YOUR TURN

YOUR TURN

readers react

Wonder Drug

Great article about Lisa Conte ’81, Tu’85, whose company seeks to develop drugs from rain forest plants [“Out of the Amazon,” May/June]! My grandfather was part of the team that developed the original birth control pill, which used progesterone that was synthesized from a wild yam found in Mexico. There are still many unknown plant-based substances that we can use to improve the human condition. Kudos to Conte for going out and searching for them!

BARNABY DORFMAN, TU’97 Seattle

Magic Show

The profile of the physics department’s lecture demonstrations manager Ralph Gibson [“A Body in Motion,” May/June] reminded me of the days of professor Francis Sears. Every “Physics 101” class was a magic show. Who could forget the time a stuffed monkey was suspended from the ceiling by an electromagnet as we spent the balance of the class constructing a springloaded gun to catch the monkey when it fell? All calculations were on the blackboard, using slide rules—and finally, at the bell, we caught that sucker about a foot off the floor! Three cheers for Gibson’s carrying on the tradition!

WILLIAM F. CROUSE ’61, TU’62, TH’63 Hartlayid, Michigan

This may have been before Gibson’s time, but I will never forget professor John Kidder’s demonstration of the vectors and forces of rotational motion and angular momentum. First, he rapidly spun a heavily weighted bicycle wheel. Then Kidder, who was 6’3” or 6’4”, sat on a much-tooshort piano stool. It slowly spun him and the bicycle wheel gyroscope around and around. Kidder tried to wrestle the spinning gyroscope from its intended path, but the gyroscope and its forces were the clear victors, and spin he did. Fifty years later, the

image of the hopelessly rotating professor on the too-small stool is still unforgettable.

Going the extra mile to produce memorable lab demonstrations is a major component of what exceptional teaching is all about. I commend Gibson and the physics department for recognizing the significance of this important work.

ROBERT BERGESCH ’70 Yarmouth, Maine

Gender Bender

Because sociology is the study of human behavior, it is puzzling why professor Janice McCabe (and so many other sociologists) feel they are qualified to make broad claims about a subject that is entirely biological, i.e., human sexual demarcation [“What’s Next,” May/June]. “There is agrowing interest in blurring boundaries, especially as they relate to gender,” she declares, pretending not to know that “gender” means actual “sexual identity”—not the latest far-left political concept of no identity whatever.

It is true that politics are a major aspect of human behavior and, thus, the rightful study of sociologists. But it is depressing to see McCabe laud the aberrational behavior of a gender identity option under the delusional belief that that political construct is as real as XX and XY chromosomes no matter how fervently she and the rest of that sorry discipline wishes it were so.

TOM HOLZEL ’63 Litchfield, Connecticut

Strange Days

I’d like to thank Mark Nelson ’68 for writing “Out of This World” [May/June]. I had no idea Dartmouth had a connection to Biosphere 2. This surprised me because I’ve had a morbid fascination with Biosphere 2 since I visited it when I was 15. Its story is so bizarrely fascinating it seems fictional. On the one hand, so many of its participants were genuinely interested in artificial ecologies. On the other hand, the project seemed to attract more than its fair share of bizarros. I guess the lesson we should learn is that real-world systems are complicated and often defy simple explanations.

MAX FAGIN, TH’11 San Jose, California

In the months before the Biosphere 2 closure experiment began, I had a small contract to gather earthworms, my academic specialty, for that project. I did this in south

and central Texas, because a savannah-like environment would be one of its ecosystems. On my worm-digging tour, I met a longtime associate of the Biosphere 2 organization. I knew scientists were helping plan Biosphere 2, but I was unprepared for his odd take on life on Earth. He said Biosphere 2 was all about getting ready to move to Mars when Earth starts to degrade badly. Many of those involved apparently believed the experiment was necessary because they thought that day was coming soon.

SAM JAMES ’75 Fairfield, Iowa

Left and Wrong

Kudos to Stephan Lanfer ’66 for his righton letter in the May/June issue about the political leanings of Dartmouth professors. Several years ago I became aware that 95 percent of Dartmouth professors were registered Democrats, a figure that’s in line with other Ivies as well as in higher education generally. The once great Dartmouth trademark—the liberal arts education—has been transformed into a liberal education.

The shift of our dear College has not gone unnoticed. More and more alums I meet express concerns that students are being given a biased education. They should be exposed to all views in an impartial way and then be allowed to make up their minds and not be spoon-fed by socialist faculty.

I have not donated to our alma mater in 10 years and have no intention of doing so as long as there is no grassroots effort within the College to change this course. The challenge for the College will be to decide if alums such as me represent a fringe, not to be taken seriously, or not.

ROGER N. GUTNER ’68 Scarborough, Maine

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