Events

    2023 Oct 19

    Astronomy is for All of Us: Celebrating Women Astrophysicists and the History of Cosmic Discovery

    5:00pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard College Observatory Plate Stacks, 47 Concord Ave., Cambridge

    During Massachusetts STEM Week, join us for an evening celebrating remarkable women in astronomy from across the galaxy. Enjoy a dynamic lecture on exciting applications of astronomy, explore a captivating exhibition in the Great Refractor, engage in family-friendly STEM activities, and cap off the night with fall refreshments and stargazing.

    • Remarks from Professor Lisa Kewley, Director, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
    • Welcome remarks from Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, highlighting...
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    2023 Apr 08

    Science Spotlights

    2:00pm to 3:30pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Meet Harvard scientists and learn about questions at the forefront of research today in this series of short talks on the following topics:

    • 2:00pm: Sweaty Shrubs with Melissa Mai, Holbrook Lab
      How do plants deal with too much salt? From the world’s driest desert and tropical coastlines to your own neighborhood, plants get exposed to more salt than they’d like. Some plants have developed unique adaptations to handle extra salt, including a shrub that sweats! I explain how multiple branches of science come together to help us unearth this shrub’s...
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    2023 Mar 11

    Science Spotlights

    2:00pm to 3:30pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Meet up-and-coming scientists and learn about questions at the forefront of research today in this series of short talks. Perhaps you’ll discuss how studying dog reactions help us learn about the evolution of social behavior? Maybe you’ll consider the regrowth of a microscopic worm after injury and what that can teach us about any animal cell. Will you look at how trees manage the tradeoffs of building woody tissue or look for geological evidence of Earth’s first billion years? Each Science Spotlight in the series will include several short research talks.

    Ages 10–Adults....

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    2022 Dec 03

    Birds & Blooms

    11:00am to 3:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Did you know that many of the birds in the Northeastern United States spend the winter in Latin America socializing and eating among tropical trees and flowers? Explore the lives and behaviors of these birds in our Birds of the World gallery and learn about flowers from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico in the Blaschka Glass Flowers gallery. Try some hands-on activities led by Hear Me Out/Escúchame teens, see their newest mini exhibit, decorate a bird or flower mask, and brighten the dark season!

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    2022 May 12

    The Quest to Image Black Holes

    3:00pm to 4:00pm

    Location: 

    Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian—Online

    Join the CfA live from the Smithsonian Castle in Washington, DC to learn about exciting new results from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), the team that brought us the first-ever image of a black hole!

    Moderated by Smithsonian Under Secretary for Science and Research and former Chief Scientist at NASA, Dr. Ellen Stofan, this event will be live streamed and is open to the public. Panelists will include Shep Doeleman, founding director of the EHT; Kari Haworth chief technology officer of the CfA; and astrophysicists Angelo Ricarte and Paul Tiede.

    ...

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    2021 Nov 09

    After-School Animal Encounters: Teeming Tidepools

    4:00pm to 4:45pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museums of Science & Culture—Online

    Tidepools exist where the land meets the ocean and the amazingly resilient creatures that live there manage the challenges of both environments. From swimming and climbing to burrowing, animals in tidepools have adapted many behaviors to live in an ever-changing world. Join human museum staffers Javier and Ryan as they lead you in a 45-minute program with live ocean invertebrates. This event will be fun for the whole family so bring your questions and sense of wonder.

    ...

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    2021 Oct 14

    Observatory Night: Cosmic Explosions, from Supernovae to Tidal Disruption Events

    7:00pm

    Location: 

    Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian—Online, Livestream

    The biggest explosions in the universe dwarf any we see on Earth. In space, we regularly witness exploding stars that can shine brighter than the rest of a galaxy as a supernova, or a black hole ripping apart a star that's visible from billions of light years away in what's called a Tidal Disruption Event (TDE). In this talk, astrophysicist Yvette Cendes will discuss how we observe cosmic explosions from Earth and learn about them, from Chinese records thousands of years ago to her modern-day observations as a radio astronomer. This will include Yvette's research on supernovae, such as...

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    2021 Oct 13

    National Fossil Day

    9:30am to 10:30am

    Location: 

    Harvard Museums of Science & Culture—Online

    Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a paleontologist? Celebrate National Fossil Day—an event organized by the National Park Service—with Harvard paleontologists! Take a close look at museum fossils and learn how they are used to help solve mysteries about ancient life. What amazing creatures lived together in ancient oceans? How do fossil tracks, traces, and burrows help us understand how extinct animals lived? How can we reconstruct an animal from just its bones? How did dinosaurs get so big? Bring your curiosity and questions to this online event for kids and families!

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    2021 Oct 05

    After-School Animal Encounters: Radical Reptiles

    4:00pm to 4:45pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museums of Science & Culture—Online

    What might your life be like if you spent half your day on land and the other half in the ocean? How would you hunt for food if you were only a few inches long? Is one type of snake really all that different from another? Get the answers to these questions and more as human museum staffers Javier and Ryan introduce you to several live animals. Each month we will discuss a different theme while feeding and interacting with some of the museum’s incredible animals!

