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May-June 2012

Letters

Letters about Al Franken, the value of lectures, education and economics, justice, the Tea Party, primate care, and more

The College Pump

A replica of what may be the earliest known version of the American flag to include stars

A star-spangled Colonial find and a book honoring Motif No. 1

Treasure

Lilac Sunday at the Arnold Arboretum in 1926

The Arnold Arboretum's "Lilac Sunday" tradition

In this Issue

Rahul Mehrotra at the Chowmahalla Palace in Hyderabad. The earliest structures of the palace complex were built in a Palladian Neoclassical style; as the rulers gained in confidence, they adopted the Islamic Revivalist style shown here.

Rahul Mehrotra's architecture spans eras and cultural divides.

The human urge to create art appears magnificently in the Paleolithic paintings from roughly 30,000 years ago at Chauvet Cave, in southern France. Here, the Panel of the Horses.

Sociobiologist E.O. Wilson on the evolution of culture

<i>The Vision of Saint Gertrude the Great with Saint Augustine and the Holy Trinity</i> (c.1673-1712). Attributed to Isidoro Arredondo

Brief life of a female visionary: 1256-c. 1302

Peter Der Manuelian with a 3-D projection of the subterranean chapel of Queen Meresankh III, discovered and excavated at Giza in 1927 by the Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition. This immersive computer model, based on the actual archaeological documentation, uses software powered by Dassault Systèmes, Paris.

The Digital humanities at Harvard encompass a vast array of new tools and scholarly creations

Letters

Letters about Al Franken, the value of lectures, education and economics, justice, the Tea Party, primate care, and more

Right Now

How personal preferences drive our choice of mates—as understood through an online dating site.

An extract of the blue evergreen hydrangea suppresses autoimmune reactions.

Malcolm Whitman reveals how the blue evergreen hydrangea stops autoimmune disease.

A large-scale map of protein interactions in fruit flies provides new ways to study disease.

A map of protein interactions in fruit flies provides new ways to study disease.

John Harvard's Journal

An aerial view of the Fogg art Museum reconstruction.

Dean of Harvard Medical School Jeffrey S. Flier

Harvard Medical School's primate research center encounters repeated, serious lapses of proper procedure and safe animal care

Amanda Claybaugh

Meet the expert on nineteenth-century novels and reformist writings.

Left to right: Alan Garber, Youngme Moon, Lawrence Bacow, and Michael Sandel at the closing panel on “Looking to the Future”

The Harvard Initiative on Learning and Teaching launched its activities with a day-long symposium.

Widener Library

The threat of library staff layoffs, absent details, leads to consternation and protests.

From left: Maya Jasanoff, Parimal Patil, Matthew Nock, Claudine Gay, and Robert Wood

Faculty members predict what a Harvard education will look like in 2036.

Headlines from Harvard history

Lizabeth Cohen and David N. Hempton

Lizabeth Cohen named Radcliffe dean; David N. Hempton named Divinity School dean

Allan M. Brandt, dean of GSAS, stepped down in mid February.

Brandt steps down, ROTC on campus, admissions bill increase, education Ph.D., and more

Joshua Benton in the newsroom of the Nieman Journalism Lab

The Nieman Journalism Lab tracks innovations in journalism, online, in print, and on the business side.

The Undergraduate mines alumni class reports for real-world lessons about life.

Multiple images of Rachel Brown’s pitching motion. Softball pitchers may take one step forward from the rubber while dragging the back foot.

Rachel Brown of the softball team broke Ivy records for strikeouts last year.

All-Ivy forward Kyle Casey ’13 drives toward the hoop against Vanderbilt’s Rod Odom.

The Harvard basketball team completed its best season with an appearance against Vanderbilt in the NCAA tournament.

Montage

The 1931 Picasso painting <i>Nude, Green Leaves and Bust</i> being auctioned at Christie’s in 2010. The sale price of $106 million set a world record.

Brooke Lampley '02 heads modern and impressionist art at Christie's.

Tyler Gibbons and Robin MacArthur outside the Vermont home of her grandmother, Margaret MacArthur.

A musical Vermont couple record local music collected decades ago.

Exterior of the Herta and Paul Amir Building at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art

GSD's Preston Scott Cohen designed a new wing on the Tel Aviv art museum.

David Scheffer in 1997 at the Nyanza massacre memorial site in Rwanda

On the evolving system of international criminal justice

Recent books with Harvard connections

Excerpt from <i>The Great Divergence</i> by Timothy Noah ’80

Alumni

Adam Bosworth

Keas—founded by computer programmer Adam Bosworth ’76—combines social media and gaming to make wellness fun.

Faculty speakers at local Harvard clubs

The 2012 nominees for Harvard overseers and HAA elected directors

Shared Interest Group happenings in May and June

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

The College Pump

A replica of what may be the earliest known version of the American flag to include stars

A star-spangled Colonial find and a book honoring Motif No. 1

Treasure

Lilac Sunday at the Arnold Arboretum in 1926

The Arnold Arboretum's "Lilac Sunday" tradition