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In her look at our ability to perceive another's thoughts, Kirsten Weir fails her own theory of mind test (8 June, p 32). She wrongly assumes that on her return, Sally would expect to see her phone on the table in the bar where she left it.

Her friend Anne's action – placing the phone in Sally's bag while she went to order some more drinks – illustrates the common view that it is foolish to leave a phone unattended in a public place. Surely Sally could appreciate Anne would think this.

Surely the litmus test to judge a person's theory of mind capability is how deeply they appreciate the nuances of the hit song Little Does She Know by the Kursaal Flyers in 1976: "Little does she know that I know that she knows that I know she's two-timin' me."

Billingham, Teesside, UK

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Jun 19

Inner beauty

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It seems, in that moment, so simple to see the difference between my thoughts and my actual speech. Indeed the bits that remain tend to be the basic elements, without the analogies and sideways thinking, the nodes without the connections, the world without the glory.

Discussion of our inner voice reminds me of when US physicist Richard Feynman was testing whether different activities performed as he counted to 60 in his head would influence how long he thought a minute was.

It turned out he could do anything simultaneously except talk. Conversely his friend could talk but not read. Richard was counting with his "inner voice", ...

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Jun 18

Gaiman as a guide

Categories:

Arts & Culture, Attorney and Legal, Boston Book Festival, Carnegie Medal, Chip Kidd, Doctor Who, Hugo Awards, Literature & Poetry, Neil Gaiman, Newbery Medal, Oberon, Sandman, University of the Arts

Anne Margulies, Attorney and Legal, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Columbia University, Culture & Society, Harvard Business School, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Law School, HarvardScience, Jonas Salk, Jonathan Zittrain, Lipitor, Sanders Theatre, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Pittsburgh

Author Neil Gaiman has received multiple honors for his stories, books, and comics, including several Hugo Awards, the Newbery Medal, and the Carnegie Medal. But until his 2012 address to the graduating class of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, he’d never delivered a commencement speech.

“I had no idea how to give a speech to a bunch of graduating artists,” said Gaiman, who never attended college. He decided that he would “write down everything I wish I had known, when I’d started, that could possibly help.”

The speech went viral, garnering thousands of views and tweets — so many, in fact, that publishing houses expressed an interest in producing a book of the speech.

The book, “Make Good Art,” posed a challenge for its designer, Chip Kidd: how to make a visual and tangible record of Gaiman’s speech compelling when the speech was already freely available online.

Gaiman and Kidd met on the Oberon stage June 5 to discuss the inspiration behind the speech, the process of creating the book, and challenges and opportunities for artists today. The talk was sponsored by the Boston Book Festival.

In his approach to the speech, Kidd said, he recalled his days as a student in graphic design at Penn State.

“It was like I was in typography 101,” said Kidd, whose design résumé includes titles by Michael Crichton, Elmore Leonard, Haruki Murakami, and John Updike. His interpretation of Gaiman’s speech employs no images. Instead, the design solely draws upon the creativity and inventiveness of the text.

“It was interesting to really examine what Neil was telling you, and trying to figure out how to reflect that visually on the page,” Kidd said. “The text had to be something that you looked at, as well as something that you read.”

Kidd drew upon the concept of concrete poetry, which arranges words and letters creatively to contribute to the symbolism and power of the language. As a result, the book’s text is sometimes inverted, occasionally upside down, and even overlapping, depending on the content.

One of the key reviewers of the speech, Gaiman said, was his wife, Amanda Palmer, an artist, musician, and songwriter. Palmer advised him to cut anything “that was the kind of thing people said” in commencement addresses.

“I didn’t know what people said in commencement speeches, because I’d never seen one except hers,” Gaiman said, referring to Palmer’s speech to the New England Institute of the Arts in 2011. “But she told me what parts to take out, and I did.”

A Q-and-A session touched on Gaiman’s new novel, “The Ocean at the End of the Lane,” his scripts for the BBC’s “Doctor Who,” and a six-part miniseries of his “Sandman” comic.

One of the most interesting discoveries in his years of writing, Gaiman said, was that no matter the story, the response he received from initial readers was one to trust.

“When people tell you how to fix something, they’re always wrong,” he said. “But when they tell you something doesn’t work for them — a storyline confuses them, or they want you to bring a character back — they’re always right.”

