On a NASA balloon 120,000 feet in the air, a device designed by UChicago scientists went looking for rare high-energy neutrinos. It was made "to catch something that’s never been seen before." Read more about its design and flight: https://bit.ly/4gfVzi2

Frances Oldham Kelsey, PhD’38, MD’50, prevented the sale of the birth-defect-causing drug thalidomide in the United States and went on to shape drug approval processes at the FDA. https://bit.ly/3U6JEdT @uchicagoalumni.bsky.social

The Summer/26 issue is here, with stories about the restorative power of nature; Frances Oldham Kelsey, PhD’38, MD’50; imaginative illustration; democracy in India; and much more. Plus, an inside look at the Chicago Minds campaign. https://mag.uchicago.edu/issue/summer26

“The picnic ended up being a four-hour Spanish feast. Along with pan con tomate, jamón iberico, picos (small, crunchy breadsticks), and a liter of a Catalonian chocolate milk drink called Cacaolat, Nieves and Judith had brought a Tupperware full of cubed tortilla de patatas.” https://bit.ly/4pzhvaL

Tortilla de patatas con cebolla

Just three main ingredients (one controversial).

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“I had only learned about castells four hours earlier, on a class excursion to Tarragona, where a photo of a pillar made of people standing on each other’s shoulders hung from a city wall.” https://bit.ly/3RNe0B5

Assembling experience

On becoming part of a human tower.

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Can you learn to be wise? Psychologist Howard Nusbaum, LAB’72, studies how we learn from experience. https://bit.ly/4yycpQ8

Wise words

Psychologist Howard Nusbaum, LAB’72, studies how we learn from experience.

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Turning away, says associate professor of English Ben Saltzman, is “the most ambiguous gesture because it often entails covering up the face, and the face is a source of expression, a source of information.” https://bit.ly/4vz5VOd

Don’t look now

A new book explores the complex meanings of turning away.

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Tenure, internships, sirens, and more. Check out a selection of recent alumni publications: https://bit.ly/4yyefQY @uchicagoalumni.bsky.social

Releases

A selection of books, films, and recordings by UChicago alumni.

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Paige Reynolds, AM’90, PhD’99, is a scholar of Irish literary fiction, but romance fiction has always been close to her heart. She married the two interests in an exhibition she curated at the Museum of Literature Ireland in Dublin. https://bit.ly/4vDFTJG @uchicagoalumni.bsky.social

Hearts and minds

Paige Reynolds, AM’90, PhD’99, thinks romance fiction has something to teach us.

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“As our son and daughter cruised through algebra II/trig and differential calculus, respectively, I swallowed my fear (and pride), opened the Khan app on my phone, and clicked into second-grade math.” https://bit.ly/4hnh8xY @uchicagoalumni.bsky.social

Tales of a fifth-grade repetend

Let knowledge grow from more < more.

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The Alumni News section of the Magazine features more than 40 bylined columns written by volunteer class correspondents. We asked the longest-serving correspondent and the newest member of the corps to answer a few questions. https://bit.ly/4gNYmj3

Class correspondence

Meet the Magazine’s longest-serving class correspondent and the newest member of the corps.

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A constructed language, or conlang, is an invented language with its own vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, like Esperanto, Klingon, and the various languages of Lord of the Rings. Meet the creators of UChiconlang, UChicago’s own constructed language: https://bit.ly/4vI0nBd

Dan Bulla, AM’07, has made his mark on Saturday Night Live with his music-driven digital shorts. At the show’s 50th anniversary, he joined Adam Sandler onstage to perform a song they cowrote. Read about Bulla’s comedy career: https://bit.ly/4ecV06d @uchicagoalumni.bsky.social

Funny business

With his music-driven digital shorts, Dan Bulla, AM’07, has made his mark at Saturday Night Live.

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A surfing legend, Jesus Springs, anomalies, barbarism—Check out a selection of recent books by UChicago faculty https://bit.ly/3QCTdzA

Fresh ink

A selection of recent books by UChicago faculty members.

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“Almost all humor involves some kind of deception, involves some kind of trickery, some kind of misdirection,” says linguist Jason Riggle. In The Language of Deception and Humor, students explored how these two modes interact and help us make meaning. https://bit.ly/4g9nD6Y

Talking out of both sides of your mouth

A linguistics class puts humor and deception under the microscope.

