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Under a slice-of-heaven sky, 150 acres of rolling green hills stretch off into the distance. About a dozen people—tree enthusiasts, conservationists, research biologists, biotech entrepreneurs, and a venture capitalist in long socks and a floppy hat—have driven to this rural spot in New York state on a perfect late-July day.  We are here to see…

In the 1960s, Norman Borlaug, an American biologist, helped spark a period of transformative agricultural innovation known as the Green Revolution by selectively breeding a grain-packed, dwarf variety of wheat. (He would win a Nobel Peace Prize for this work.) In Asia, the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) had similar success with rice. By…

A metronome ticks. A record spins. And as a feel-good pop track plays, a giant compactor slowly crushes a Jenga tower of material creations. Paint cans burst. Chess pieces topple. Camera lenses shatter. An alarm clock shrills and then goes silent. A guitar neck snaps. Even a toy emoji is not spared, its eyes popping…

When Muyinatu A. Lediju Bell ’06 won the National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award, the country’s top honor for early-career researchers, she sat on a panel with her two fellow awardees, surrounded by the academic luminaries on the National Science Board. The atmosphere was formal, even weighty, but when asked by a board member…

On June 6, 1944, the Allies deposited nearly 160,000 troops on the beaches of Normandy, France, in what still stands as the largest land invasion by sea in world history. D-Day would, of course, prove to be a critical milestone leading to the Allied victory in World War II. But were it not for the…

When Anthony Jones ’08 reminisces about his childhood, he thinks of clams. Growing up on the reservation of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, about an hour from Seattle, he spent a lot of time playing outside with his brothers—fishing, digging clams, and gathering oysters on the beach. Those idyllic childhood memories wouldn’t have been possible,…