Where sand and sun meet science
Like any good summer sports league, Harvard’s Rhino Cup volleyball tournament features sun, sand, sweat … and scientists. For more than 20 years, the inhabitants of Harvard’s labs have ducked outside after Commencement, playing weekly games through the end of August. Science comes first for most of the year, but when warm weather rolls around, wins and losses on the volleyball court give lab results a run for their money. “You get ‘street cred’ in our department from your volleyball record and your teaching scores. We’re highly competitive on both fronts,” said John Rinn, assistant professor of stem cell and regenerative biology, after a steamy mid-August game. He looked at David Kelley, the tall postdoc standing next to him, and quipped, “I hired him for his net skills.” The hourlong weekly games build camaraderie among lab members, Rinn said, giving them a break from their work hunting for new human genes, as well as...