HOME /

Events

    Director’s Series | Life: The Arnold Arboretum as an Institution of Public Health

    Location: 

    Arnold Arboretum—Online

    The Arnold Arboretum's sesquicentennial Director's Series traces the Arnold’s significance in the landscape architecture movement, value for the people of Boston, and leadership in creating global connections between plants and people.

    Panelists include:

    • Dr. Michelle Kondo, Research Social Scientist, UDSA-Forest Service

    • Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, Chief of Environment, Energy, and Open Space, City of Boston

    • Laurence Cotton, Consulting Producer, “Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing...

    Read more about Director’s Series | Life: The Arnold Arboretum as an Institution of Public Health

    The Descendants (A Novel)

    Location: 

    Harvard Radcliffe Institute—Online

    Ladee Hubbard is a writer whose most recent novel is “The Rib King” (Amistad, 2021). In this lecture, she will discuss her current project, a novel that examines the implications of the ways in which Black people in the United States have historically been represented as an internal threat to both public health and safety, placing the 1980s War on Drugs in dialogue with the larger history of African Americans being used in drug trials and medical experiments.

    ...

    Read more about The Descendants (A Novel)

    Arrival: Panel Discussion

    Location: 

    Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative at Harvard—Online

    When aliens touchdown on Earth, linguistics professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams) and her team are tasked with determining why they are here and what they want. Our experts will discuss and debate the challenges that may arise in communicating with alien lifeforms and where the film succeeded and/or failed in this regard.

    Learn more and RSVP for this virtual event.

    Read more about Arrival: Panel Discussion

    The Art and Science of Frogs

    Location: 

    Harvard Museums of Science & Culture—Online

    Explore the rich diversity of frogs by observing and sketching 3D models printed from Harvard’s research collections. Artist and educator, Erica Beade, will introduce techniques for achieving accurate shapes and capturing volume in your drawings, while herpetologist and researcher, Dr. Mara Laslo, will explain how evolution has generated their amazing diversity. Groups will be limited to twelve, allowing ample time for questions and discussion.

    Cost: $40 for members, $45 for nonmembers.

    ...

    Read more about The Art and Science of Frogs

    Decoding AI: The Science, Policies, Applications, and Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

    Location: 

    Harvard Radcliffe Institute—Online

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly permeating many facets of our lives, raising both hope and concern about possibilities for our future. AI is transforming domains as disparate as science, medicine, commerce, government, law, the military, and the arts, and in doing so, it is forcing us to grapple with practical, political, and philosophical questions about humans and the nature of human interaction. The Harvard Radcliffe Institute Science Symposium, featuring speakers from disparate disciplines and industries, will examine AI, its impact, and its ethics by exploring current and...

    Read more about Decoding AI: The Science, Policies, Applications, and Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

    Virtual Summer Science Week: Awesome Archaeology!

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History—Online

    For children entering grades 4–6

    Fees: $63 members/$70 nonmembers

    Instructor: Andy Majewski

    Hear from people from 4000 years ago by looking at the objects they left behind. Meet the ancient Egyptians, Maya, Mesopotamians, and others through live, small-group Zoom sessions, and explore how objects in the museums tell their stories. Together, we’ll try some archaeology activities, use 3D models and augmented reality, and discover hidden objects within the exhibits of...

    Read more about Virtual Summer Science Week: Awesome Archaeology!

    Glass Flowers Tours – The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History—Online

    Join us for a virtual tour of the famous Glass Flowers! This docent-led tour will delve into the history, artistry, and significance of the collection and give participants the opportunity to explore the gallery online. These interactive tours are approximately one-hour in length, and offer time for Q&A with your tour guide.

    Cost: $8 for members, $10 for nonmembers.

    Register here for Virtual Glass...

    Read more about Glass Flowers Tours – The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants

    Prosociality in Hybrid Societies of Humans, Agents, and Robots

    Location: 

    Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard—Online

    Ana Paiva is a computer science professor at Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, and is investigating the design of intelligent interactive systems by creating “social agents'' that can interact with humans in a natural manner. Over the years, she has developed this field by engineering social agents that exhibit specific capabilities, including emotions, personality, culture, nonverbal behavior, empathy, and collaboration, among others.

    Join Paiva to learn about her current investigation into the conditions and mechanisms that drive societies of agents and...

    Read more about Prosociality in Hybrid Societies of Humans, Agents, and Robots

    Virtual Exhibit: Women of the Museum, 1860–1920: Behind-the-Scenes at the Museum of Comparative Zoology

    Location: 

    Harvard Museums of Science & Culture—Online

    For the first time in the museum’s history, women who labored in the collections, offices, and labs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology in the late 19th century are being revealed in a unique online exhibit from the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture. The exhibit is curated by Reed Gochberg, Assistant Director of Studies and a Lecturer on History and Literature at Harvard University.

