Features
Editor’s Choice
Features
As the population ages, robots are poised to offer a helping hand, a leg up, and a pep for your step.
New Light on the Brain
Using optical technology to switch neurons on and off, Karl Deisseroth is strengthening our understanding of how the brain works, and exploring pathways into the mind.
by Kara Platoni
A Camera with a Brain
Imagine a camera that could learn how to take better pictures. Marc Levoy has developed one, and it may represent the next revolution in photography.
by Kate Greene
Gray Matters
During a pathbreaking career in business, A. Barry Rand grew accustomed to beating the odds. His next big hurdle: mobilizing a national movement to improve the lives of aging people.
by Rick Schmitt
Fair Enough?
Research shows being attractive helps in all sorts of ways, including getting a job. What does that mean for the plain person vying for the same position?
by Kara Platoni
Facing the Heat
The already fractious debate over climate change has boiled over in recent months with threats and accusations against scientists. One target has been Professor Stephen Schneider, who says the public is being snookered by a radical fringe intent on obscuring the facts.
WH2OA!
The shimmering, spiraling, gravity-defying water installations created by Mark Fuller, MS '78, and his company have not only beautified resorts around the world, they have established a new genre of art.
by Ann Marsh
The Comeback Corals
Around the world, coral reefs are dying as oceans warm. But near a tiny island in the South Pacific, researchers have discovered corals that have adapted to survive. They could be the key to saving a verdant sea.
by Paul Rogers
You Say Up, I Say Yesterday
Provocative new research by psychologist Lera Boroditsky raises questions about the role language plays in shaping human thinking. Her controversial studies show that the words we use and the meanings we attach can alter our perception of the world.
by Joan O’C. Hamilton
Diplomacy 2.0
Can we fight terrorism with a Twitter feed? It may not be that simple, but everyone who knows the State Department's Jared Cohen expects that his social-media savvy will transform U.S. foreign policy.
by Rick Schmitt
Tales from the Lake
Romantic rendezvous! Wildlife encounters! Midnight adventures! A recreational destination for decades, Lagunita has been the setting for pranks, parties and plain old fun. Alumni share some of their favorite memories from the
