Science

Today’s batch of photos (we have more!) comes from reader Leo Glenn of western Pennsylvania, who also pays tribute to another contributor. Leo’s text and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them. Note the felid lagniappe at the bottom.

It’s been a while since I contributed wildlife photos. I’m no Mark Sturtevant, but here are a few photos of insects I’ve taken this year, mostly on the daily dog walks.

Bald-faced hornet (Dolichovespula maculata) on goldenrod (Solidago sp.). Not a true hornet, which are in the genus Vespa, bald-faced hornets are a species of yellowjacket wasps. According to Wikipedia, they produce colonies of 400-700 workers, which is the largest colony size in its genus. They construct large paper nests, which they aggressively defend, a fact to which I can personally, and regrettably, attest:

Imperial moth caterpillar (Eacles imperialis), in its fifth and final instar, undoubtedly look for a place to pupate. They are polyphagous, feeding on many tree species, including pine, maple, oak, sassafras and sweetgum:

Another imperial moth caterpillar (Eacles imperialis) in its fifth instar, showing their color variability:

The aptly named pale beauty moth (Campaea perlata). They are in the family Geometridae, derived from Ancient Greek and meaning to measure the earth, as their larvae, also called inchworms, appear to be measuring as they perambulate along:

Splendid earth boring beetle (Geotrupes spendidus) And splendid it is. They are named earth boring because they make burrows to lay their eggs. They prefer fungi, but will also feed on dung, carrion, and feathers:

Spotted cuckoo spider wasp (Ceropales maculata) on Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota). Members of the spider wasp family (Pompilidae) are nearly all solitary. They are so named because the female captures and paralyzes spiders, transports them to its underground lair, and lays an egg in the abdomen of the spider. The hatched larva then consumes the spider from the inside. The spotted cuckoo spider wasp, as its name implies, does things a little differently. The female seeks out a female from another spider wasp species which already has a spider, follows her, and when she drops the spider momentarily to prepare her lair, the spotted cuckoo spider wasp dips in, lays her egg in the spider, and flies off. The unsuspecting spider wasp then places the spider in her lair and lays her own egg. But the spotted cuckoo wasp spider egg has evolved to hatch first and eat the other egg, before moving on to consume the spider.

Zabulon skipper butterfly (Lon zabulon), sipping nectar from a red clover flower (Trifolium pratense). Its proboscis is considerably longer than its body:

Giant leopard moth (Hypercompe scribonia). I had to move it to my palm to get a decent photo:

Common eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) on mint flower (Mentha sp.):

Viceroy butterfly (Limenitis archippus). It was long thought to be an example of Batesian mimicry due to its strong resemblance to the monarch butterfly (It can be distinguished from the monarch by the black lines transversing its hind wings.). However, after it was discovered to also be distasteful to predators, it is now considered an example of Müllerian mimicry, which, to quote Wikipedia, is when “two or more well-defended species, often foul tasting and sharing common predators, have come to mimic each other’s honest warning signals, to their mutual benefit.”

One of my personal favorites, a lovely dogbane beetle (Chrysochus auratus) on its host plant, dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum). You can see my reflection, and my dog’s reflection, in its elytra.

Felid lagniappe: And finally, a few photos of our neighbor’s orange tabby, whose name is Moses. Moses likes to sit perfectly still in our driveway for long periods of time and stare at our house. My family call him the spy cat. He also likes to come up to the sliding door on our back deck and harass our cats (which are strictly indoor cats), causing them to hurl themselves into the glass with a resounding bong, He seems to prefer to do this in the predawn hours when the humans are still asleep. The first time it happened, I thought someone was breaking in.(Now we just yell, “Moses!” and try to go back to sleep.)  My repeated attempts to befriend him failed, until recently, when persistence paid off, and I was finally able to get him to come to me. The photos capture that first successful encounter. Now we’re best buds, of course.

Based on a recently published study using improved criteria for determining long term COVID-related health problems, it looks like kids are less likely to be negatively impacted than previously thought.

