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Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898

November-December 2021

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Letters

Liberal arts, repatriation, sea level, palindromes

Harvard’s investment in quantum science

Risky entanglements in the political arena—and the potential for major new academic investments

The College Pump

Photograph of a pet hamster, dyed Yale blue, for a humor piece about Yale admissions

Photograph by iStock

Richard Lewontin, Richard Zeckhauser, diplomatic security, diverse inclusion, and admissions agita lampooned

Treasure

Borders from family Christmas letters, in Christmas seasonal motifs and colors

Borders from Christmas letters, courtesy of Schlesinger library

Origins of a beloved, bemoaned Yuletide tradition

In this Issue

Sandeep Robert Datta

Sandeep Robert Datta

Photograph by Stu Rosner

COVID-19 shines a spotlight on a once-obscure field of science.

Photograph of Edgar J. Banks as he appeared in a 1920s book on his archaeological explorations

Edgar J. Banks as he appeared in Bismya; or The Lost City of Adab

University of Chicago Library’s Electronic Open

Brief life of an entrepreneurial archaeologist: 1866-1945

Emily Broad Leib in front of produce

Emily Broad Leib at Cambridge’s Pemberton Farms

Photograph by Stu Rosner

Emily Broad Leib combats wasted food worldwide.

Photograph of E.O. Wilson observing ants

Always a close observer of ant species, E.O. Wilson became a molecular scientist as well in the 1950s.

Photograph by Hugh Patrick Brown/Getty Images

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

Letters

Liberal arts, repatriation, sea level, palindromes

Harvard’s investment in quantum science

Risky entanglements in the political arena—and the potential for major new academic investments

Right Now

A sample of slime mold grows clockwise in a petri dish

A sample of Physarum polycephalum sends out slimy, finger-like tendrils to sense information about its petri dish environment.

Image courtesy of Nirosha Murugan, Levin lab, Tufts University, and Wyss Institute at Harvard University

A seemingly primitive creature’s complex ability to detect mass from a distance.

Illustration of a seesaw with a house on one end, and an apple, representing teaching, on the other.

Illustration by John Tomac

Home prices are a bellwether of efficient spending in local schools

A smokestack spewing smoke with a wind turbine in its shadow

Illustration by Taylor Callery

Rather than shutting down turbines, China can harness surplus wind energy to make “green” hydrogen fuel and industrial chemicals.

Harvard Squared

Giant cartoonish elephant sculpture of Dr. Suess character Horton

Click on arrow at right to view additional images 

(1 of 5)

Evoking Horton Hears a Who
Photograph courtesy of Springfield Museums

Art, science, sports—and fanciful holiday lights—in the Connecticut River Valley 

Three headshots: V (formerly Even Ensler), Idina Menzel, and Diane Paulus

From left: V (formerly Eve Ensler), Idina Menzel, and Diane Paulus

courtesy of the A.R.T.

Harvard’s Diane Paulus brings climate change to center stage

The red brick former arsenal built in 1850 that now houses the Springfield armory museum

The 1850 former arsenal that now houses the armory museum

Photograph by Stan Tess/Alamy Stock Photo

Springfield Armory National Historic Site

The stein-laden mahogany back bar, and original 1935 booths at the landmark restaurant The Student Prince

The stein-laden mahogany back bar, and original 1935 booths featuring animal antler sconces

Photograph courtesy of The Student Prince

A Springfield, Massachusetts, tradition lives on

Dramatic photograph of volatile hurricane waves, by artist Clifford Ross

Hurricane LXXXIV

©Clifford Ross/courtesy of the Portland Museum of Art

Stunning works by Clifford Ross at the Portland Museum of Art 

Photo Courtesy of @BUTTERMILKBOURBON

This holiday, discover safely spectacular ways to celebrate the season.

John Harvard's Journal

Photograph of Houghton Library’s renovated reading room

The newly renovated Houghton Library features an upgraded reading room, a redesigned lobby, and improved accessibility features inside and out. The library reopened on September 1 for students and faculty and staff members.

Photograph by Jim Harrison

Resuming Harvard in residence, with continuing coronavirus cautions

Bruno Carvalho stands in front of a city background

Bruno Carvalho

Photograph by Jim Harrison

An urbanist’s lifelong study of the “rhythm of cities,” from Rio to Cambridge 

James Stock

James Stock

Photograph by Stu Rosner

Bacow names economist James Stock to a new position, Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability

Headshots from left to right of Brittany White, Andrew Manuel Crespo, and Premal Dharia

From left: Brittany White, Andrew Manuel Crespo, and Premal Dharia

From left: photograph by courtesy of Brittany White; photograph by Tony Luong; photograph by Prescott Loveland

A Law School institute facilitates change “from the ground up.”

A humorous illustration of women trying to buy football tickets in 1921

Illustration by Mark Steele

Headlines from Harvard’s history

Photo of new Harvard campus shuttle electric bus

Photograph by Stu Rosner

Campus shuttle’s electric buses, planning chief, and other news

To view full image click on illustration

Illustration by Angelo Dolojan

The Undergraduate returns to student life, altered by the pandemic and a year spent apart. 

Jon Sot punts a football.

Big leg: A master of placement as well as power, Sot led the Ivies in punting in 2019 with a 42.3-yard average, highlighted by an almost surreal 76-yard boot against Holy Cross.

Photograph by Gil Talbot/Harvard Athletics Communications

Jon Sot “flips the field” and the Crimson excel early.

Montage

Jason Bouldin at work on a painting in his studio

Jason Bouldin in his studio

Photograph by Thad Lee

Jason Bouldin makes the intangible tangible.

Photo of President Donald Trump and Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett

Polarizing pick: President Donald Trump applauds newly confirmed associate justice Amy Coney Barrett, October 26, 2020.

Photograph by Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

 

Linda Greenhouse on the 2020-2021 Supreme Court—and the changes to come

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta

Photograph courtes of Elisabeth Sharp McKetta

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta ’01 finds truth in the border between fact and fiction.

Specimen cicadas, a photograph of Harvard museum collections

Striking cicada specimens, from the museum holdings

Photograph by Diana Zlatanovski

Recent books with Harvard connections

Sam Wu conducts an orchestra

Sam Wu conducts his composition, The Building of a City, with the MusicaNova Orchestra in Phoenix, Arizona, in January 2020.

Photograph courtesy of Sam Wu

The "blurred boundaries" of Sam Wu's compositions

Photograph of the iconic Monticello, suggesting that Jefferson’s role as an owner of enslaved people needs to be made part of his history

Monticello dominates most Americans’ image of Thomas Jefferson…

Photograph by iStock

A powerful public history of slavery in America

Alumni

Amy Goodman featured in her broadcast studio giving the peace sign

Goodman preps for her show in the studio.

Photograph courtesy of Democracy Now!

At Democracy Now! Amy Goodman goes “where the silence is.”

Head shots of smiling Aloian Scholars

Fariba Mahmud and Courtney Rabb

Photographs courtesy of the Harvard Alumni Association

Enriching life at the Houses 

Miller-Hunn Awards

For outstanding service 

The College Pump

Photograph of a pet hamster, dyed Yale blue, for a humor piece about Yale admissions

Photograph by iStock

Richard Lewontin, Richard Zeckhauser, diplomatic security, diverse inclusion, and admissions agita lampooned

Treasure

Borders from family Christmas letters, in Christmas seasonal motifs and colors

Borders from Christmas letters, courtesy of Schlesinger library

Origins of a beloved, bemoaned Yuletide tradition