July-August 2005 | Harvard Magazine

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Editor’s Highlights Sign up to be notified of new issues. See a sample newsletter	Skip to primary navigation July-August 2005 Volume 107, Number 6 Jump to Section: Letters, Right Now, The Browser, New England Regional, Features, John Harvard's Journal, The Alumni, The College Pump, Treasure Letters Cambridge 02138 AT ODDS I was dismayed to see the Faculty of Arts and Sciences mounting their protests against President Lawrence H. Summers’s suggestion… Right Now A Taste for Extinction The island nation of Madagascar boasts not only one of the highest levels of species diversity on earth, but also unparalleled rates of… The Patent Trap Patents—a form of governmental protection to prevent ideas from being sold or used by someone else without permission—have a long and… Society's Casino In the fall of 2001, Americans drastically revised their travel habits. “Driving went up, and flying went down,” says David Ropeik… Back to top The Browser Changed by the Court Few Supreme Court justices, after their appointments, have drastically changed their fundamental views of law and life. Most justtices, after… Off the Shelf Miss Leavitt’s Stars: The Untold Story of the Forgotten Woman Who Discovered How to Measure the Universe, by George Johnson (W.W. Norton… Chapter & Verse Mike Kempson requests a source for the following exchange, possibly from an old poem: “It was just the other day that the Gray Swan sailed… Norse Calypsos, et Cetera The polymathic Nicholas D. Humez ’69—silversmith, author, banjoist, classical philologist, composer of operas and string quartets… Memory Retrieved Novelist and teacher of writing Nicholas Delbanco ’63 explores a box in the attic in one of nine essays, “In Defense of… Back to top New England Regional Extracurriculars Take a stroll around Harvard Square this summer and you’ll find a multitude of activities for all ages, ranging from the Summer Pops… Moving On Jonathan Gorham ’71 recently helped his mother move from a retirement community in Maine to an assisted-living apartment closer to where… Live a Little The West Side Lounge is a fun little restaurant. On a Thursday night, the waitress greeted with a genuine smile—as if she’s glad we… Back to top Features Deep into Sleep Not long ago, a psychiatrist in private practice telephoned associate professor of psychiatry Robert Stickgold, a cognitive neuroscientist… Unsound Sleep The National Sleep Foundation’s 2005 survey found that 75 percent of American adults experience symptoms of a sleep problem at least a few… Freud's Guesswork on Dreams One of Sigmund Freud’s great complaints about his mistreatment in life was that although he won a literary award for his famous book The… Elizabeth Bishop By the time Elizabeth Bishop settled into her apartment on the Boston waterfront, in recently refurbished Lewis Wharf, it was 1974. She was 63… India's Promise Things have never been as good for India as they appear to be today. Its economy has grown by nearly 6 percent annually for the past… Mad for Degas In 1911 the little Fogg Art Museum mounted the only one-man museum exhibition to occur during his lifetime of works by Hilaire-Germain-Edgar… Back to top John Harvard's Journal A Mouse, and Other Surprises “In this perilous, suffering world and in this deeply troubled nation,” as John Lithgow ’67, Ar.D. ’05, characterized… Honoris Causa Two women and six men received honorary degrees at Harvard’s 354th Commencement. Provost Steven E. Hyman introduced them to the… Commencement Confetti NOBLE BEAST Professional bomb-sniffer Tara, a two-year-old golden/lab/vizsla from Holland, made organizers breathe easier by checking out… Harvard Local, In her Senior English Address, “Perfect Imperfection,” Alicia J. Menendez ’05, whose concentration was women, gender, and… Global, In his afternoon address, President Lawrence H. Summers focused on “perhaps the defining development of our time,” the… and Cultural Before he narrated the poetic adventures of Mahalia Mouse, the female rodent who became a scientist (rather than the subject of a scientific… Also Heard [T]he fourth and last thing that I learned at Harvard Business School, and the thing that may be most important to the people here today, is to… Engineering Equity The reports of the Task Force on Women Faculty (WF) and the Task Force on Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), released on May 16, share a… Thomas W. Lentz In the early 1980s, when Thomas W. Lentz was earning a Ph.D. at Harvard