During a 1959 television appearance, Jack Kerouac was asked how long it took him to write his novel On The Road. His response – three weeks – amazed the interviewer and ignited an enduring myth that the book was composed in a marathon of nonstop typing.

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Much of the general public is well aware of scientists' recommendations on climate change. In particular, climate scientists and other academics say...

Starting later this month, the world’s nations will convene in traumatized Paris to hammer out commitments to slow down global climate change. Any long-term solution will require “decarbonizing” the world energy economy – that...

I have a confession to make: I rarely walk into a museum or gallery without finding my eyes drifting down to the title of a painting – often before even looking at the painting itself.

Though I...

If I’m elected president… I’m going to institute zero-based budgeting, which assesses every program every year, and eliminates those programs that are obsolete.

This was Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign promise in 1976. Thirty-nine years later, presidential...

Students are protesting over racism across campuses in the United States. We asked Marshall Ganz, who dropped out of Harvard as an undergraduate to be an organizer in 1964 and now teaches organizing and leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, to discuss the...

It is magical thinking to assume that Western states can continue to wage war against the Islamic State (ISIS) without incurring casualties at home. Like France, the United States faces the possibility that the ISIS will attack an American city sooner or later.

As a professor of...

The world is experiencing its third mass coral bleaching event. Due to elevated temperatures at tropical locations over the whole planet, large populations of corals are starting to turn white. This is bad, as bleaching can lead...

Two years ago I taught a section of Calculus I to approximately 650 undergrad students in a large auditorium. Perhaps “taught” isn’t the right word. “Performed,” maybe? Unsurprisingly, my student evaluation scores were not as high as they...

Women, particularly those in developing countries, are on the frontlines of a changing climate. Extreme weather events, deforestation and loss of biodiversity threaten their survival and that...