Events

    Public Observatory Night at the Harvard College Observatory| Stars

    Location: 

    Phillips Auditorium, Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., Cambridge

    Born from vast clouds of gas and dust, stars embark on a fascinating life cycle, evolving from brilliant birth to fiery demise. As these stellar furnaces forge elements, they seed the cosmos with stardust, the very essence from which we arise. Our connection to the stars is profound—we are all made of stardust, a testament to the universal magic woven into the fabric of our existence.

    Embark on an evening with two captivating talks delving into the mesmerizing world of stars. Following discussions, elevate your experience with rooftop stargazing using powerful telescopes,...

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    2024 Loeb Lectures in Physics - Sir Andre Geim, "Science of flying frogs"

    Location: 

    Jefferson 250, 17 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA , and via Zoom

    Magnetic response of the very majority of materials is diamagnetic, billion times smaller than that of “real” magnetic materials such as iron or nickel. No wonder then that most things including humans are generally considered to be non-magnetic. However feeble, the ubiquitous diamagnetism is strong enough to support such dramatic phenomena as true levitation. In this talk - intended to be both informative and entertaining - I will show how to use strong magnets to let live frogs fly and, vice versa, how to use your fingertips to levitate magnets in between.

    Sir Andre Geim is...

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    2024 Loeb Lectures in Physics - Sir Andre Geim - "Exploring 2D Empty Space"

    Location: 

    Jefferson 250, 17 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA , and via Zoom

    It is now possible to create angstrom-scale channels that can be viewed as if one or a few individual atomic planes are pulled out of a bulk crystal leaving behind a 2D space. I shall overview my work on this subject over the last few years, which covers studies of gases, liquids and ions under the extreme angstrom-scale confinement. Sir Andre Geim is Regius Professor at the University of Manchester. He was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking work on graphene, a one-atom-thick material made of carbon. He also received numerous international awards and distinctions,...

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    2024 Spring Loeb Lectures in Physics - Sir Andre Geim - "Wonder Materials"

    Location: 

    Jefferson 250, 17 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA

    Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms, is not only the thinnest but also probably the simplest material one can imagine. Nonetheless, graphene has acquired so many superlatives to its name and revealed such a cornucopia of new phenomena that it is often called a wonder material. Following its advent, many other one-atom or one-molecule thick crystals have been isolated and investigated. These so-called two-dimensional materials have become one of the hottest topics in materials science and condensed matter physics. Aiming at an audience unfamiliar with 2D materials, he will briefly...

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    Film Screening: The Last Human--Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA

    WINNER OF THE NORDIC:DOX AWARD 2022 Denmark, Greenland / 2022 Our most basic understanding of the origins of life was recently turned upside down when Greenlandic scientist Minik Rosing discovered the first traces of life on Earth in a small fjord near Isua, Greenland. His discovery predated all previous evidence by over 300 million years. Life began in Greenland. At the same time, its melting ice masses are disintegrating day-by-day, and scientists around the world agree that it could drown our entire civilization if it continues. Director Ivalo Frank’s new film is a tribute to a vast,...

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    Teen Saturdays at the Museum! / ¡Sábados de Jóvenes en el Museo!

    Location: 

    Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge

    The Natural World of Latin America

    February 10: Special: Visit the I Heart Science Festival

    March 16: Ants in Action

    April 13: Flying High

    May 11: Shark Frenzy
     

    Teen Saturdays! is designed for teens interested in Latino culture, history, and community. This spring, high school students are invited to free monthly workshops to explore and learn about the natural world of Latin America and contribute thoughts on making the...

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    Teen Saturdays at the Museum! / ¡Sábados de Jóvenes en el Museo!

    Location: 

    Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge

    The Natural World of Latin America

     

    February 10: Special: Visit the I Heart Science Festival

    March 16: Ants in Action

    April 13: Flying High

    May 11: Shark Frenzy
     

    Teen Saturdays! is designed for teens interested in Latino culture, history, and community. This spring,...

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    Wheelwright Prize Lecture: Daniel Fernández Pascual, “Being Shellfish: Architectures of Intertidal Cohabitation”

    Location: 

    Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall Piper Auditorium

    Tidal zones are liminal spaces that challenge the ecological, legal and financial thresholds of coastal areas. They appear, disappear, reappear, and constantly change in size and chemistry, while shaped by new human-made seasons of wetland draining and ocean pollution. Following CLIMAVORE, a framework that investigates ways of metabolizing climate breakdown, these littoral spaces are at the core of entanglements between risk and social security, profit margins and contamination struggles, geological processes and weather events; between what is used and what is refused. Thinking with...