His readers’ notes in hand, he sets the story aside for a period of time. Returning, he prints a fresh copy, and reads it “as if I’ve never read it before,” scribbling his thoughts in the margins.

Gaiman added that his work as a journalist helped him to write clearly under deadline pressure. A recent glance back at some of his earliest work, at 18 and 19, was an “eye-opener.”

“If anyone again ever comes up to me and asks, ‘Do you think I could make it as a professional writer?’ The answer is, ‘Yeah.’ Because it was just terrible, and I thought I was brilliant,” Gaiman said, prompting a roar of laughter from the audience. “I was lucky enough that I kept writing long enough to become good.”

Tags: Arts & Culture, Attorney and Legal, Boston Book Festival, Carnegie Medal, Chip Kidd, Doctor Who, Hugo Awards, Literature & Poetry, Neil Gaiman, Newbery Medal, Oberon, Sandman, University of the Arts

Jun 18

Taking stock of technology

Categories:

At the recent Harvard IT Summit, Anne Margulies, vice president and University chief information officer, mentioned how Harvard had been at the forefront of information technology since its inception, even to the point of naming the burgeoning field. Quoting from a then-futuristic piece titled “Management in the 1980s” in a 1958 issue of the Harvard Business Review, Margulies noted that the article declared, “We shall call it ‘information technology.’”

“Our field didn’t even have a name until Harvard gave it one just 55 years ago,” Margulies told a crowd of about 1,000 in Sanders Theatre on June 6. “Since then, it has been ever-changing, incredibly rapidly, and increasingly important to everything we do … And as a result, we have some of the most exciting, challenging, and rewarding jobs on the planet.”

The summit’s keynote speaker was Jonathan Zittrain, professor at Harvard Law School, Harvard Kennedy School, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, as well as the co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. He devoted his lecture to the potential “end of .edu.”

Zittrain recalled the words of Jonas Salk, who developed the vaccine for polio while a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh. Asked about a possible patent for his discovery, Salk declared that the people owned it, much like they owned the sun. Salk said “there (was) no patent” for the vaccine.

For Salk, Zittrain said, the greatest honor was to make advances in his field and to see them have an impact to improve the world. Zittrain added that had Salk patented the vaccine, it would have been worth approximately $7 billion to the University of Pittsburgh in today’s dollars.

By contrast, Zittrain cited the example of Lipitor, a medication developed by a pharmaceutical company to lower cholesterol. Since patenting the drug 12 years ago, he said, Pfizer has earned $125 billion from Lipitor sales.

“This raises an interesting question: What is the locus for great thoughts and innovation that have an impact on the world?” Zittrain asked. “What makes some thoughts more worthy for .edu to do, and others for .com to do, or is it just a matter of who gets there first?”

In fact, Zittrain said, the worlds of .edu and .com have been blending for decades. The co-transformation of eukaryotic cells, which allow researchers to inject foreign DNA into a cell and manipulate cells to accept it, was discovered by Columbia University researchers. The idea to patent the discovery, Zittrain said, “came from one of the co-inventors, Richard Axel, and it struck his other co-inventor as a rather odd thing to do.”

But by working with offices at the university that fall within the .com model — offices that work closely with patenting, marketing, and promotion — university research can result in enormous profits for an academic institution. The case discovery of eukaryotic cels, Zittrain said, resulted in $790 million in licensing fees to Columbia University.

Zittrain said that the core purposes of educational institutions such as Harvard should be grounded in four ideas: the cultivation of scholarly skills; providing access to the world’s information; freely disseminating “what we know and transform from what we then learn”; and contributing “actively and fiercely” to the development of free information on “open, unowned information platforms” such as the Internet.

“But I think there is some value in separating threads that become a little too intertwined with values,” Zittrain said.

“If you think it’s all just cash and carry, that’s not what I think we stand for here. Money is a variable, but we’re probably not solving for it: We’re solving for the ‘Veritas’ of it … to decide how much of Jonas Salk’s tradition we want to do, and how much we want to go with another.”

Tags: Anne Margulies, Attorney and Legal, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Columbia University, Culture & Society, Harvard Business School, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Law School, HarvardScience, Jonas Salk, Jonathan Zittrain, Lipitor, Sanders Theatre, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Pittsburgh

Jun 17

Science, front and center

Categories:

Alyssa Goodman, Attorney and Legal, Cat Adams, Chuck Leddy, ComSciCon, Culture & Society, Daniel Engber, HarvardScience, Marcia Bartusiak, Microsoft NERD Center, Nathan Sanders, Robert Lue, Science Communication, Science Writing, Shannon Morey, Visualization

It’s one thing to conduct good science. It’s another to get people to notice.

