Science: The Alert Professor

Yale Professor (of geography) Ellsworth Huntington was short (5 ft. 2 in.), with an exceptionally large, bald head. He was so deaf that he could study unconcerned while the University band umpahed on the same floor of Hendrie Hall and the Glee Club bellowed "Bulldog" directly below him. While the 1938 hurricane was shredding the elms and overturning New Haven's trolley cars, Professor Huntington worked away on a manuscript; he did not realize what was going on until it was all over. The experience buttressed one of his favorite theories: that the human...

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