The post A Bit of Good News: Kids Appear to Have Lower Risk of Post-COVID Conditions Than Previously Thought first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

Cosmology has transformed our understanding of time past and the aeons to come, pointing to a deep future in which life may morph into incredible forms, says Astronomer Royal Martin Rees

Naomi Alderman on the tech billionaires at the heart of her new novel The Future, the latest pick for the New Scientist Book Club – and the 1974 book that inspired her

In this tantalising extract from Naomi Alderman's new novel The Future, the latest pick for the New Scientist Book Club, a tech chief executive discovers the end of the world is nigh

Military veterans with traumatic brain injury saw drastic reductions in depression and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after using the psychedelic drug ibogaine

Knot theory is linked to many other branches of science, including those that tell us about the cosmos

With a split-second muscle contraction, the greater blue-ringed octopus can change the size and color of the namesake patterns on its skin for purposes of deception, camouflage and signaling. Researchers have drawn inspiration from this natural wonder to develop a technological platform with similar capabilities for use in a variety of fields, including the military, medicine, robotics and sustainable energy.

Neptune is fondly known for being a rich blue and Uranus green -- but a new study has revealed that the two ice giants are actually far closer in color than typically thought. The correct shades of the planets have now been confirmed.

An analysis of photos taken by Voyager 2 in the 1980s shows that Neptune and Uranus have a similar pale blue hue as perceived by the human eye

Globular clusters (GCs) are spherical groups of stars held together by mutual gravity. Large ones can have millions of stars, and the stars tend to be older and have lower metallicity. The Milky Way contains more than 200 globulars, possibly many more, and most of them are in the galaxy’s halo, the outer reaches of the galaxy.

But they’re not all in the halo, and astronomers are keen to find ones nearest the galactic centre. Now, researchers have found one GC that’s plunging toward the Milky Way’s Centre.

Astronomers use globular clusters as a way to probe the machinations of the Milky Way. GCs are long-lived, but in tumultuous regions like the galactic centre, their long-term survival is threatened. Dynamic friction can eat away at the gravitational bonds that hold globular clusters together. There’s been an ongoing effort to find GCs near the center to learn more about GCs and more about the galactic centre.

The VVV (VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea) survey is a European Southern Observatory effort to locate star clusters in the Milky Way’s bulge. In a 2020 paper, researchers working with data from VVV found the closest GC to the Milky Way’s centre: VVV CL002. In a new paper involving some of the same researchers, astronomers found that VVV CL002 is plunging toward the center of the Milky Way.

The paper is “The globular cluster VVV CL002 falling down to the hazardous Galactic centre.” The lead author is Dante Minniti of the Andrés Bello Catholic University in Santiago, Chile. The paper will be published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Powerful tidal forces dominate the Milky Way’s centre. Astronomers think that globulars that get too close to the centre are torn apart, their stars scattered into the general population of crowded stars. But astronomers are struggling to come up with a realistic model to explain it. By finding surviving GCs in the galactic centre, researchers hope to understand the region and GCs better.

VVV CL002 is the closest GC to the center. It’s only 0.4 kpc (1300 light-years) away. But it’s moving toward the center very quickly, at about 400 km s?1.

This image from VISTA shows the faint newly found globular star cluster VVV CL002. This globular, which appears as an inconspicuous concentration of faint stars near the centre of the picture, lies close to the centre of the Milky Way and is moving closer to the centre. The region is crowded with stars. Image Credit: ESO/D. Minniti/VVV Team

VVV CL002 has an eccentric orbit that takes it from 619 to 3,400 light-years from the centre. Its orbit is tighter to the centre than any other known GCs. As it orbits, it’s moving closer to the galactic centre. It’s also counter-rotating. These are all clues to its origins and its fate.

Its orbit, location, and motion mean that VVV CL002 can’t have formed anywhere near where it is today. “No globular cluster is expected to survive over its lifetime (>10 Gyr) in such proximity to the Galactic centre,” the authors explain.

This panel from the research illustrates VVV CL002’s simulated orbits. The black lines represent the cluster’s computed orbit, overlain on the probabilities of orbit densities projected on the galactic plane. Lighter colours indicate more probable regions of space that are more frequently sampled by the simulated orbits. Image Credit: Minniti et al. 2023.

