
Letters
Cambridge 02138
Letters on the humanities, cesarean sections, soda social science, and cheating considerations
Our Accomplished Contributors
Recognizing three outstanding Harvard Magazine contributors
January-February 2013

Features
Fracking’s Future
Natural gas, the economy, and America’s energy prospects
Vogue Meets Veritas
Designers, models, and merchants tint the fashion industry Crimson.
Vita: Irna Phillips
Brief life of soap opera’s single mother: 1901-1973
The Placebo Phenomenon
An ingenious researcher finds the real ingredients of “fake” medicine.
Rethinking the Walls
An unusual art collection in an unexpected place
RIGHT NOW Harvard research and ideas
Immobile Labor
Land-use restrictions lead to growing income disparities between states, Kennedy School researchers find.
Survival of the Cooperative
The breeding behavior of tropical cuckoos, in which unrelated adults share a communal nest, proves an exception to the theory of kin selection.
A Dazzling Flat Lens
Harvard scientists have developed a tiny, lightweight, distortion-free lens that focuses light without glass.
John Harvard's Journal University news
Economic Realities in Allston
The institutional master plan notification form Harvard filed in October 2012 no longer relies on debt-financing or unrealistic endowment payouts.
Sober Finances
A blunt picture of universities' altered circumstances—and a forecast of changed operations to come
An Allston Accounting Adjustment
A reporting change reflects the upheaval in Harvard's finances.
Harvard Portrait: Ann Forsyth
The suburban sustainability expert rides her bike to work.
The Coming Campaign
Major academic and building priorities come into focus.
Yesterday’s News
From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine
Making Harvard Green
The first University-wide Sustainability Impact Report reveals challenging goals.
Brevia
Harvard news: Nobelists, Rhodes and Marshall winners, edX update, and more
A Community Innovation Lab
I-Lab students work in interdisciplinary teams to address urban and civic challenges in the Dudley and Upham’s Corner neighborhoods.
A Perforating Doubt
The Undergraduate discovers that doubt is the place from which to start.
Surprise Endings
The football team broke records, but the Ivy trophy went south.
Squash, Egyptian Style
Two national champions rule the wall with flicks, nicks, and immense talent.
Montage Books, creative arts, performance and more
Mosaic for Now
A contemporary take on an ancient medium
Brotherly Love
In Brothers: On His Brothers and Brothers in History, George Howe Colt offers autobiography and biography both.
Paradoxical Fables
Ben Loory's minimalist stories ambush the reader.
Avant-garde, Post-Romantic
Hannah Lash’s personal, yet crystalline, music
Brutish Beginnings
The “mixed multitudes” of early Colonial America—and the Native Americans
Off the Shelf
Recent books with Harvard connections
Chapter and Verse
Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words
Almuni Harvardians far and wide
Paradise Found
The dazzling beauty and strangely human behavior of one of the world’s most diverse bird families.
A Pediatrician Takes the Long View
David G. Nathan on watching his patients grow up and flourish
Crimson on Capitol Hill
Alumni, an alumna, and a former Law School professor will join the 113th Congress.
Enhancing the Student Experience
A letter from President Drew Faust
Students’ Teacher
George West ’72 and his students foster oral history at Little Rock Central High.
Soldiers’ Biographer
Rachel Cox ’74 pays written tribute to an uncle and his friends with Into Dust and Fire: Five Young Americans Who Went First to Fight the Nazi Army.
The SIGnboard
Shared Interest Group events in January and February
The Classes
Harvard alumni may sign in to view class notes and obituaries.