“We are trying to empower graduate students to communicate science so that they can tell others about the research they’re doing,” said Nathan Sanders, a third-year graduate student in Harvard’s Department of Astronomy and a co-chair of the Communicating Science Conference’s Organizing Committee.

ComSciCon, sponsored by Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a three-day workshop during which 50 graduate students chosen from 700 applicants interacted with each other and with experts to improve their science communication.

During ComSciCon, which was held at Microsoft’s New England Research and Development Center in Cambridge, the grad students presented one-minute “pop talks” before the start of every expert session. As the “pop talkers” summarized their research, they received real-time peer feedback in the form of handheld green posters reading “awesome” or orange posters reading “jargon.”

For example, when one grad student discussing amino acids started using acronyms for particular cells, orange “jargon” posters went up all around the room. Harvard grad student Cat Adams, who studies the evolutionary ecology of plant-fungal interactions, saw a roomful of green “awesome” posters after her talk began with: “Have you ever wondered why chili peppers are spicy? Chili peppers are spicy because they produce a chemical to fight off fungi.”

In one session, Harvard’s Robert Lue discussed how to use visualizations to communicate science. Lue, a professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and the Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, has created amazing videos to help people understand that “Wow, there’s really a lot going on within cells.” He showed a few videos to ComSciCon attendees. Lue said that while the films may run the risk of oversimplifying the complexity of cells, they serve “to spark engagement.”

Lue stressed “the importance of engaging the heart as well as the mind.” Visualization is a useful tool. “Never have we seen the opportunities that we see today to communicate science in ways that are engaging and interactive using multimedia,” he said. Lue described the present landscape as “a golden age” for integrating multimedia tools and learning. Driving engagement, whatever the method, is a precondition to deeper learning.

“And don’t knock cat videos either,” Lue said with a smile, referencing the most viral videos on YouTube. “If I could do cat videos to show protein-protein interaction, I would.”

Another session explored getting science writing published outside academia, whether as books or magazine articles. Marcia Bartusiak, professor of the practice and executive director of the Graduate Program in Science Writing at MIT, said that “story ideas are the coin of the realm” in science writing and that science is full of great stories. Profiles of scientists are in demand, as are explanations of cutting-edge research. Even the dynamics inside a laboratory present great dramatic material, she said. Mathematics, perhaps the least-accessible science, offers great drama too, Bartusiak told the Gazette, because “Most mathematic stories begin with an interesting character, an unusual and eccentric genius who’s figured out some mystery.”

Science journalist Daniel Engber offered tips on finding ideas, suggesting “read widely, and talk to people. Even silly observations during your day can turn into science stories. For example, I’ve just started a story for Slate about why there’s no toothpaste in hotel rooms.”

When a grad student asked about conducting effective interviews with scientists, Bartusiak said, “Sometimes it’s best to play dumb so the subject will be forced to translate the science into understandable language. I like to ask scientists, ‘How would you explain this to your mother?’”

Writing was emphasized, as the grad students reviewed each other’s work and then received expert reviews. Bartusiak explained how translating the jargon and numbers of science for public consumption is vital: “Most scientific research is publicly funded, and if the public gets too far away from science, they could support cutting that funding.” Much continued federal funding for research already is under siege.

So what makes good scientific communication? A few apparent best practices emerged. Harvard Professor of Astronomy Alyssa Goodman, who helped to organize the conference, also stressed the importance of communicating science as stories. The third of Goodman’s “Ten Tips for Communicating Science with Scientists” was “Turn your work into a compelling story.” Communicators need to explain what the science means in a wider context and structure engaging narratives that have a beginning, middle, and end. Another theme was the need to find the right balance between making the science broadly accessible and offering more depth.

Shannon Morey, an MIT grad student in chemistry and a co-chair of the conference’s organizing committee, said that ComSciCon got her to think seriously about how to reach nonscientists. “Scientists shouldn’t overestimate their audience’s knowledge,” she said, “but they shouldn’t underestimate their intelligence either. People are smart, and you need to find the right balance between accessibility and going into too much depth.” Elisabeth Newton, a second-year grad student in Harvard’s Department of Astronomy and a writer for the online journal Astrobites, agreed, saying: “There’s a need to offer a broader context and to communicate the big idea,” rather than getting too granular.

