On the cover: Illustration by Kotryna Zukauskaite
Letters
Cambridge 02138
Liberal arts, repatriation, sea level, palindromes
Seeing Further
Harvard’s investment in quantum science
Endowment Enigmas
Risky entanglements in the political arena—and the potential for major new academic investments
November-December 2021
On the cover: Illustration by Kotryna Zukauskaite
Features
The Mystery of Smell
COVID-19 shines a spotlight on a once-obscure field of science.
Edgar James Banks
Brief life of an entrepreneurial archaeologist: 1866-1945
The Food Waste Problem
Emily Broad Leib combats wasted food worldwide.
Speaking Pheromone
How science is done, in the lab of E.O. Wilson
RIGHT NOW Harvard research and ideas
Can Slime Molds Think?
A seemingly primitive creature’s complex ability to detect mass from a distance.
Optimizing Public-School Spending
Home prices are a bellwether of efficient spending in local schools
China’s Excess Wind Energy
Rather than shutting down turbines, China can harness surplus wind energy to make “green” hydrogen fuel and industrial chemicals.
John Harvard's Journal University news
Reopening. . .Carefully
Resuming Harvard in residence, with continuing coronavirus cautions
Bruno Carvalho
An urbanist’s lifelong study of the “rhythm of cities,” from Rio to Cambridge
Elevating Climate Issues
Bacow names economist James Stock to a new position, Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability
“Decarcerating” America
A Law School institute facilitates change “from the ground up.”
Yesterday’s News
Headlines from Harvard’s history
Brevia
Campus shuttle’s electric buses, planning chief, and other news
Campus, Interrupted
The Undergraduate returns to student life, altered by the pandemic and a year spent apart.
Harvard Football’s Star Punter Makes History
Jon Sot “flips the field” and the Crimson excel early.
Montage Books, creative arts, performance and more
The Art of the Portrait Painter
Jason Bouldin makes the intangible tangible.
Supreme Court Brinkmanship
Linda Greenhouse on the 2020-2021 Supreme Court—and the changes to come
How Myth and Memoir Intertwine
Elisabeth Sharp McKetta ’01 finds truth in the border between fact and fiction.
Off the Shelf
Recent books with Harvard connections
Visual Music
The "blurred boundaries" of Sam Wu's compositions
Getting Close to the Past
A powerful public history of slavery in America
Harvard Squared What to do in Boston, Cambridge and beyond
The Places You’ll Go
Art, science, sports—and fanciful holiday lights—in the Connecticut River Valley
Staff Pick: A.R.T.’s WILD: A Musical Becoming
Harvard’s Diane Paulus brings climate change to center stage
American Ingenuity
Springfield Armory National Historic Site
The Student Prince
A Springfield, Massachusetts, tradition lives on
Curiosities: “Completely Magical”
Stunning works by Clifford Ross at the Portland Museum of Art
Reasons to Rejoice
This holiday, discover safely spectacular ways to celebrate the season.
Almuni Harvardians far and wide
People-Powered Journalism
At Democracy Now! Amy Goodman goes “where the silence is.”
Aloian Memorial Scholars
Enriching life at the Houses
Alumni Admissions Interviewers Honored
Miller-Hunn Awards
2021 HAA Award Winners
For outstanding service
