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January-February 2013

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Letters

Letters on the humanities, cesarean sections, soda social science, and cheating considerations

Recognizing three outstanding Harvard Magazine contributors

The College Pump

Robert Kiely escorts Tennessee Williams at Commencement in 1982.

Tennessee Williams, Mother Teresa…and Gore Vidal

Treasure

Child in her postwar Paris kitchen

Julia is feted in her centenary year.

In this Issue

A hydraulic fracturing rig drilling for natural gas in eastern Colorado

Natural gas, the economy, and America’s energy prospects

Designer Katiti Kirondé with her white shirts at the Fashion Lab of Fisher College in Boston

Designers, models, and merchants tint the fashion industry Crimson.

A professional Phillips in 1940

Brief life of soap opera’s single mother: 1901-1973

Ted Kaptchuk in his home office in Cambridge

An ingenious researcher finds the real ingredients of “fake” medicine.

<i>Mahatma Gandhi</i> (2001), by Brett Cook-Dizney, Hawes Hall

An unusual art collection in an unexpected place

Letters

Letters on the humanities, cesarean sections, soda social science, and cheating considerations

Recognizing three outstanding Harvard Magazine contributors

Right Now

Land-use restrictions lead to growing income disparities between states, Kennedy School researchers find.

The breeding habits of tropical cuckoos, whose unrelated adults cooperate to rear young, have raised questions about the limits of kin selection in evolution.

The breeding behavior of tropical cuckoos, in which unrelated adults share a communal nest, proves an exception to the theory of kin selection.

This disortion-free flat lens, less than a millimeter across, uses antennae etched from a layer of gold, rather than glass, to focus laser light.

Harvard scientists have developed a tiny, lightweight, distortion-free lens that focuses light without glass.

New England Regional

Jessica Tang

Young activists live their beliefs—"every day"

From an exhibit on poet Amy Lowell at Houghton Library

Harvard arts and cultural events

From the menu: phyllo triangles filled with caramelized onions, chard, and tofu, in a sorrel cream sauce

True Bistro offers higher-order vegan fare with international flair.

John Harvard's Journal

The new master-plan submission: (1) Harvard Business School&rsquo;s (HBS) Kresge Hall replacement; (2) Burden Hall replacement; (3) Faculty and administrative office building; (4) Harvard Stadium addition/renovation; (5) Athletics department&rsquo;s basketball venue and institutional/mixed-use facility; (6) Institutional/mixed-use project (on existing Charlesview site); (7) Hotel and conference center; (8) Renovation of HBS&rsquo;s Baker Hall; (9) Renovation of Soldier&rsquo;s Field Park housing.

The institutional master plan notification form Harvard filed in October 2012 no longer relies on debt-financing or unrealistic endowment payouts.

A blunt picture of universities' altered circumstances—and a forecast of changed operations to come

A reporting change reflects the upheaval in Harvard's finances.

Ann Forsyth

The suburban sustainability expert rides her bike to work.

House renewal under way: rendering of the &ldquo;light court&rdquo; beside Leverett House&rsquo;s&nbsp;dining hall

Major academic and building priorities come into focus.

From the pages of the <i>Harvard Alumni Bulletin</i> and <i>Harvard Magazine</i>

The first University-wide Sustainability Impact Report reveals challenging goals.

Leah Rosovsky

Harvard news: Nobelists, Rhodes and Marshall winners, edX update, and more

Students Sneha Khullar, Laura O&rsquo;Connor, Billy Pope, and Salmaan Khan&nbsp;suggested using a central location as&nbsp; the site for a blank canvas hosting stickers filled in by community residents, as a way to spark a dialogue about the identity of Upham&rsquo;s Corner.

I-Lab students work in interdisciplinary teams to address urban and civic challenges in the Dudley and Upham’s Corner neighborhoods.

The Undergraduate discovers that doubt is the place from which to start.

Quarterback Colton Chapple accounted for three touchdowns in the Yale game, passing for two and scoring another on foot. He threw 24 scoring passes in a spectacular senior season, breaking the Harvard record of 18 set by Neil Rose &rsquo;03 in 2002.

The football team broke records, but the Ivy trophy went south.

Ali Farag and Amanda Sobhy

Two national champions rule the wall with flicks, nicks, and immense talent.

Montage

The mosaic <i>Absence</i> (2012) on a wall in Moscow

A contemporary take on an ancient medium

Brothers four: Ned, Harry, author George, and Mark in 1989

In <i>Brothers: On His Brothers and Brothers in History,</i> George Howe Colt offers autobiography and biography both.

Ben Loory

Ben Loory's minimalist stories ambush the reader.

Hannah Lash

Hannah Lash’s personal, yet crystalline, music

Both sides now: mutually beneficial trade between Native Americans and English people. From Theodor de Bry&rsquo;s <i>America</i> series, 1634.

The “mixed multitudes” of early Colonial America—and the Native Americans

Old and new along the Mississippi: Holy Rosary Cemetery and Dow Chemical Corporation, Taft, Louisiana, 1998. From <i>Petrochemical America</i>

Recent books with Harvard connections

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Alumni

Blue Bird-of-Paradise, Tigibi, Tari area

The dazzling beauty and strangely human behavior of one of the world’s most diverse bird families.

David Nathan with his patient Mark, now an adult, in May 2012

David G. Nathan on watching his patients grow up and flourish

Alumni, an alumna, and a former Law School professor will join the 113th Congress.

Drew Faust

A letter from President Drew Faust

George West (far left) with his two faculty colleagues and the students of the Little Rock Central High Memory Project editing team

George West ’72 and his students foster oral history at Little Rock Central High.

Rachel Cox

Rachel Cox ’74 pays written tribute to an uncle and his friends with <i>Into Dust and Fire: Five Young Americans Who Went First to Fight the Nazi Army.</i>

Shared Interest Group events in January and February

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

The College Pump

Robert Kiely escorts Tennessee Williams at Commencement in 1982.

Tennessee Williams, Mother Teresa…and Gore Vidal

Treasure

Child in her postwar Paris kitchen

Julia is feted in her centenary year.