At the end of 2010, former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers will return to the Yard—and he’s coming back with baggage. After heated controversy surrounding his statement that intrinsic differences between men and women might be one reason fewer women enter science and math careers, the current head of the National Economic Council resigned as President in 2006. FM hit up some brainy females and their (more?) science-oriented male friends in their natural habitat and haven, the Science Center. Some physics phenoms got feisty. Other math maidens deemed Larry Summers irrelevant. Like Mentos in Coke—FM’s most advanced science endeavor—the relevance of his past controversy had fizzled out.

Roving Reporter: How do you feel about him coming back, knowing what he said?

Adriann A. Negreros ’14: Women are smarter than men. It’s a fact. It’s pretty simple.

N. Loren Oh ’14: He’s very feministic.

RR: So if Larry Summers were to teach a class you were dying to take…

NLO: I’m going to keep an open mind. For me, to have a professor that believes I’m incapable as it is or less capable is kind of discouraging in a way because you want your professors to believe that you’re going to have the potential to do well.

V. Macarena Arias '14: I think you can’t define what a feminine brain is, what a manly brain is, and only men have this and only women have this…they’re just traits. Maybe some men have more of this, some women more of this. Maybe vice versa.

RR: Who’s the best at science and math among you three?

NLO & VMA: (laugh and point at the boy)

AAN: But, I mean, they always help me—so it’s all relative.

RR: What do you think about Larry Summers coming back?

Ling J. Jung ’14: I’m rather indifferent.

Angela C. Li ’14: I’m fairly apathetic.

LJJ: There’s a wave of indifference right now.

RR: Why is that?