    Reptiles have lived on Earth for millions of years and over that time have evolved some amazing characteristics and...

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    2021 Sep 14

    Afterschool Animal Encounters: Pint-Sized Predators

    4:00pm to 4:45pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museums of Science & Culture—Online

    What might your life be like if you spent half your day on land and the other half in the ocean? How would you hunt for food if you were only a few inches long? Is one type of snake really all that different from another? Get the answers to these questions and more as human museum staffers Javier and Ryan introduce you to several live animals. Each month we will discuss a different theme while feeding and interacting with some of the museum’s incredible animals!

    Predators come in all sizes. Imagine that you are only a few inches long. How would you get around, hunt for food,...

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    2021 Feb 15

    I Heart Science: Faraway Worlds

    1:00pm to 2:30pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museums of Science & Culture—Online

    Break out of the winter doldrums and welcome Harvard science into your home with the all-virtual I Heart Science festival lasting from Friday, February 12 to Monday, February 15. This day’s “Faraway Worlds” theme looks at exploration of places hard to get to such as space, deep oceans, and the distant past.

    During the live webinar, starting at 1:00 pm ET, meet Harvard researchers studying how we study the sun and what we hope to learn from missions to Mars.

    At home, try your hand at investigating light, explore what we know about coelacanths and hear the story...

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    2021 Feb 14

    I Heart Science: Love the Earth

    1:00pm to 2:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museums of Science & Culture—Online

    Break out of the winter doldrums and welcome Harvard science into your home with the all-virtual I Heart Science festival lasting from Friday, February 12 to Monday, February 15. This day’s “Love the Earth” theme looks at how we are taking care of our planet and the geology that makes it all possible.

    During the live webinar, starting at 1:00 pm ET, meet Harvard researchers studying how we can design batteries large enough to power a building and investigate what it takes to save endangered species.

    At home, try your hand at growing crystals, modeling volcanos, and...

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    2021 Feb 13

    I Heart Science: Tiny Creatures

    1:00pm to 2:30pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museums of Science & Culture—Online

    Break out of the winter doldrums and welcome Harvard science into your home with the all-virtual I Heart Science festival lasting from Friday, February 12 to Monday, February 15. This day’s “Tiny Creatures” theme looks at bacteria, viruses, and other microbial creatures.

    During the live webinar, starting at 1:00 pm ET, meet live tardigrades, also known as water bears. Watch recorded videos featuring Harvard scientists who study bacterial resistance, ways to test for viruses, and how bacteria grow.

    At home, try your hand at making a water-drop microscope, comparing...

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    2021 Feb 12

    I Heart Science: Incredible Evolution

    1:00pm to 2:30pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museums of Science & Culture—Online

    Break out of the winter doldrums and welcome Harvard science into your home with the all-virtual I heart Science festival lasting from Friday, February 12 to Monday, February 15. Today’s “Incredible Evolution” theme looks at ways that animals have adapted to their environments.

    During the live webinar, starting at 1pm ET, meet Harvard researchers studying how brains evolve and how stress can enhance performance.

    At home, watch recorded videos by Harvard scientists studying mice behavior or try your hand at comparing bone structures, collecting...

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    2020 Oct 22

    National Fossil Day

    9:00am to 2:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History—Online

    Celebrate National Fossil Day—a celebration organized by the National Park Service—by taking a closer look at museum fossils with Harvard paleontologists. What can we see on ancient seafloors? How do modern animals help us understand extinct animals? What fossils still amaze scientists? What is it like to be a practicing paleontologist? Bring your curiosity and questions to this online event for all ages!

    Learn more about and RSVP for National...

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    2020 Oct 15

    Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier

    7:00pm

    Location: 

    Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian—Online

    The first person who will set foot on Mars is alive right now. We believe this, but even if we're wrong we know the first crew to arrive there will look nothing like the ones that landed on the Moon fifty years ago.

    Our world has changed for the better, and ASTRONAUTS tells the story of the women who built this better world. The main character and narrator is Mary Cleave, an astronaut you may not have heard of. It's not because so many people have been to space; only a few hundred have! It’s because this graphic novel isn’t about fame. No astronaut you'll ever meet took the...

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    2020 Sep 17

    Observatory Night: What Stars Are Made Of

    7:00pm

    Location: 

    Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian—Online

    Join the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian for a virtual Public Observatory Night with guest lecturer Donavan Moore, author of "What Stars Are Made Of: The Life of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin."

    It was not easy being a woman of ambition in early twentieth-century England, much less one who wished to be a scientist. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin overcame prodigious obstacles to become a woman of many firsts: the first to receive a PhD in astronomy from Radcliffe College, the first promoted to full professor at Harvard, the first to head a department there. And, in what...

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