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Artist and critic Maria Porges, MFA'79, began making ceramic sculptures again after teaching a course on the history of ceramics during the pandemic. https://bit.ly/4oqPNfV @uchicagoalumni.bsky.social

Recovered craft

An alumna connects with historical art forms—and revisits her own past—through clay.

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“I hope the more time you spend with me, the better you become, whether that’s smarter, richer, or feeling more stable. I want to leave people better than I found them,” says Vivian Tu, AB’16, aka Your Rich BFF. https://bit.ly/4eiLmiu @uchicagoalumni.bsky.social

Money talks

Vivian Tu, AB’16, wants everyone to feel confident managing their finances.

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“We’re not dealing with a regular trivia audience. We’re dealing with people who are used to being the smartest person in the room. They’re very willing to argue.” Three alumni discuss the art of writing for Global Pub Trivia Night. https://bit.ly/4vamD7i @uchicagoalumni.bsky.social

Is trivia trival?

And other questions for the young alumni behind Global Pub Trivia Night.

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“If you don’t understand the political institutions in a society,” says economist and political scientist James A. Robinson, “there’s no way to make sense of the economic outcomes that they generate.” https://bit.ly/3S2S5FU

The measure of an idea

James A. Robinson won acclaim showing how institutions shape nations. Now he’s asking what shapes the institutions.

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“A lot of these plants we’re seeing here are adapted to blooming early in the spring, using stored nutrients. They put leaves up, they bloom, they produce seeds, they disappear.” Tour Jackson Park’s flowering ephemerals with Professor Emeritus Michael LaBarbera https://bit.ly/3QigN4C

Springtime is ephemeral

Join a private tour of Jackson Park’s spring wildflowers with biologist Michael LaBarbera.

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Bridge, Washington Prom, jazz clubs, Jimmy’s Woodlawn Tap: Get swept away in the social whirl of the Hutchins College https://mag.uchicago.edu/university-news/university-utopia

Could you make the grade in the Hutchins College? Try your hand at a selection of comprehensive exam questions from 1937. https://bit.ly/4uwzjEP

“You took one test for every class. That was it, that was your grade. So if you weren’t feeling well that day, too bad,” says Marion Shorts, AB’46. Could you handle Hutchins-era comprehensive exams? Read about student life in the Hutchins College https://bit.ly/4uwvG1F

“A full four years of liberal arts is good for a person. At least that was what they made us think at the University of Chicago. And I think they were right,” says Ken Green, SB’59. Read about the Great Books–based curriculum in the Hutchins College https://bit.ly/4uwvG1F

“I was 14. I wasn’t the youngest,” says Coleman Seskind, AB’55, SB’56, SM’59, MD’59. Entrance to the Hutchins College didn’t require a high school diploma, and young teens studied alongside WWII and Korean War veterans. Read about student life in the Hutchins College https://bit.ly/4uwvG1F

Robert Maynard Hutchins was just 30 when, in 1929, he became president of UChicago. The “boy wonder,” as the press nicknamed him had the longest tenure of any University leader to date. Read an oral history of the Hutchins College https://bit.ly/4uwvG1F

Just sent the Spring/26 issue of The Core to press. That’s Robert Maynard Hutchins on the cover, drawn by his wife, artist and novelist Maude Hutchins. He led the U of Chicago from 1929 to 1951 and made all kinds of radical educational experiments.

“A university that is not controversial is not a university,” wrote Robert Maynard Hutchins, who led UChicago from 1929 to 1951, introducing bold innovations that transformed the College. Read an oral history of the Hutchins College https://bit.ly/4uwvG1F

What’s on the cover of The Core? It’s a drawing of Robert Maynard Hutchins by his wife, Maude Hutchins, an artist and novelist. Read an oral history of the Hutchins College https://bit.ly/4uwvG1F

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Seymour Hersh, AB’58, is the subject of the new Netflix documentary Cover-Up. Learn more and read about other @uchicagoalumni whose names are in the news: https://bit.ly/3QVpuBR

Notes

A selection of UChicago alumni whose names are in the news.

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