Lightman and MIT graduate student Roberta Brawer in "Origins," a fascinating, surprisingly accessible and altogether human collection of conversations with today's leading cosmologists.

"If you're a storyteller," the filmmaker Howard Hawks is quoted in "Naturalist," "find a good story and tell it." For more than 40 years, Edward O. Wilson, one of the preeminent evolutionary biologists of our time, has been finding and telling good stories in unlikely places, from fire ants in Alabama, to bulldog ants in Western Australia, to army ants in Costa Rica. ("Most children have a bug period," he says, "and I never grew out of mine."

Caltech celebrated the announcement Wednesday that it has been ranked the world's best research university by a British higher education magazine, beating Harvard University in the listing for the first time. The Pasadena institution, which specializes in science and engineering, was first in the World University Rankings by the Times Higher Education magazine in London. Harvard had topped the list since the ranking began in 2004 but slipped to second this year, tied with Stanford University.

Barack Obama stares silently at a wall of fading black-and-white photographs in the muggy second-floor offices of the Harvard Law Review. He lingers over one row of solemn faces, his predecessors of 40 years ago. All are men. All are dressed in dark-colored suits and ties. All are white. It is a sobering moment for Obama, 28, who in February became the first black to be elected president in the 102-year history of the prestigious student-run law journal.

When members of Harvard Law School's class of 1999 receive their prestigious degrees Thursday, 36% fewer graduates than last year will be awarded with honors, the school said Wednesday. The relative scarcity of honors grads is the result of a new policy intended to boost the value of a cum laude degree and remove the stigma associated with not graduating with honors, Harvard Law spokesman Mike Chmura said.

Gina Grant seemed to be the perfect candidate for Harvard University: an IQ of 150, honor society member, tennis team co-captain, tutor of underprivileged kids. Now Harvard has taken back its offer of early admission after learning that Grant bludgeoned her mother to death with a lead crystal candlestick five years ago. "I deal with this tragedy every day on a personal level. It serves no good purpose for anyone else to dredge up the pain of my childhood," Grant said in a statement.

Oscar Handlin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian at Harvard University whose classic portrait of 19th century European emigrants launched the modern study of immigration as the predominant American story, died Sept. 20 in Cambridge, Mass. He was 95. The cause was a heart attack, said his wife, Lilian. Handlin, who taught at Harvard University for nearly 50 years, was a prolific scholar best known for "The Uprooted: the Epic Story of the Great Migrations that Made the American People.

Amid deepening anxiety over the slow place of recovery from the recession, President Obama on Tuesday announced the departure of one of his top economic advisors. Lawrence Summers, known as a brilliant economic thinker with a prickly personality, will step down at the end of the year to return to Harvard University, where he had a controversial five-year stint as president. He will be the third key member of Obama's economic team to leave in a mid-term election year in which the anemic economy could lead to large Democratic congressional losses in November.

It is not uncommon for international journalists who come to Harvard University as Nieman fellows to be out of favor with their governments. They often work in countries where free expression and the rule of law exist in name only. They report in an atmosphere of danger where threats, and sometimes violence, are common tools to encourage self-censorship and silence truth-telling. Colombian journalist Hollman Morris has long worked in challenging conditions, producing probing television reports that document his country's long and complex civil war. He has built contacts with the left-wing guerilla group known as the FARC and told stories of the conflict's victims.

Harvard University has agreed to digitize more than 51,000 rare Chinese books, making them freely available. The Harvard College Library and the National Library of China signed the deal Friday.

Hanging around in Cambridge has its drawbacks. You may stub your toe or splinter a heel on the uneven sidewalks. You may discover that John Harvard smells funny. You may be arrested for obstreperousness inside your own lodging (see Gates, Henry Louis Jr.). And if you spend enough time among these big, old buildings and bright, young students, you may begin to feel old, or undereducated, or both. But spend the time anyway. Whether or not you have a prospective freshman in your family, this country's first college town is full of far more American history, smart shops, cool museums, inviting restaurants and all-around entertainment than your average city of 95,000.

In an incident that raised eyebrows from coast to coast, Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., a prominent scholar and author, was arrested by the Cambridge Police Department after officers responded to reports that black men were breaking into his house. Gates had just arrived home from China and was trying to force open his jammed front door with the help of his hired driver when a neighbor called the police. Exactly what happened after that isn't clear.

The first woman to head Harvard University's history department, Angeliki E. Laiou, will begin her three-year term Monday, officials said. The post rotates among tenured professors.

Harvard University President Lawrence Summers, whose term ends Friday, said he will return to the school as a professor next year. Summers said he is looking forward to teaching, writing and researching.

The pitches for resveratrol are as ubiquitous as they are dazzling. Fire up a search engine for red wine, resveratrol or longevity, and the entreaties of supplement makers will line your screen, blinking promises of weight loss, wrinkle reduction, greater vitality and -- yes -- even "increased erection hardness . . . sexual sensitivity, pleasure and ejaculatory volume." But that's not all.

Khadijah Williams stepped into chemistry class and instantly tuned out the commotion. She walked past students laughing, gossiping, napping and combing one another's hair. Past a cellphone blaring rap songs. And past a substitute teacher sitting in a near-daze. Quietly, the 18-year-old settled into an empty table, flipped open her physics book and focused. Nothing mattered now except homework. "No wonder you're going to Harvard," a girl teased her. Around here, Khadijah is known as "Harvard girl," the "smart girl" and the girl with the contagious smile who landed at Jefferson High School only 18 months ago. What students don't know is that she is also a homeless girl.