But there’s more to this research than location, movement, and velocity. Those alone don’t give astronomers the full picture of where the GC came from, which is clearly an important question. To answer this, the researchers turned to metallicity.

Stellar metallicity refers to the abundance of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium in a star or group of stars. Older stars typically have lower metallicity, while more recently formed stars typically have higher metallicity. The researchers were able to measure the metallicity by focusing on target stars in the globular cluster.

This figure from the research shows some of the target stars the astronomers observed in VVV CL002. The red diamonds indicate two red giants in the cluster, which played an important role in their observations. Image Credit: Minniti et al. 2023.

Astronomers often compare the iron content of a star to its hydrogen content to express its metallicity. An FE/H value of 0 is what our Sun has. If the value is lower than that, in the negatives, it means the subject has lower metallicity than the Sun. If the value is above 0, the subject has a higher metallicity than the Sun. The researchers found that the stars in VVV CL002 have a mean metallicity of -0.54, meaning it has a low metallicity. That’s a signal that the stars are old.

What does this all add up to?

“This confirms that VVV CL002 is an old globular cluster formed together with other clusters and field stars present today in the Galactic bulge rather than a younger open cluster or the remains from an (already-disrupted) dwarf galaxy,” the authors write. So VVV CL002 didn’t form where it is today. The metallicity measurements are in line with stars that formed within 3 to 6 kpc (~10,000 to 20,000 light-years) of the galactic centre.

These figures from the research show two expressions of VVV CL002’s metallicity. The panel on the left shows Fe/H and Mg/Fe, while the right panel shows Fe/H and Si/Fe. Green crosses show the metallicity of some other GC with known abundances, while black dots represent field stars in the galactic bulge. Image Credit: Minniti et al. 2023.

“This brings us to a scenario where VVV CL002 was formed at a relatively large R birth and started to fall towards the centre recently,” the researchers write in their conclusion.

For VVV CL002, the future is immutable. It’s heading straight for the galactic centre, and nothing can stop it. And the galactic centre is not a hospitable place. Among other hazards, the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* holds court there, and everything in its vicinity dances to its gravitational tune.

As the nearest GC to the galactic centre, VVV CL002 can teach astronomers a lot. “This cluster sheds light
on the intriguing survival and migration mechanisms of globular clusters, whereas many less-characterized globular clusters and candidates are within a couple of kilo-parsecs from the centre,” the authors explain.

Follow-up studies are needed to untangle some of those lessons. But they can be difficult to acquire in the crowded region of the galactic centre. “Demand is high for near-infrared high-resolution spectroscopy of such clusters, which has been handicapped due to severe interstellar extinction,” Minitti and his co-researchers explain.

Wherever it came from and how exactly it formed, VVV CL002 is headed for destruction.

“It is probably doomed to continue spiralling into the inner parsecs and be destroyed in the not-so-distant future,” the researchers write.

The post This Globular Cluster is Plunging Toward the Milky Way’s Centre appeared first on Universe Today.

Venus spins in the opposite direction to the other planets, which may have been caused by an ancient moon that orbited the planet backwards and then fell to the surface

An unusual material that consists of a complex jumble of intricately entwined tubes isn't much use on its own – but the technique needed to build it could be

As we all know by now, Harvard’s President Claudine Gay the first black woman head of the University, resigned on Tuesday (her letter of resignation, here, is also reproduced below the fold).  In her formal letter she doesn’t explain why she resigned, but simply says this:

. . . . after consultation with members of the Corporation, it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual.

There’s a soupçon of self-pity in her resignation, as well as calling attention to “personal attacks” and “threats fueled by racial animus.” I don’t doubt she received these, but had it been me, considerations of dignity would have compelled me to omit this stuff.  Still, it doesn’t bother me that much, but it’s worth noting this stuff:

Amidst all of this, it has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor — two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am — and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.

Originally there was speculation that Gay might resign because of her rather uninspiring performance testifying before a House committee, but I didn’t think her performance was that bad: she reiterated that Harvard’s speech code allowed people to call for Jewish genocide on some occasions, but not others. As she implied, “context matters,” and that’s true if one is adhering to the First Amendment. The problem was that Harvard had never adhered to the First Amendment, for it has no speech code stipulating that. Rather, Harvard applied its speech code unevenly, sanctioning or warning some people for “offenses” far smaller than saying, “Gas the Jews.”  The problem was not context but hypocrisy.