Bartusiak summed up the sessions by saying: “I love that these young scientists want to let people know why science is so important. I’ve had such a fun time with them these last few days.” ComSciCon offered attendees many reason to flash their green “awesome” posters.

Tags: Alyssa Goodman, Attorney and Legal, Cat Adams, Chuck Leddy, ComSciCon, Culture & Society, Daniel Engber, HarvardScience, Marcia Bartusiak, Microsoft NERD Center, Nathan Sanders, Robert Lue, Science Communication, Science Writing, Shannon Morey, Visualization

Jun 17

Developing cancer drugs

Categories:

acute myeloid leukemia, Attorney and Legal, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Cancer, cancer research, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, Cancer treatment, Daniel Tenen, drug, drug discovery, embryonic stem cell, Harvard Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology, Harvard Stem Cell Institute, HarvardScience, HSCI, ICCB, James Bradner, Lee Rubin, Li Chai, Life Sciences, liver cancer, SALL4, Stem Cell, Stem Cells, transcription factor, tumor suppressor

Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have identified in the most aggressive forms of cancer a gene known to regulate embryonic stem cell self-renewal, beginning a creative search for a drug that can block its activity.

The gene, SALL4, gives stem cells their ability to continue dividing as stem cells rather than becoming mature cells. Typically, cells only express SALL4 during embryonic development, but the gene is re-expressed in nearly all cases of acute myeloid leukemia and 10 to 30 percent of liver, lung, gastric, ovarian, endometrial, and breast cancers, strongly suggesting it plays a role in tumor formation.

In work published in the New England Journal of Medicine, two HSCI-affiliated labs — one in Singapore and the other in Boston — show that knocking out the SALL4 gene in mouse liver tumors, or interfering with the activity of its protein product with a small inhibitor, treats the cancer.

“Our paper is about liver cancer, but it is likely true about lung cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, many, many cancers,” said HSCI Blood Diseases Program leader Daniel Tenen, who also heads a laboratory at the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore). “SALL4 is a marker, so if we had a small molecule drug blocking SALL4 function, we could also predict which patients would be responsive.”

Studying the therapeutic potential of a transcription factor is unusual in the field of cancer research. Transcription factors are typically avoided because of the difficulty of developing drugs that safely interfere with genetic targets. Most cancer researchers focus their attention on kinases.

The HSCI researchers’ inquiry into the basic biology of the SALL4 gene, however, revealed another way to interfere with its activity in cancer cells. The gene’s protein product is responsible for turning off a tumor-suppressor gene, causing the cell to divide uncontrollably. Using this knowledge, the researchers demonstrated that targeting the SALL4 protein with druglike molecules could halt tumor growth. “The pharmaceutical companies decided that if it is not a kinase and it is not a cell surface molecule, then it is ‘undruggable,’ ” Tenen said. “To me, if you say anything is ‘undoable,’ you are limiting yourself as a biomedical scientist.”

Earlier this year, Tenen’s co-author, HSCI-affiliated faculty member Li Chai, a Harvard Medical School assistant professor of pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, published a paper in the journal Blood, reporting that a SALL4 inhibitor has similar treatment potential in leukemia cells.

Chai took blood samples from patients with acute myeloid leukemia, treated the leukemic cells with the inhibitor that interferes with SALL4 protein activity, and then transplanted the blood into mice. The result was a gradual regression of the same cancer in mice.

“I am excited about being on the front line of this new drug development,” Chai said. “As a physician-scientist, if I can find a new class of drug that has very low toxicity to normal tissues, my patients can have a better quality of life.”

Chai and Tenen are now working with HSCI Executive Committee member Lee Rubin, the Harvard Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology, and James Bradner of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, another HSCI-affiliated faculty member, to overcome the technical challenges of drug development and demonstrate the potential of SALL4 interference to treat other forms of cancer.

“I think as academics, we seek to engage drug companies because they can do these types of things better than we can,” Tenen said. “But, also as an academic, I want to go after the important biologic targets that are not being sought after by the typical drug company — because if we do not, who will?”

