Spring quarter, like any other, offered an encyclopedia of public talks on campus, illuminating topics art historical, zoological, and most everything in between. At 11 of those talks, the Magazine staff were there. Here’s what we learned.

How-to’s from the 17th-century chef who helped found French cuisine.

As attorney general after Watergate, UChicago’s Edward Levi worked to restore a nation’s trust.

Matt Krause received a warm welcome on his trek across Turkey.

Researchers find imperfections in perfect pitch, investigate how prehistoric species emerged out of the tropics, and survey marital satisfaction among those who met online.  

Dinosaur hunter Paul Sereno uses digital imagery to help a 10,000-year-old skeleton stand and walk.

William Browder, AB’85, was once the biggest capitalist in Russia. After his lawyer was tortured and died in jail, he became one of the Kremlin’s fiercest enemies.

Chicago Booth statisticians do the math on the NHL's overpaid or undervalued players.

Chicago physicists tie vortexes into knots.

Researchers study how the mind multitasks, investigate the interplay between asthma and the common cold, scan the brains of incarcerated psychopaths, and see how sleep helps songbirds learn.

American Jordan Long, AM’06, joins the European struggle for gay rights.

Researchers find higher-level thinking in four-year-olds, chronicle anti-Judaism as a foundational idea in Western thought, parse the the hidden messages in praise for children, and answer a geological mystery: why wasn’t paleo-Earth encased in ice?