That said, I thought that this could be a “teachable moment” for Gay and Harvard, one that might prompt her and the Overseers to finally fix the problems with “free” speech at Harvard. But when accusations of plagiarism began accumulating, and were undoubtedly plagiarism, eventually her position became untenable (see above).  Do note that those accusations were leveled largely by conservatives: Christopher Rufo and the New York Post.  This shows you that, unless you want a plagiarist as President of Harvard, it’s not good to write off what conservatives say simply because of their politics.

Gay will be replaced temporarily by economist and physician Alan Garber, Harvard’s provost and chief academic officer. And then the search will begin for Gay’s replacement. There is lots of speculation here (will it be another black woman?, etc.), but I won’t engage in any prognostications. As for Gay, she will return to her position as tenured professor of government and African and African American studies. But the tweet below suggests that she’s going to keep the enormous salary she got as President—nearly a million bucks a year. And that implies that she made some kind of deal with the Overseers to resign quietly so long as she got to keep that huge salary.  To me that seems unfair, but it’s better for Harvard that she leaves and gets a big salary than if she stayed.

"Gay will now return to a role within the political science department, and will retain a salary on the same level as while she was president."

Cheating upwards, Gay returns to low-output low-impact scholarship, soothed by a $900,000/year salary.https://t.co/cTafPDhChy

— i/o (@eyeslasho) January 3, 2024

 

The New York Times allowed Dr. Gay to respond to her “resignation”—surely more than just a suggestion from the Corporation—by writing an op-ed giving her take on the matter. And I have to say that she’s far less dignified, far too unwilling to own up to why she was fired, and far too self-pitying for such a piece.It makes her look petty, fragile, and too willing to blame others for her faults.  She should have just stuck by her resignation letter. Click the headline below to read.

I’ve reproduced her op-ed, paragraph by paragraph (indented) with my own comments, which are flush left.

Gay begins with a combination of self-pity, virtue-flaunting, and deflecting the blame for her resignation onto others.  Now I have no use for people who threaten her or use the n-word, but again, considerations of dignity would, at least to me, mandate that she leave this stuff out.  The bit about “weaponizing her presidency”, and accusing “demagogues” (Ackman?) of engaging in a campaign to erode the ideals of Harvard is simply silly, and makes her look unwilling to accept any culpability. Furthermore, it’s not right. People like Steve Pinker have used the occasion not to impugn Gay or call for her resignation, but to lay out principles Harvard could use to improve itself.

On Tuesday, I made the wrenching but necessary decision to resign as Harvard’s president. For weeks, both I and the institution to which I’ve devoted my professional life have been under attack. My character and intelligence have been impugned. My commitment to fighting antisemitism has been questioned. My inbox has been flooded with invective, including death threats. I’ve been called the N-word more times than I care to count.

My hope is that by stepping down I will deny demagogues the opportunity to further weaponize my presidency in their campaign to undermine the ideals animating Harvard since its founding: excellence, openness, independence, truth.

Continuing on:

As I depart, I must offer a few words of warning. The campaign against me was about more than one university and one leader. This was merely a single skirmish in a broader war to unravel public faith in pillars of American society. Campaigns of this kind often start with attacks on education and expertise, because these are the tools that best equip communities to see through propaganda. But such campaigns don’t end there. Trusted institutions of all types — from public health agencies to news organizations — will continue to fall victim to coordinated attempts to undermine their legitimacy and ruin their leaders’ credibility. For the opportunists driving cynicism about our institutions, no single victory or toppled leader exhausts their zeal.

Here she shows what, exactly, is “bigger than me” (it should have been “bigger than I”). She clearly blames anti-wokeness as the force behind attacks on her.  Or at least that’s how I interpret it, for I can see no other forces trying to undermine “trusted institutions of all types”. Yes, the antiwoke went after the liberal media, but did they go after “public health agencies”? Perhaps, if you think that that’s what motivated the conspiracy theorists and Republicans who fought covid mandates. (But some of them were right, viz., about the value of masking and closing schools.)  Here Gay lumps together a whole bunch of disparate groups—conservatives, conspiracy theorists, people concerned with the truth about medicine, and liberals like me—as her “basket of demagogues.” The Associated Press implies that in the tweet below.  But does it really matter whether liberals, conservatives, or centrists call attention to plagiarism, so long as it turns out to be true?

