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July-August 2006

Letters

The Power Problem Part of the problem in energizing a passive public about the carbon problem is that the term “global warming” is...

The College Pump

"Your wooden arm you hold outstretched to shake with passers-by." Caroline Healey Dall (1822-1912) was a transcendentalist...

Treasure

Photographs by Jim Harrison Herbs, roots, spices, ointments, lohochs, electuaries, syrups, aromatic waters, et cetera, et cetera—the...

In this Issue

Illustration by Robert Neubecker

This essay is adapted from the 2005-2006 Maurine and Robert Rothschild Lecture, delivered on April 24 under the sponsorship of the Radcliffe...

An undated image of Hervey White, dressed as Pan for a Maverick Festival

Photograph courtesy of the Woodstock Historical Society; colorized by Naomi Shea

Splendiferous in his purple Russian blouse, with shaggy hair and beard, Hervey White, A.B. 1894, helped transform a tiny village in the...

Peter Birmann’s View of the Rhine from the Istein Cliffs Upriver (1859) depicts what is called "the furcation zone" of the Upper Rhine.

Courtesy of the Kunstmuseum Basel

David Blackbourn has an affection for fens and marshes, lush, low-lying polders and high moors of heath and bog. When he leaves his home in...

Illustration by Ken Orvidas

By the time he reached his early thirties, James was a promising scientist who had all the makings of an academic star. He had earned a stream...

Letters

The Power Problem Part of the problem in energizing a passive public about the carbon problem is that the term “global warming” is...

Right Now

Photograph by Adrian Neal/Getty Images

“Sex sells.” Now sex cells sell, too. In 2004 more than a million infertile Americans paid dearly to conceive a child. Although...

What are readings from Sophocles, Chinua Achebe, and Joseph Conrad doing in a Harvard Business School course? And why is the professor talking...

At left, the invader, a biennial herbaceous plant about three feet in height, shown here growing lustily in the understory, might reconstitute North American forests. At right, symbiosis in action. Vesicles of fungi, shown in blue, colonize the feeding tip of a tree root, its walls shown in brown.

Garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata, a European native, immigrated to the United States in the 1800s, says Kristina Stinson, “perhaps...

Illustration by Tom Mosser

Imagine the brain as a giant filing cabinet. The puzzle of deciphering the labels on the drawers has occupied many a scientist and philosopher...

New England Regional

Richard and Lucy Sallick found traveling with their grandchildren, Abe and Penelope Lusk, a pleasure.

Photograph by Stu Rosner

Last summer Lucy and Richard Sallick visited a horse farm, an olive-oil factory, and the museums of Florence—all with their grandchildren...

Beat the heat this summer by exploring an assortment of activities in and around Harvard Square, ranging from a splash of eclectic exhibitions...

John Harvard's Journal

Kimberly Sims, Ph.D. '06, left, of North Brunswick, New Jersey, and a woman of mystery, rejoicing.

Photograph by Stu Rosner

The Tuesday of Commencement week, June 6, was radiant—perfect weather for the seniors to march from the Old Yard to Memorial Church...

Two women and seven men received honorary degrees at Harvard’s 355th Commencement. Provost Steven E. Hyman introduced them to the...

Lots of M.B.A.s On Commencement day, Thursday, June 8, Harvard conferred 6,706 degrees and 248 certificates. The College granted 1,641 of these...

In his Commencement address, President Summers reviewed his priorities. A detailed report on his tenure will appear in the next issue. &nbsp...

Near the start of his address, journalist Jim Lehrer, who collects bus memorabilia, gave a splendid rendition of a Trailways boarding call...

Commencement’s first product placement, managed by new doctors of dental medicine Prathima Prasanna, of Presque Isle, Maine, and Amy...

Jens Meierhenrich

Photograph by Fred Field

A very long bookshelf in Jens Meierhenrich’s Harvard office holds a complete transcript of the Nuremberg trial of major war criminals, in...

Harvard’s global ambitions to study and know more about the world, and to send more students out into it, were triply boosted at the end...

In the fall of 2003, Juliet Girard ’07 arrived at Harvard with first-rate scientific ambitions and a second-rate education. She had grown...

Jay O. Light, an expert in finance and investment management, was named dean of Harvard Business School (HBS)—the ninth since its founding...

Kathleen McCartney Photograph by Dina Konovalovia/A Dream Picture Kathleen McCartney, Lesser professor in early childhood development...

Illustration by Mark Steele

1916The Faculty Committee on the Use of English by Students reports that undergraduates “write bad English because of sheer ignorance...

Source: Harvard Office of Budgets, Financial Planning, and Institutional...

On the chill, blustery afternoon of May 1, a piece of Harvard’s living history lit up the Faculty Room in University Hall. The occasion...

On March 23, the London Review of Books published a long essay on “The Israel Lobby,” by Harrison distinguished service professor of...

Harvard’s Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences (DEAS) may soon become a full-fledged school of engineering, under a plan presented...

David E. Clapham Robert J. Sampson Harvard Medical School Courtesy of Robert J. Sampson Superior Scientists The 72 new members of the...

Harvard and other celebrated research universities “succeed, better than ever, as creators and repositories of knowledge,” declares...

Much work on refashioning the undergraduate curriculum remains for the next academic year, but the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) concluded...

Fulfilling its pledge to create formal channels through which to hear faculty and student ideas and views, the Corporation-Overseer committee...

Alumni

Will Rogers

Photograph by Jim Dennis/The Trust for Public Land

Last year the nonprofit Trust for Public Land (TPL) released a study on transforming a 22-mile loop of largely abandoned railroad tracks and...

With the death of Robert G. Stone Jr. ’45, LL.D. ’03, on April 25, the University lost a rare friend. The longtime member of the...

Each June, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Centennial Medal, first awarded in 1989 on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the...

The names of the new members of the Board of Overseers and the new elected directors of the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) were announced at...

Four seniors have won Harvard Cambridge scholarships to study at Cambridge University during the 2006-2007 academic year. Physics and...

The oldest graduates of Harvard and Radcliffe present on Commencement day were 97-year-old Bertha O. Fineberg ’31, of Gloucester...

The University had received $506 million in gifts through May 31 of the fiscal year, $13 million ahead of donation totals at the same time a...

Ten years ago, when Kenneth R. Rossano, secretary for the class of 1956, was chairing the HAA’s Radcliffe-Harvard Relations Committee, a...

Members of the College class of 2006 marched to their Baccalaureate service on Tuesday, June 6, behind their class banner and their elected...

The Harvard Alumni Association surprised President Lawrence H. Summers during its annual meeting on June 8 by awarding him a Harvard Medal for...

In the summer of 2003, a new eatery popped up among the numerous meat-and-potato diners and Sunday-morning-Bloody-Mary bars in Spooner, a...

Mainstream pop culture churns out plenty of rockers and rappers, but Derrick N. Ashong ’97, G ’08, is plugged into a different...

Several years ago, Marilyn Powell, Ph.D. ’66, sat at a gelateria with several friends, indulging herself while playing an impromptu game:...

The College Pump

"Your wooden arm you hold outstretched to shake with passers-by." Caroline Healey Dall (1822-1912) was a transcendentalist...

Treasure

Photographs by Jim Harrison Herbs, roots, spices, ointments, lohochs, electuaries, syrups, aromatic waters, et cetera, et cetera—the...