The basic research that explored the biology of SALL4 was financed by a 2007 seed grant from HSCI, with more recent funding provided by a Singapore Translational Research Award from the Singapore National Medical Research Council, and grants from the Singapore Ministry of Education and National Research Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. Kol Jia Yong, Chong Gao, and Henry Yang, among others, contributed to this work.

Tags: acute myeloid leukemia, Attorney and Legal, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Cancer, cancer research, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, Cancer treatment, Daniel Tenen, drug, drug discovery, embryonic stem cell, Harvard Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology, Harvard Stem Cell Institute, HarvardScience, HSCI, ICCB, James Bradner, Lee Rubin, Li Chai, Life Sciences, liver cancer, SALL4, Stem Cell, Stem Cells, transcription factor, tumor suppressor

Jun 17

Exhibition blurs boundary between you and your objects

Categories:

William Blake's death mask (with EEG) next to a Cyberman's head and a gargoyle: a new exhibition crosses the lines between humans and the things we make

Hints of future shock meet the objectification of our bodies (Image: Andy Keate/Nottingham Contemporary)

The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things, a Hayward Touring exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary gallery until 30 June and De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, UK, from 13 July to 20 October

YOU are dining with a friend. Mid-chat, there's a faint murmur. You pull out your phone. Let's try that again... You are dining with a friend. Mid-chat, there's a faint murmur. You lean over to check on your baby in the pram.

Familiar scenarios, but just 25 years ago the former would have been improbable. Digital devices have gained a power over our attention hitherto reserved for other sentient beings. Now non-technological objects are also being networked via sensors and RFID tags, allowing for an "internet of things" by which data is sent wirelessly between objects and to us. The potential for everything from teapots to art installations to affect us is unprecedented.

This is the subject matter of The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things, a touring exhibition from London's Hayward Gallery. Its curator, Mark Leckey, a Turner prizewinning artist, combines artworks and objects to question the validity of a human-centred description of reality.

The show's title is a play on the "unique addressability of things". These are words in common currency among people working on the internet of things, where networked objects gain "memory" which is present on the internet and visible to anyone who cares to access it. The exhibition hints at a uniqueness, almost individuality, of objects when their "life story" is recorded online. Will this change how we value and relate to them?

Leckey draws on a philosophical movement called object-oriented ontology, which demands that we rethink our relationships with objects and ditch the notion of human supremacy. But rather than dictate, Leckey invites us to make up our own minds about the nature of this coming future.

Take how he approaches the idea of hybridisation of humans with technology. He places a 13th-century gargoyle's head next to a cast of poet and artist William Blake's death mask, fitted with EEG paraphernalia. This is in turn beside a helmet of a Cyberman from the BBC sci-fi series, Doctor Who (see picture). While depicting the increase of hybridisation over time, the heads also seem to be a comment on how objects affect us. Mysticism is evoked by a gargoyle, once believed to have the power to scare off evil spirits. Next is Blake, the radical who grappled with the human mind and imagination. With its EEG, his death mask hints how far we have to go before technology unmasks the human mind. Last, the helmet reminds us of the emotionless Cybermen who forced others to become like them. Do we risk losing our humanity in techno-assimilation? Or might it signal a better future?

Blurring the lines around our island of humanity still further, Leckey explores biological hybridisation. To make the point, he uses Nicola Hicks's Maquette Head for Crouching Minotaur, a bust of the bull-human hybrid, and Louise Bourgeois's sculpture, Nature Study, which amalgamates human and animal body parts into a confusing, headless whole.

Elsewhere, Leckey moves sideways from our relationship with objects to ask what happens when humans (or animals) are turned into objects. For example, he presents Sander Mulder's Woofer– a sculpture of a headless dog with a speaker built-in – to echo Uterus Vase, a sculpture by The Plug & Stephanie Rollin (pictured). If human bodies are dispassionately treated as objects, should objects be passionately treated like humans? Again, Leckey defies us to draw clear lines around humanity.

His thoughtful, intricate curation underlines our evolving relationship with objects. But it is tempting to take things too far: some objects on which we now rely do affect our behaviour, but others do not. That said, when next you dine, consider your cellphone – and then your dining table. They won't be inert forever.