Harvard president's resignation highlights new conservative weapon against colleges: plagiarism https://t.co/GiVkT3LgUo

— The Associated Press (@AP) January 3, 2024

Gay continues:

Yes, I made mistakes. In my initial response to the atrocities of Oct. 7, I should have stated more forcefully what all people of good conscience know: Hamas is a terrorist organization that seeks to eradicate the Jewish state. And at a congressional hearing last month, I fell into a well-laid trap. I neglected to clearly articulate that calls for the genocide of Jewish people are abhorrent and unacceptable and that I would use every tool at my disposal to protect students from that kind of hate.

Well, it would have been better for her not to have doubled down on Hamas, but rather to point out the hypocrisy of Harvard’s uneven enforcement of the speech code,  noting how odd it was that calls for adherence to the First Amendment arose only when that Amendment would have permitted calls for genocide against Jews.  But yes, she appeared wooden and unengaged, and she could have done better. Blame the lawyers. Still, her performance alone would not have gotten her to “resign” (the euphemism for “being asked to leave”).

Then she goes on to the plagiarism charges, refusing to admit she copied (well, she could hardly admit that, could she?):

Most recently, the attacks have focused on my scholarship. My critics found instances in my academic writings where some material duplicated other scholars’ language, without proper attribution. I believe all scholars deserve full and appropriate credit for their work. When I learned of these errors, I promptly requested corrections from the journals in which the flagged articles were published, consistent with how I have seen similar faculty cases handled at Harvard.

I have never misrepresented my research findings, nor have I ever claimed credit for the research of others. Moreover, the citation errors should not obscure a fundamental truth: I proudly stand by my work and its impact on the field.

Despite the obsessive scrutiny of my peer-reviewed writings, few have commented on the substance of my scholarship, which focuses on the significance of minority office holding in American politics. My research marshaled concrete evidence to show that when historically marginalized communities gain a meaningful voice in the halls of power, it signals an open door where before many saw only barriers. And that, in turn, strengthens our democracy.

Here plagiarism becomes “material that duplicated other scholars’ language, without proper attribution”.  It’s been euphemisms all the way down with her and Harvard, with nobody daring to use the p-word.  However, she requested corrections of only three items (there were forty or more), and attributed her mistakes to “errors”—as do all plagiarists. It’s hardly possible, I think, to engage in the amount of plagiarism she did without knowing that you’re doing something wrong.  She also decries the people who brought her down as being afflicted with “obsessive scrutiny”.  Her “scholarship” is still under question, with some saying that what she published from her thesis differs from what the original sources say, but we’ll wait to see how that shakes out.

Throughout this work, I asked questions that had not been asked, used then-cutting-edge quantitative research methods and established a new understanding of representation in American politics. This work was published in the nation’s top political science journals and spawned important research by other scholars.

Never did I imagine needing to defend decades-old and broadly respected research, but the past several weeks have laid waste to truth. Those who had relentlessly campaigned to oust me since the fall often trafficked in lies and ad hominem insults, not reasoned argument. They recycled tired racial stereotypes about Black talent and temperament. They pushed a false narrative of indifference and incompetence.

I’ll let others assess her scholarship and methods, but let it be known that she published a total of only eleven papers in her career (and edited one volume), a remarkably thin record of scholarship for a scholar picking up the reins of Harvard. As for the “truth” of her research, other scholars are now vetting her papers (some have claimed that she won’t provide her original data), and we’ll see what happens. If she did manipulate or misrepresent data, that is one thing that could cost her her job at Harvard, though I doubt that this will happen.

It is not lost on me that I make an ideal canvas for projecting every anxiety about the generational and demographic changes unfolding on American campuses: a Black woman selected to lead a storied institution. Someone who views diversity as a source of institutional strength and dynamism. Someone who has advocated a modern curriculum that spans from the frontier of quantum science to the long-neglected history of Asian Americans. Someone who believes that a daughter of Haitian immigrants has something to offer to the nation’s oldest university.

