September-October 2009

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Right Now
Montage
Regional
John Harvard's Journal
Alumni
Pump
Treasure

The Unlikely Writer

Atul Gawande, surgeon and health-policy scholar, never expected to be a literary voice of medicine.
An Ounce of Prevention

Financial regulation, moral hazard, and the end of “too big to fail”
Adélaïde Labille-Guiard

A brief profile of an enterprising French artist
Exposed

The erosion of privacy in the Internet era

Explore More

The Unlikely Writer

Atul Gawande, surgeon and health-policy scholar, never expected to be a literary voice of medicine.

9.1.09

Twitters, Titters, and The Onion

Baratunde Thurston ’99 of The Onion combines comedy, politics, and technology.

9.1.09

Montage

With a front page from <i>The Onion</i> projected in the background, Thurston emcees the 2009 SXSW Interactive Web Awards.

Twitters, Titters, and The Onion

Baratunde Thurston ’99 of The Onion combines comedy, politics, and technology.

The Levy family in 1928; Jacob holds the cane. Only he and Rivka Levy (far left, flounced dress) survived the Nazis.

The Slovenliness of the Intellectual

Socialism as family inconvenience

Chapter & Verse

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Richard Peña at Lincoln Center, with a New York Film Festival banner at right, behind him

Cinéaste’s Orgy

Richard Peña ’75 is program director of the New York Film Festival.

From <i>On the Loose in Boston: A Find-the-Animals Book,</i> by Sage Stossel

Off the Shelf

Recent books with Harvard connections

Women in a Woeful World

A review of Half the Sky, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

Letters

Cambridge 02138

Letters from our readers

Right Now

Even at the scale of cities, planners can work with the local ecology to create lasting interventions that minimize disruptions to the landscape, such as Khed Sez (shown) and Lavasa, both in India.

Architecture That Imitates Life

Architects are beginning to employ biomimicry, studying nature as a model for building design.

Facial Pheenoms

“Super-recognizers” have an astonishing ability to identify faces.

In her research, Anat Keinan asks people to reflect on their regrets over choices made in the near and distant past.

The Poor Payoff of Pleasure Postponed

Why a little self-indulgence makes sense.

Gas jets punch out of the collapsing star and blast into space, producing gamma rays that can be detected billions of light years away.

The Oldest Object

A star more than 13 billion years old

New England Regional

Volunteer guide Al Levin at the Lily Pond in Garden in the Woods

At Your Service

Alumni take up community service

A copy portrait of Samuel Johnson by Gilbert Stuart, after Sir Joshua Reynolds, from <em>A Monument More Durable Than Brass</em> at Houghton Library

Extracurriculars

Suggestions for your autumn schedule

Gaslight aims to offer patrons the ambience and food of a Parisian brasserie.

Bon Appétit

A French bistro in Boston’s South End

John Harvard's Journal

Finding a New Footing

An update on the University’s economic situation

A. Lawrence Lowell, president when the Extension School was founded

Extension School Centennial

A new history by its dean, Michael Shinagel, documents the school’s emphasis on accessibility and continuing education.

Federico Cortese

Federico Cortese

Meet the new conductor of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra.

In 1871, the Pierian Sodality, 16 strong, posed with their instruments.

For the Joy of It

A new book relates the history of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra.

Last Chapter

The Harvard University Press display room closes its doors.

The Incident on Ware Street

On the arrest of Fletcher University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and its aftermath

Yesterday's News

Headlines from Harvard history

The Kirkland House Shooting

Arrests and indictments in a case linked to drugs

Gary King

Systems Biological and Quantitative

Social scientist Gary King and systems biologist Marc W. Kirschner are named University Professors.

Brevia

Short takes on recent news

Why Harvard Needs to Get Harder

If courses aren’t as exciting as extracurriculars, what’s a college for?

Melanie Long and Spencer Lenfield

Welcome, Fellows

Harvard Magazine’s new Berta Greenwald Ledecky Undergraduate Fellows

Ice Water and Rockets

Soccer’s Lizzy Nichols has a gift for penalty kicks.

Fall Preview—and Blog

Football preview, and Cleat’s blog

Alumni

Brian Mullaney with a Haitian patient before her surgery this past February. Smile Train has provided roughly 160 surgeries in Haiti and recently launched “Cleft-free Haiti” to completely eradicate cleft there.

Scaling Up Charity

Smile Train’s Brian Mullaney ’81 aims to correct cleft-palate deformities around the world.

Teresita Alvarez-Bjelland

A Call for Public Service

HAA president Teresita Alvarez-Bjelland knows what makes people happy.

Aloian Scholars

Two Harvard seniors are honored for improving House life.

Hiram Hunn Awards

Seven alumni are honored for schools and scholarships work.

Cairo Conference

The Harvard Arab Alumni Association meets in Cairo.

Teresa Chen honors the restorative powers of delicious hot liquids.

Soup Chef

Teresa Chen ’64 promotes healthy soup-making and -eating.

Once Amy Nathan learned to love piano lessons, she decided to share the joy.

Musical Mentor

Amy Nathan ’67 aims to help kids over musical rough patches with The Young Musician’s Survival Guide.

Sophie and Philip Wharton show off their pre-Montreal style.

Unicyclists in a Good Cause

Philip Wharton ’82 and daughter Sophie ’11 pedal 100 miles for Afghan and Pakistani children.

The SIGnboard

Forthcoming Shared Interest Group events

Treasure

From Mary A. Robinson's scrapbook, now in the Farlow Herbarium

Art in the Wrack

Seaweed and seaside scenes of Martha’s Vineyard

The College Pump

<em>"Your wooden arm you hold outstretched to shake with passers-by"</em>

Holy Cow

Hollis professor of divinity Harvey Cox will lead a cow through Harvard Yard.

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