Harvard

Researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute have created what they're calling RoboBees - robots smaller than a penny that can fly.

Inspired by the biology of a fly, with submillimeter-scale anatomy and two wafer-thin wings that flap almost invisibly, 120 times per second, the tiny device not only represents the absolute cutting edge of micromanufacturing and control systems, but is an aspiration that has impelled innovation in these fields by dozens of researchers across Harvard for years.

R.S.Y. Buchanan took in the fights at Harvard last night. Yes, Harvard.

The Crimson reports the 11 fights on the card made up the fifth Kenneth Moskow Memorial Fight Night, this time held in a tent on the Science Center plaza:

Blood splattered across the shoulders of boxer Robert Z. Cai ’14 on Wednesday night as he continued throwing punches despite a bleeding nose.

Photo copyright R.S.Y. Buchanan. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

The Globe reports on Harvard's sorry-not-sorry explanation for scanning headers on e-mail from deans. The Crimson reports university President Drew Faust says she had no idea.

The Crimson reports on some petitions for improving student life submitted to the university, including one for a "a designated nap room in the Yard." Some students who favored the proposal said, however, they would be concerned about cleanliness - could they trust beanbag chairs some other student had just snoozed on?

Harvard University Police report an undergraduate student walking in the Quincy House courtyard around 1:35 a.m. was attacked by two men:

The victim stated that while walking through the courtyard she was grabbed by two males who attempted to pull her back towards the building. The suspects did not say anything to the victim. She fought with them and was able to flee the courtyard and entered a nearby residence for safety. The victim was not injured during the incident and officers searching the area could not locate the suspects.

Not that, in the greater scheme of things, that's as earth-shattering as, say, secretly buying up large swaths of the neighborhood right under the mayor's nose or anything, but in ten years of proposing plans and canceling them, the U has never once said anything about moving the engineering school across the river and now, boom, they'll be in 02134 instead of 02138 within five years.

Both Allston residents and engineering types are shocked, although for different reasons.

Der Spiegel interviews a Harvard professor who thinks we're nearing the point where we could implant Neanderthal DNA in a human egg. Of course, that would take a woman willing to carry a Neanderthal to term. Actually, several women, because what's the point of growing just one?

No, you would certainly have to create a cohort, so they would have some sense of identity. They could maybe even create a new neo-Neanderthal culture and become a political force.

Via Boston Business Journal.

The Crimson reports on a recent meeting of a Harvard/Allston community task force. It did not go well.

WBUR rounds up the top highest salaries for college presidents in Massachusetts.

The Crimson reports:

Flyers Under Students' Doors Say 'No Fucking Jews'

The Crimson reports the recent elections mean the number of Harvardians in the halls of Congress will increase from 34 to 43.

Currently limited to Harvard students, but then again, that's how Facebook started, too.

The Crimson reports on Harvard's latest imaginings for its vast tracts in Allston, which now include a new basketball stadium, a hotel and conference center and more buildings for the business school. Residents at a meeting on the latest proposals expressed concern about stuffing a stadium next to homes and about the way Harvard seems to keep coming up with ideas in bits and pieces without considering the ultimate impact on traffic in the area. The proposal now goes to the BRA.

The Crimson reports on a sociology class where the professor brought in three homeless Harvard Square guys to talk about their experience.

The Crimson reports waiters at the Harvard Faculty Club and Loeb House filed suit last week, alleging mandatory "gratuity" surcharges added to bills there never go to them. The suit comes as the Harvard Club, a private institution across the river, agreed to a $4 million settlement over the same issue.

And the future Masters of the Universe are not amused:

One sophomore, granted anonymity by The Crimson because she was afraid to be associated with a party that had been interrupted by police, was at the Delphic Saturday night when the police arrived. ... According to her, after word of the interruption spread, a few students shouted phrases like "fuck the police" and "it's the 5-0," a common slang for the police, while they made their way out the front door.

Major cheating scandal emerging at Harvard.

Harvard University Police say a woman reported being raped around 11 p.m. on Tuesday at Kirkland and Oxford streets.

The woman, who initially reported the attack to Somerville Police, described the man as white, in his mid 20s, 5'6" with a thin build and dark, spikey hair. He wore dark pants.

The rape happened just four days after another woman reported being raped in Harvard Yard, by a man about the same height and age, but with a medium build.

Harvard University Police report a woman was raped in the Yard around 3:15 a.m. today.

The victim was grabbed as she entered the Yard through the Johnston Gate and was pulled behind Massachusetts Hall and attacked.

The victim described the offender as a very tanned, possible Hispanic male, mid-twenties, 5'7" in height, medium build, dark hair, wearing a white shirt.

The Crimson reports on a six-story, 300-apartment building with retail space proposed for Barry's Corner on what is now a Harvard parking lot and "a semi-underground" building. The Crimson dourly notes the structure would be taller than nearby Harvard Stadium.

Nature reports on some interesting work done by a team of researchers at Harvard and Mass. General, who found inspiration at the jellyfish exhibit at the New England Aquarium.

"We took a rat apart and rebuilt it as a jellyfish," one of the researchers said. But don't worry - they're not all sitting around in a secret underground lair going "mwa-ha-ha!" as they build giant tanks to house their earth-conquering ratfish. We think. They say the work, in which rat heart cells were grown on a thin plastic layer, could aid in battling heart disease and developing drugs, by giving researchers a better understanding of the "fundamental laws of muscular pumps."

Ed. question: In a battle between Harvard rat jellyfish and MIT zombie moths, who would win?

The Harvard University police log has the following entry for July 18:

Officer dispatched to take a report of a stolen unattended and unsecured pair of fruit of the Loom underwear valued at $5.00.

F-Line to Dudley reports CSX is planning to open its new Worcester freight yards Sept. 1, which will mean a dramatic dropoff in traffic through Beacon Park in Allston - mainly train equipment needing repairs and a few trains going to a small number of customers inside 128 (such as the Houghton Chemical plant right next to the Allston yard).

Oh, Harvard: The Crimson reports a construction company doing work on campus has taken down a sign asking workers to "show respect for Harvard" and refrain from swearing, drinking and drug use while on the job, after future 1%ers protested that the sign was just so patronizing and patriarchal.

Avinaash Subramaniam '14 said that he was "shocked" by the sign and that it held workers to a different standard than Harvard students.

"There are students who drink and smoke at Harvard and the final clubs blast music late at night," he said. "How is it any less wrong when Harvard students do drugs?"

New memo straight from the top says construction on the Harvard science complex could resume in 2014, starting with a 500,000 to 600,000-square foot Health and Life Science Center.

Via Allston Brighton Community Blog.