The scene is straight out of a disaster movie: melting glaciers wreaking havoc on the ecosystem, and a tundra-like wasteland where once forest reigned. Thirteen thousand years ago or so the spruces, firs and birches of central New York state vanished; dendrochronology researcher Carol Griggs \’77, Ph.D. \’06, is using ancient wood to figure out […] … learn more→

A study examining children\’s schooling in Andhra Pradesh, India, has revealed a dramatic rise in the number of parents opting for fee-paying private schools over state-funded government schools. Even low-income families are \’voting with their feet\’, according to the new research led by the University of Oxford. Researchers tracked 3,000 children who were randomly selected […] … learn more→

The Heartland Institute, a leading climate denialist organization, has launched a billboard campaign in its hometown of Chicago featuring Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, mass murderer Charles Manson, and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The message? They “believe” in global warming, and they’re crazy; by implication, so are you if you “believe” in it too. Put aside for […] … learn more→

Everyone knows that school bullies torment their peers to compensate for low self-esteem, and that they are scorned as much as they are feared. But \”everyone\” got it wrong, according to Jaana Juvonen, a professor of developmental psychology whose decade of groundbreaking research on mean kids and their hapless victims is changing the way parents […] … learn more→

A secret report, previously unknown to historians, shows how British Intelligence was tracking Hitler’s growing preoccupation with “the enemy within” on the eve of the Final Solution. … learn more→

When Woodie Flowers SM ’68, MEng ’71, PhD ’73 was an MIT student in mechanical engineering, most of his classes involved paper-and-pencil design exercises with predetermined “right” solutions; actual class-related construction work tended to be limited to small test devices, built by the book. But having grown up taking things apart and putting them back […] … learn more→

Extended learning time is widely recognized as a central piece of school turnaround strategy, and it’s one of the interventions that the Education Department requires of K-12 schools that applied for NCLB waivers. But how much time is too much time? Myopia rates have quadrupled among kids in Asia, and one of the leading theories […] … learn more→

Marni Baker Stein, a mother of three children who attend the Lillian Weber School for the Arts (P.S. 84) on the Upper West Side, had discussed the best use of the school’s rooftop courtyard with other parents before. But one day, sitting with another mother near a small garden in the schoolyard on West 92nd […] … learn more→

What has been the impact of the invention of the telescope? What has been the impact of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, or the splitting of the atom? Yes, that’s right: the idea of measuring the “impact” of research is back in a big way. Within the research community and within government, plenty of people […] … learn more→

Some call it fan fiction, while others call it “mommy porn;” but the fact is that whatever you call it, Fifty Shades of Grey, a New York Times #1 bestselling novel by E. L. James, has become an international hit. Set in Seattle, it is the first in a trilogy that follows the relationship between a recent college […] … learn more→