Substantiating Fears of Grade Inflation, Dean Says Median Grade at Harvard College Is A-, Most Common Grade Is A

The median grade at Harvard College is an A-, and the most frequently awarded mark is an A, Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris said on Tuesday afternoon, supporting suspicions that the College employs a softer grading standard than many of its peer institutions.

Professor Discusses Ethics of World War II Biological Weaponry Tests

The Japanese army killed around 10,000 Chinese civilians, Russians, and American prisoners of war while testing biological weaponry during World War II, but the U.S. government withheld knowledge of the fatal tests. Even though the episode has often been overshadowed, it played a significant role in America’s ethical history, according to professor David S. Jones ’97 at the Ethics of Human Experimentation, a discussion hosted by the Harvard Undergraduate Bioethics Society Monday night.

Physics Professors Win Prestigious Award

Physics professors Andrew E. Strominger ’77 and Cumrun Vafa were awarded the Milner Foundation’s Fundamental Physics Prize earlier this week.

Faculty Hear From SEAS Deans, Faculty Council, and Professors of Religion at Monthly Meeting

Two deans from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences laid out priorities and concerns on behalf of colleagues involved in the planning process for the school’s eventual move to Allston at the monthly meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Tuesday afternoon.

With Space and Personnel at a Premium, SEAS To Increase Faculty by Nearly 30 Percent

Facing constraints in manpower and space, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences is set to make twenty new tenure-track hires and is preparing for its building projects in Allston, SEAS Dean Cherry A. Murray told The Crimson in an interview this week.

The Harvard Classroom, Digitized

The Harvard Classroom, Digitized

This semester, the third since Harvard and MIT announced the launch of edX, many students are questioning whether virtual course materials in Harvard classes are enhancing—or detracting from—the learning process.

Mazur Criticizes Forms of Assessments

Current academic assessments fail to teach students skills that are applicable in the real world, argued Area Dean for Applied Physics Eric Mazur during a lecture to a packed hall in the Science Center Tuesday afternoon.

Donors and Professors Confer at Symposia After FAS Capital Campaign Launch

At a symposium on digital education, Robert A. Lue, a biology professor and director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, said that Harvard needs donors’ support to lead research on innovation in teaching and learning.

In Study, Open Access Science Journals Accept Fake Papers

More than half of over three hundred fee-based, open access science journals accepted a bogus research paper for publication in a study conducted by John N. Bohannon, a visiting scholar at the Harvard Program in Ethics and Health.

SEAS To Offer New Two-Year Master's Degree

The Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences announced on Friday that it will offer a two-year Master of Engineering in the field beginning in fall 2014.

Degrees Offered at SEAS

SEAS offers new two-year master's degree for Computational Science and Engineering

America's Next Top Nobel

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or a pile of p-sets in the corner of Lamont), you’ve probably heard that chemistry professor emeritus Martin Karplus just won a Nobel Prize. This, according to The Crimson, was for his innovations in “computer simulations using classical physics and quantum mechanics that could improve scientists’ understanding of complex reactions and the development of new drugs." If you’re anything like us, you’re very impressed, and also have no idea what this actually means. For your benefit, we’ve broken down this scientific jargon into language even Folklore and Mythology concentrators can understand. WARNING: The following definitions have been provided by a sarcastic humanities concentrator who has only ever stepped foot in the Science Center to buy chai tea lattés from the Greenhouse Café.

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Office Hours with Lieberman: Overcoming Your Inner Caveman Instincts

You walk into brain break and survey your options. If you’re faced with the choice between an apple and a brownie, chances are your instincts will guide you towards the brownie; try as we might, we just can’t stop reaching for fat and sugar. Human evolutionary biology professor Daniel E. Lieberman '86 is an expert on the evolutionary logic behind these patterns. In his newest book, "The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health and Disease," Lieberman tells us about the evolutionary causes and effects of “mismatch diseases,” which occur as a result of long-term changes in our environment but not our bodies. We spoke with Lieberman about his book and what it might mean for college students in their day-to-day lives.