This article appeared in print under the headline "Exit centre stage, people"

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Attorney and Legal, Awards, Campus & Community, Campus Services, Drew Faust, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Office for Sustainability, Harvard School of Public Health, Heather Henriksen, Human Resources

Jun 15

Heroes, day by day

Categories:

Tags: Attorney and Legal, Awards, Campus & Community, Campus Services, Drew Faust, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Office for Sustainability, Harvard School of Public Health, Heather Henriksen, Human Resources

Famed actors, scholars, politicians, and musicians are among the many luminaries who have joined Harvard President Drew Faust on the Sanders Theatre stage. “But I have never been in better company,” Faust told an enthusiastic crowd on Thursday as she introduced Harvard’s 2013 Harvard Heroes, including a speedy cafeteria checker, a revolutionary library cataloger, a development rockstar, and a digital pioneer.

The festive ceremony celebrates the accomplishments of men and women from across the University, unsung contributors who are nominated by their peers for their exceptional efforts and service to Harvard. The honorees form an eclectic and selective group; they represent only one-half of 1 percent of the Harvard staff, and are recognized for a range of criteria, including the ability to adapt to change, foster a culture of diversity and inclusion, lead, innovate, and demonstrate caring for others.

“Thank you, Harvard Heroes, for your dedication to supporting and advancing the University’s mission of teaching and research. Each of you is committed to personal excellence and collective success, giving your best effort week after week, year after year, and — for some of you — decade after decade,” said Faust.

Members of the Harvard community, friends, and families filled the hall to hoot and holler, clap and cheer for the 60 honorees whose talents and accomplishments are as diverse as the Harvard Schools and departments they represent.

Timothy Collins, a maintenance technician at Harvard Medical School, keeps the campus’s low- and high-pressure boilers running smoothly, and also helps his colleagues “let off steam” by leading them in jiujitsu classes. In her role as communications manager at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Meghan Sandberg helps to produce and distribute Harvard Design Magazine and is always “eager to help others,” said Faust. Custodial crew chief Michel Montimer “finishes tasks in a flash,” noted Faust, as part of his work for Harvard Campus Services.

It’s the second season that the 18-year-old program has been University-wide but the first time it has honored those who help keep Harvard green. Ten women and men from across Harvard also were recognized for their efforts to improve Harvard’s environmental sustainability.

“The incorporation of Green Heroes into the Harvard Heroes program is an exciting step forward in further embedding sustainability throughout the University,” said Heather Henriksen, director of the Harvard Office for Sustainability. “This new partnership with HR leaders is also a natural fit because our Green Heroes demonstrate many of the core attributes of a Harvard Hero in the way they act as environmental leaders in their workplace by strengthening community, promoting One Harvard collaboration, and inspiring others to innovate and act for change to benefit the University’s mission.”

As a Green Hero, Jen Doleva, endowment, gift, and chart of accounts administrator, saved paper and money at the Harvard School of Public Health, encouraging her colleagues to compost, recycle, and take the stairs. “It isn’t easy being green,” Faust said, “but you make it easier.” Another Green Hero, Michael Goodwin, assistant director of operations at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, helped to introduce local foods at the Gutman Library café and partnered with the School’s Green Team to launch a composting program.

Gail Collmann Griffin flexes her green thumb as the director of gardens and grounds at Harvard’s Dumbarton Oaks, helping it to flourish and making one of the University’s most “breathtaking resources” more accessible and sustainable, said Faust.

One hero was deemed an MVP for keeping members of the Harvard community moving, literally. “You are … a clutch contributor season after season,” said Faust of Patricia Henry, senior associate director of athletics, who works closely with Harvard’s varsity teams and intramural and recreational programs.

Some heroes braved the elements to get their jobs done. Gale-force winds didn’t stop Paraison Francois, building services assistant at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, when it came to keeping some of the University’s buildings in shape. Faust called his arrival at work during last year’s Hurricane Sandy and blizzard Nemo “a testament to your diligence and dedication.” In the words of his nominator, read Faust, “It is people like [you] who really make Radcliffe and Harvard a great place to work.”

Harvard Executive Vice President Katie Lapp opened the event and introduced a brief video tribute honoring another group of Harvard Heroes, members of the University community who made “innumerable contributions” during the Boston Marathon bombings and the days that followed. We were moved, said Lapp, “by the many acts of bravery and generosity in the face of fear.”

What makes the event so special, say its organizers, is the opportunity if affords Harvard staff members to honor their peers. The fact that the number of nominees doubled from last year, said Mary Ann O’Brien, director of planning and program management for Harvard Human Resources, is a sign of the recognition program’s broad appeal.

