Letters

Cambridge 02138

Communications from our readers

November-December 2008

Features

Animals Speak Color

Kit Reed introduces an exhibition at the Harvard Museum of Natural History that reveals the different roles color plays in the animal and plant kingdoms.

by Christopher Reed

Poetic Patriarch

Craig Lambert profiles the poet Richard Wilbur.

by Craig Lambert

Albert Gallatin Browne Jr.

William P. MacKinnon profiles the early war correspondent who covered the Utah War against the Mormon government of Brigham Young.

by William P. MacKinnon

Decoding Diabetes

Elizabeth Gudrais reports on how discoveries in genetics, cell metabolism, and the study of small molecules point the way to new therapies and perhaps a cure for diabetes.

by Elizabeth Gudrais

RIGHT NOW Harvard research and ideas

Slavery’s Sway

Interdisciplinary economist Nathan Nunn explores the problem of African underdevelopment by drawing on—and unearthing—historical data about slavery.

What Makes the Human Mind?

Biological anthropologist Marc Hauser seeks to isolate the aspects of human thought that account for what he terms "humaniqueness," the difference between animal and human thought.

World-Wide Web of Life

James Hanken of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology and other scientists launch an ambitious project to chronicle all life on earth.

The Financial Cost of Feeling

Psychologist and public-policy scholar Jennifer Lerner explores how emotions influence behavior and judgment.

A Durable Bubble

Mechanical engineering student Emilie Dressaire studies tiny bubbles that can last up to a year and replace fat droplets in ice cream.

John Harvard's Journal University news

Labs, Size Large

The new Northwest Science Building at Harvard

Endowment Edges Up in a Down Year

Harvard’s endowment grows in fiscal year 2008 by $2.0 billion, or 5.7 percent, to $36.9 billion.

Tarun Khanna

Harvard Business School professor Tarun Khanna seeks to integrate Western business models into emerging markets.

Probing Policing

Recent complaints about the Harvard University Police Department have prompted a special presidential review committee charged with improving the department’s relationship with the community.

Stem-Cell Progress

Harvard researchers at the Stem Cell Institute achieve major breakthroughs.

Yesterday's News

Headlines from Harvard history

Morning Prayers: All Creatures

President Drew Faust delivers a homily at Morning Prayers on the importance of environmental stewardship.

Creating Space to Contemplate Success

Harvard pushes undergraduates to ponder life’s big questions.

Powerful Conversations

Ariel Phillips and Abigail Lipson head the Success-Failure Project at the Harvard Bureau of Study Counsel.

In the Black

A summary of the Harvard University Financial Report for fiscal year 2008

Financial Crises, Faculty Views

Harvard faculty members gather to discuss economic problems on Wall Street and beyond.

Coming Out at Harvard

The Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary.

Brevia

Short takes on recent news at Harvard

Youthful Dreams

The Undergraduate reflects on how good and bad dreams shape the way we grow up.

Seeing the Field

Francine Polet brings international experience and tactics to the Harvard field-hockey team.

Crimson in Beijing

How Harvard athletes fared at the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games

Soccer Summary

Fall semester soccer results to date

Bumps in the Road

A report on the first half of the Harvard football season. And: The Harvard football team has a fancy new locker room.

The Force Was With Them

Kevin Rafferty has made a documentary film, Harvard Beats Yale 29-29, about the 1968 football game.

Men's Basketball Exonerated

The Ivy League exonerated men’s basketball head coach Tommy Amaker and an assistant coach following allegations of improper recruiting and lowered admissions standards for the men’s team.

Montage Books, creative arts, performance and more

The Maximalist

After a childhood spent playing the classics, cellist Matt Haimovitz has devoted himself to new music.

Stinging the Dinosaurs

An excerpt from The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies, by Bert Hölldobler and E. O. Wilson

Photos in Thread

Fabric artist Linda Liu Behar stitches embroideries atop her own photographs.

Carpenter Center's Craftsman

A new book, Le Corbusier Le Grand, pulls together the career of Le Corbusier, with material on Harvard’s Carpenter Center.

Art as Chattel

James Cuno reviews Old Masters, New World: America’s Raid on Europe’s Great Pictures, by Cynthia Saltzman

Chapter & Verse

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Blindspot: A Novel

History professor Jill Lepore is the coauthor, with Jane Kamensky, of the historical novel Blindspot, set in colonial Boston.

Off the Shelf

Recent books with Harvard connections

Almuni Harvardians far and wide

At Home with Old Age

William Thomas, founder of the Eden Alternative and the Green House Project, reimagines nursing homes and residential living for the elderly.

Comings and Goings

Events at Harvard Clubs

Cape Town Conference

A Harvard Alumni Association global conference in South Africa

Job Notices

Programs that match Harvard College students with jobs and internships

Well Done

Recipients of the 2008 Harvard Alumni Association Awards