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.

by Lydialyle Gibson

Edgar James Banks

Brief life of an entrepreneurial archaeologist: 1866-1945

by Nancy Freudenthal

The Food Waste Problem

Emily Broad Leib combats wasted food worldwide.

by Jacob Sweet

Speaking Pheromone

How science is done, in the lab of E.O. Wilson

by Richard Rhodes

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 

2021 HAA Award Winners

For outstanding service