“It’s a chance for Harvard employees to call out the accomplishments of their co-workers, especially when that contribution may not be easily visible to managers,” said O’Brien. As Harvard becomes less decentralized and more interdependent, she added, “People really need to rely on each other to get work done, and they really appreciate it when co-workers go above and beyond to collaborate, support them, provide great service, and make everyday work easier.”

Attendees enjoyed live music and summery treats such as watermelon, gazpacho, and macaroni and cheese at a post-ceremony reception in Annenberg Hall. Amid a rush of warm wishes and hugs from family and friends, Bridget Duffy, honored for her work as an administrative coordinator in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, reflected on the importance of the event.

“You are seeing a lot of people who are behind the scenes, doing things like being more green, or supporting people, not just doing the work, but doing the work well and caring about the community and the University as a whole.”

The comments of Marilyn Hausammann, Harvard’s vice president for human resources, during the ceremony echoed those sentiments. “It is my hope that all of you, family members, friends, colleagues, managers, University leaders,” Hausammann said, “will be as inspired as we are to work beside these folks in Harvard’s world-changing mission.”

“I am just grateful,” Duffy said of her award. “I love Harvard, and I am just really grateful to be here every day.”

Jun 14

Market time

Categories:

Attorney and Legal, Campus & Community, Farmers Markets, farms, Harvard University Dining Services, Louisa Denison, On Campus

Shielded by a tent at Science Center Plaza, Harvard employees Paula Gaughan and Susan Courtney stood in front of a near-endless selection of pastas, trying to choose just one.

“This happens every time,” Gaughan said, laughing as she looked over Valicenti Organico’s selection. “You stand here debating all the options, and then you realize five minutes have passed.”

On the other side of the tent, Carolyn Manning of C&C Lobster confirmed that the coolers at her feet did, in fact, contain live crustaceans.

“You can pick one up, take it home, and cook it,” said Manning, who is at the market for the third year running, adding that a few students had already come by to do just that.

With its bright flowers and colorful produce, the Farmers’ Market at Harvard is one of the University’s sights of summer, and one of two Harvard-sponsored markets that bring out diverse and enthusiastic crowds of all ages.

Now in its ninth year, the market features more than 20 local and regional vendors who come to Cambridge to sell their fresh produce, meats, sweets, and flowers. It runs from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Oct. 29.

The Harvard Allston Farmers’ Market opens this week as well, running from 3 to 7 p.m. on Fridays. The six-year-old market has moved from the Harvard Allston Education Portal to the parking lot of Swiss Bakers at 168 Western Ave. Like its Cambridge counterpart, the Allston market boasts a range of fresh produce and specialty foods, and features the Boston seafood favorite Red’s Best. Both markets regularly host live music, special events, and other surprise offerings.

During the Cambridge market’s opening day, new vendor Sarah-Beth Chester of 7ate9 Bakery, a business that specializes in cheesecakes, noted its special features.

“Farmers markets are great, and this is the only one I go to that has seating,” she said, gesturing to the café tables and benches lining the plaza. “It’s fantastic that you can buy something and immediately just sit down and enjoy it.”

The Allston market’s new location ensures freshly baked Swiss goods will be part of the fare and the ambience. Swiss Bakers café will be open to those seeking a cool indoor space for treats and snacks.

Louisa Denison, who helps to coordinate the Cambridge market through Harvard University Dining Services, said one of its most enjoyable features was how it represented multiple communities.

“That sense of community is something that’s very much welcomed at Harvard,” she said. “There are so many products of New England here, from honeys to meats and a wealth of produce, and that gives students a sense of what lies beyond Harvard and even Cambridge.”

With the new plaza space, coordinators plan to extend community programming, including story time with by city librarians and workshops on skills such as knife sharpening and filleting.

As the cloudy skies began to clear Monday, Manning smiled as new groups of staff, faculty, and students approached.

“It’s so nice to be back, and the new location is great,” she said. “It’s really pretty out here, so hopefully people will come out and enjoy the market. “

For weekly information on the Cambridge market, click here; Allston, here.

Tags: Attorney and Legal, Campus & Community, Farmers Markets, farms, Harvard University Dining Services, Louisa Denison, On Campus

Jun 14

A biological basis for free will

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[unable to retrieve full-text content]Our path through life isn't predetermined. Neuroscientist Peter Ulric Tse says he has identified the brain mechanism that lets us choose our fate