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Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898

May-June 2011

Letters

Quotable Harvard, Vietnam, polygyny

The College Pump

Monty: Check him out.

Edward Everett aids Mount Vernon; Monty aids law students; Drew Faust eyes the pay of William James.

Treasure

A coconut with Bible stories

In this Issue

Andrew Sullivan in his “blog cave”

Andrew Sullivan’s views are predictable in only one way: always stimulating.

Robert Gerszten

The study of metabolites does an end run around genomics to provide telling clues to your future health.

Lev Gleason

Brief life of a comics impresario: 1898-1971

A diving humpback shows its flukes—a favorite sight for whale watchers.

On learning from nature and the Endangered Species Act

Letters

Quotable Harvard, Vietnam, polygyny

Right Now

The winning wildlife-crossing design distills multiple habitat types from the surrounding landscape into parallel bands that act as corridors for various animal species. Wide bands provide an open field of view, while narrow forest and shrub bands provide enclosed corridors.

A winning proposal to keep cars and critters apart

In this 3D representation of the relationship between collaboration and mean citation impact in the Longwood Medical Area, each building’s height reflects the number of citations of papers originating in the building, while the color gradient (from gray/low to blue/high) represents the proportion of publications originating from that building in which both first and last authors work in the building.

Proximity appears to foster quality.

In a new book, All Things Shining, philosopher Sean Dorrance Kelly confronts modern nihilism with a guide for learning how to live a meaningful life.

John Harvard's Journal

Done deal. U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and President Drew Faust sign the ROTC agreement as (left to right) Vice President and General Counsel Robert Iuliano, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Juan M. Garcia III, Dean of Harvard College Evelynn Hammonds, and Vice Admiral Mark E. Ferguson III look on.

As military service is opened to gays, the University agrees to end a ban dating to the Vietnam War era.

Donald Ingber

Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering has made a fast start.

Meet the men who tend the Yard.

The University plans for an anniversary.

Harvard College reinstates nonbinding early-action for applicants.

Readers recall effective, innovative education—and more Faculty of Arts and Sciences “conversations” on pedagogy.

An online discussion and poll revise the list of “hard problems” in the social sciences drafted by scholars at a Harvard symposium last year.

Headlines from Harvard history

The Graduate Commons Program places faculty residents in graduate-student housing.

The passing of a University icon, Commencement speakers, Overseer leaders, humanities and arts honorands, and other University news

Do Harvard undergraduates ponder the meaning of life?

Brent Suter at O’Donnell Field

Southpaw Brent Suter averages nearly a strikeout per inning.

Four pitching grips, demonstrated by Brent Suter

Standout players Kyle Casey (30) and Keith Wright (44) in action as Harvard, in its final home game, beat Princeton 79-67 to clinch a share of the Ivy league championship.

The men's basketball team wins its first Ivy title.

Montage

Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks at home on Martha’s Vineyard, one setting in her new novel

Geraldine Brooks's new novel stars Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, Harvard's first Native American graduate, A.B. 1665.

The author in 1974—already infatuated with <i>Apis melllifera</i>—studies a swarm choosing its home.

An excerpt from Thomas D. Seeley's new book, Honeybee Democracy

Anna Pasternak leaps…

In Panama, Anna Pasternak helps at-risk youth through dance.

Sugata Bose reviews Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India, by Joseph Lelyveld.

Elise Paschen

The Chicago poet has spread the good wordings via book, CD—and subway.

Recent books with Harvard connections

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Alumni

Manuel Muñoz

Chicano writer Manuel Muñoz ’94 mines the “humanizing effect of literature.”

Jameson Marvin

The Jameson Singers help rekindle a love of music.

The annual elections for new members of the Board of Overseers and for directors of the Harvard Alumni Association are under way.

The Alumni Association is reorganizing its outreach to College alumni.

A sampling of Harvard club events

Commencement and other news from Shared Interest Groups

Frank Gorman as a Harvard star and competitor at theTokyo Olympics

Frank Gorman '59 shares his Olympic memories.

Dale Gieringer speaking at a NORML event

Dale Gieringer '68 takes his stand on libertarian and humanitarian grounds.

JohnTeton speaks at NewYork University.

John Teton '70 directs the International Food Security Treaty Campaign.

Harvard alumni may sign in to view class notes and obituaries.

The College Pump

Monty: Check him out.

Edward Everett aids Mount Vernon; Monty aids law students; Drew Faust eyes the pay of William James.

Treasure

A coconut with Bible stories