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    Causal Inference: A Statistics Playground

    Location: 

    Virtual -- registration required for zoom link

    Judith Lok is a tenured associate professor of mathematics and statistics at Boston University. Her research focuses on causal inference methods and their applications, including HIV/AIDS, bacterial infections, and maternal-and-child health. At Radcliffe, Lok is writing “Causal Inference: A Statistics Playground,” a textbook designed for students and statisticians within and outside academia who work or intend to work in causal inference. Causal inference methods seek to address questions like “what would happen if” through data analysis.

    ...

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    Public Observatory Night at the Harvard College Observatory | Jupiter

    Location: 

    Phillips Auditorium, Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., Cambridge

    Jupiter, the colossal gas giant, captivates with its iconic Great Red Spot and dynamic storms. As a cosmic guardian, its gravity protects inner planets, fostering life on Earth. Beyond its awe-inspiring features, Jupiter hosts a diverse family of moons, each with its own mysteries, adding to the planet's celestial allure.

    Embark on an evening with two captivating talks centered around Jupiter, followed by the opportunity to observe the gas giant and other cosmic wonders through high-powered telescopes (weather permitting). This event is sponsored by the Harvard College...

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    The Campaign for the Future: The Long Road to the Inflation Reduction Act

    Location: 

    Virtual -- registration required for zoom link

    A lecture with Leah C. Stokes, the Anton Vonk Associate Professor of Environmental Politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has been published in top scholarly journals as well as in the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and elsewhere. Stokes was named to the 2022 TIME100 Next list. She is a senior policy consultant at Rewiring America and cohost of the popular climate podcast A Matter of Degrees

    ...

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    Ocean Fever: Deep Thoughts on Water, Culture, and Climate Resilience

    Location: 

    Virtual -- registration required for zoom link

    Robert Verchick is a legal scholar in climate change and disaster policy who designed climate-resilience programs in the Obama administration. In this lecture, Verchick will explore how we can harness the power of government, science, and local wisdom to rescue the oceans from climate breakdown. Verchick has written more than 60 articles and four books, including the award-winning Facing Catastrophe: Environmental Action for a Post-Katrina World. His podcast, Connect the Dots, is in its seventh season. Contact events@radcliffe....

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    Hybrid Lecture: The Fascinating Feathers of the Sandgrouse

    Location: 

    Online or at Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    The birds that populate the Arnold Arboretum rarely have to go far to find water. In the deserts of Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, it's a different story, and the sandgrouse that lives in these arid environments has developed a fascinating adaptation to stay hydrated: these birds have a unique ability to absorb and hold water inside of their feathers. The chicks can't yet fly the long distance from their nests to the watering hole, so adult males make the long journey with the lifesaving water secreted away in their feathers. But how do their feathers hold water so efficiently? Dr...

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    Rising Tides: Integrating Situated Visualization, Augmented Reality, and Public-Participation Technology to Create an Accessible Platform for Localized Climate Change Visualization and Discourse

    Location: 

    Harvard Radcliffe Institute—Online

    At Radcliffe, Mahyar is investigating innovative techniques to integrate situated visualization, augmented reality, and civic technology to design and build a mobile platform that simulates the localized impact of climate change, thereby providing Boston residents with an immersive experience of climate change visualizations and empowering them to contribute comments and ideas on climate change issues.

    The platform will benefit the movement towards more equitable resilience by creating new opportunities for the public, especially the underserved communities, to raise their...

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    ArtsThursdays: AR/VR Explorations

    Location: 

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

    Join us for a free art + science night at the Harvard Museum of Natural History and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology!

    This month, we are exploring virtual and augmented reality within the galleries. Meet geologists visualizing seismic events. Try your hand at painting in 3D space using an Oculus headset. Watch how paleontologists digitize research specimens with handheld 3D scanners. Shape landscapes and study water flow in the AR sandbox.

    Artisanal cocktails and mocktails by CraftHouse Bartending will be available for purchase. Valid government ID...

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    Lecture: The Botany of Thanksgiving

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    Talking more than turkey: This lecture will celebrate the plants that bring Thanksgiving to life. From stuffing, to cranberry sauce, to potatoes, cloves, carrots, celery, lettuce and sage. Come and explore the biology of this annual feast with Dr. Pamela Diggle, professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut.

    Learn more and RSVP.

    ...

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    Lecture: "Is a zero-temperature Bose-Einstein condensate fully superfluid?"

    Location: 

    Harvard Physics Department—Online

    Lecturer Jean Dalibard (Professor, Collège de France):
    "At zero temperature, a Galilean-invariant Bose fluid is anticipated to be completely superfluid. When translational (and thus Galilean) invariance is broken, A.J. Leggett demonstrated in the 1970s that the superfluid fraction must be strictly less than one. Here, we examine both theoretically and experimentally how the presence of an external 1D periodic potential quenches the superfluid fraction of a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate and compare it to Leggett's bound. We show that the anisotropy of sound velocity...

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