Above she descends deeply into defensiveness and self-pity, and most clearly plays the race card, which is beneath her. Yes, racists may have assailed her, but she should ignore them in a public discussion like this, except perhaps for a brief mention. There’s no evidence that she was attacked by Rufo, Ackman and the NY Post because of her race. In Ackman’s case, it was clearly his being fed up with the antisemitism at Harvard, not Gay’s race. Self-pity is undignified.

Finally, she engages in a bit of virtue flaunting, and once again refers to the demagogues who brought her down, implying that she was unfairly pressured to resign by Evil Outside Forces pursuing an agenda to destroy Harvard’s wonderful values:

I still believe that. As I return to teaching and scholarship, I will continue to champion access and opportunity, and I will bring to my work the virtue I discussed in the speech I delivered at my presidential inauguration: courage. Because it is courage that has buoyed me throughout my career and it is courage that is needed to stand up to those who seek to undermine what makes universities unique in American life.

Having now seen how quickly the truth can become a casualty amid controversy, I’d urge a broader caution: At tense moments, every one of us must be more skeptical than ever of the loudest and most extreme voices in our culture, however well organized or well connected they might be. Too often they are pursuing self-serving agendas that should be met with more questions and less credulity.

College campuses in our country must remain places where students can learn, share and grow together, not spaces where proxy battles and political grandstanding take root. Universities must remain independent venues where courage and reason unite to advance truth, no matter what forces set against them.

It all comes down to this summary statement: “Antiwoke people, including demagogues, brought me down, largely because of my race. Yes, I made mistakes, but they were trivial. In the end, it was political grandstanding that pried me out of my position as President. And by the way, I’m a very good person.”

She’s enmired in victimhood. Color me unimpressed.

Click “continue reading” to see Gay’s letter of resignation:

Forgive the formatting, which is what happened when I did a cut-and-paste on her letter.

Dear Members of the Harvard Community,

It is with a heavy heart but a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will be stepping down as president. This is not a decision I came to easily. Indeed, it has been difficult beyond words because I have looked forward to working with so many of you to advance the commitment to academic excellence that has propelled this great university across centuries. But, after consultation with members of the Corporation, it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual.

It is a singular honor to be a member of this university, which has been my home and my inspiration for most of my professional career. My deep sense of connection to Harvard and its people has made it all the more painful to witness the tensions and divisions that have riven our community in recent months, weakening the bonds of trust and reciprocity that should be our sources of strength and support in times of crisis. Amidst all of this, it has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor — two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am — and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.

I believe in the people of Harvard because I see in you the possibility and the promise of a better future. These last weeks have helped make clear the work we need to do to build that future — to combat bias and hate in all its forms, to create a learning environment in which we respect each other’s dignity and treat one another with compassion, and to affirm our enduring commitment to open inquiry and free expression in the pursuit of truth. I believe we have within us all that we need to heal from this period of tension and division and to emerge stronger. I had hoped with all my heart to lead us on that journey, in partnership with all of you. As I now return to the faculty, and to the scholarship and teaching that are the lifeblood of what we do, I pledge to continue working alongside you to build the community we all deserve.

When I became president, I considered myself particularly blessed by the opportunity to serve people from around the world who saw in my presidency a vision of Harvard that affirmed their sense of belonging — their sense that Harvard welcomes people of talent and promise, from every background imaginable, to learn from and grow with one another. To all of you, please know that those doors remain open, and Harvard will be stronger and better because they do.

As we welcome a new year and a new semester, I hope we can all look forward to brighter days. Sad as I am to be sending this message, my hopes for Harvard remain undimmed. When my brief presidency is remembered, I hope it will be seen as a moment of reawakening to the importance of striving to find our common humanity — and of not allowing rancor and vituperation to undermine the vital process of education. I trust we will all find ways, in this time of intense challenge and controversy, to recommit ourselves to the excellence, the openness, and the independence that are crucial to what our university stands for — and to our capacity to serve the world.

Sincerely,
Claudine Gay

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