by becoming an expert on Islamic art—Persian painting in… Debating Gender Following President Lawrence H. Summers’s comments last January on women’s interests and aptitudes as they might affect careers in… Yesterday's News 1915 One hundred-plus Harvard men and their families sail from New York City via the Panama Canal to San Francisco to attend the annual meeting… Scientific Ambitions Preliminary land-use plans for campus development in Allston have yet to be subjected to public review and comment (see “Allston Options:… Maxine Kumin On Arts First weekend, poet Maxine Kumin ’46, A.M. ’48, a Bunting Institute Fellow in 1963, became the eleventh recipient of the… Recruiting Redux The Supreme Court is set to consider how military recruiting may be conducted on campuses when the armed forces’ “Don’t ask… Curriculum Queries The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) devoted much of its last three regular spring business meetings to reports on the undergraduate… Allston Options: Up for Discussion Calling “effective transportation” the “most critical” of the issues Harvard faces as it plans for expansion into… Enlivening Science An expressed aim of the curriculum review is to assure College graduates’ scientific literacy in the twenty-first century. Summarizing the… Where the Students Are At each Commencement, Harvard confers 6,500 or so degrees, on everyone from College students who have navigated their undergraduate years to… Aftershocks In the wake of its March 15 vote that it “lacks confidence” in his leadership (see “At Odds,” May-June, page 55), the… Honor Roll Philip Fisher Howard Georgi Rose Licoln / Harvard News Office Kris Snibbe / Harvard News Office Margo I. Seltzer Lino Pertile… A Notable Dean The appointment of Thomas professor of government and sociology Theda Skocpol as dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS)… Approaching Africa Since 1969, Harvard has had a Committee on African Studies (CAS), an interdisciplinary group of scholars who sponsor seminars and fund summer… Brevia Business Dean’s Calling In response to a May 25 call from President Gordon B. Hinckley of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints… Splendid Spring Sports Crew The heavyweight men won their third consecutive national title at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) regatta in Camden, New… An American in Paris More students are venturing abroad, for term or summer study or other experiences, with the College’s encouragement. The first of two… Sommersemester It is week 3 of my Sommersemester at the Freie Universität in west Berlin and finally—finally—I am hitting my stride. “In… Back to top The Alumni Life at the Epicenter Bioethicists like R. Alta Charo ’79 operate where scientific innovation butts up against cultural ethos. As a professor of law and… Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Medalists Each June, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Centennial Medal, first awarded in 1989 on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the… Harvard Medalists Three alumni were publicly thanked by President Lawrence H. Summers for their exceptional service to the University during the HAA’s… Election Results The names of the new members of the Board of Overseers and the new directors of the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) were announced at the… Cambridge Scholars Four seniors have won Harvard Cambridge scholarships to study at Cambridge University during the 2005-2006 academic year. Physics concentrator… Largiantur Donatores The University had received $493 million in donations through May 31 of the fiscal year, according to University Treasurer James F. Rothenberg… The Exemplars Philip Keene Photograph by Jim Harrison Bertha Offenbach Fineberg Photograph by Jim Harrison The oldest graduates of Harvard and… Schooner Skipper Nautical educator Roger Taylor Benjamin Brewster / Lake Champlain Maritime Museum Multifaceted boating enthusiast Roger Taylor… Foreign Service Military physicians (left to right) Eldon Bell, Miguel Palos, Robert Yarrish, and (below) Graham Hoffman Courtesy of Miguel Palos… Back to top The College Pump Errant Oars "Your wooden arm you hold outstretched to shake with passers-by." The secretary of the class of 1947 has asked for the help of… Back to top Treasure "More News to Come..." John James Audubon described the stentorian voice of the ivory-billed woodpecker in his Ornithological Biography, prose descriptions of the…

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