    Women like Elizabeth Hodges Clark, Elizabeth Bangs Bryant, and Elvira Wood persevered diligently behind-the-scenes, gaining unparalleled expertise in what were previously thought to be men’...

    Read more about Virtual Exhibit: Women of the Museum, 1860–1920: Behind-the-Scenes at the Museum of Comparative Zoology

    Observatory Night: What Stars Are Made Of

    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...

    Read more about Observatory Night: What Stars Are Made Of

    Urban Ponds: Essential Ecosystems for the Enjoyment and Discovery of Nature

    Location: 

    Online Event

    Ponds are one of many beautiful features of the Arnold Arboretum’s ecosystem and landscape. The Bradley Rosaceous Collection garden is the setting for three eco-rich ponds—Dawson, Faxon, and Rehder—named for former Arboretum staff. Photographer Bruce Wilson brings his now practiced eye to the discovery of shadows, reflections, visitor interaction, and flora in those ponds, as well as in an urban pond in Newton. His pond images complement the trees, emphasize the subtle or saturated colors of water, and capture interactions between visitors and the scenes of rich pondlife.

    This...

    Read more about Urban Ponds: Essential Ecosystems for the Enjoyment and Discovery of Nature

    The Ancient Maya Response to Climate Change: A Cautionary Tale

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Ancient Maya civilization suffered a major demise between the tenth and eleventh centuries. The causes continue to be investigated and debated. Paleoenvironmental research over the past twenty years has revealed that the demise coincided with a prolonged, intensive drought that extended across the region, providing compelling evidence that climate change played a key role in the collapse of the Maya. Billie Turner will examine this evidence and the complex social and environmental conditions that affected Maya societies.

    ...

    Read more about The Ancient Maya Response to Climate Change: A Cautionary Tale

    The Remarkable Nature of Edward Lear

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Join the Harvard Museum Natural History for a public lecture with Robert McCracken Peck, Curator of Art and Artifacts, Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University.

    Edward Lear (1812–1888), best known for The Owl and the Pussycat and other nonsense poetry, was also an accomplished painter of birds, mammals, reptiles, and landscapes, and an adventurous world traveler. His paintings of parrots, macaws, toucans, owls, and other birds are among the finest ever published. Robert McCracken Peck will discuss the remarkable life and natural history paintings of this...

    Read more about The Remarkable Nature of Edward Lear

    Pulsatility and the Search for Life

    Location: 

    Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge

    Pulsation permeates the universe at every scale, from heartbeats to pulsars. Join the artist Dario Robleto and the astrophysicist Abraham (Avi) Loeb, both of whom engage deeply with pulsatility in their work, for a conversation on how the arts and sciences can explore a common set of understandings.

    This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. 

    ...

    Read more about Pulsatility and the Search for Life

    The Once and Future Heart

    Location: 

    Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge

    For centuries, in both the arts and the sciences, the human heart has been a source of reverence and marvel. In this conversation, the artist Dario Robleto, whose exhibition at the Radcliffe Institute rethinks the deep history of cardiological recording, and Doris A. Taylor, a leading scientist in regenerative medicine, will discuss the surprising opportunities for both the arts and sciences to converge around new insights and questions of the human heart.

    This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. 

    ...

    Read more about The Once and Future Heart

    Exhibit: Visual Science: The Art of Research

    Location: 

    The Special Exhibitions Gallery, Science Center 251, 1 Oxford St., Cambridge

    This exhibit features images and objects drawn from a variety of disciplines and time periods that show the importance of visual experiences in science. Images have played many roles in scientific research. Images can record fleeting observations, whether a painting of an animal glimpsed in the field or an interaction between sub-atomic particles that lasts a millisecond. They can also make unseen things visible.

    Physical models can make abstract mathematical concepts into something that researchers can touch; properly arranged, sand, metal plates, and a violin bow can make...

    Read more about Exhibit: Visual Science: The Art of Research

    Exhibition: Fruits in Decay

    Location: 

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

    Fruits in Decay is a new special exhibit in the Glass Flowers gallery that explores blight, rot, and other diseases on summer fruits. It features exquisitely detailed glass botanical models of strawberries, peaches, apricots, plums, and pears made by famed glass artist Rudolf Blaschka. On display for the first time in nearly two decades, these models capture—with astonishing realism—the intricacies and strange beauty of fruits in various stages of decay.

    Learn...

    Read more about Exhibition: Fruits in Decay

    Exhibition: Cosmic Origins

    Location: 

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

    On July 20, 2019, the Harvard Museum of Natural History marked the fiftieth anniversary of the first manned mission to the Moon with the unveiling of Cosmic Origins. Visitors to this new mini-exhibit—located within the Earth & Planetary Sciences exhibition—will investigate the origins of and processes shaping planetary bodies and stars using touchable specimens, colorful visuals, and interactive media.

    Through November 27, 2019, the exhibit will also feature an original lunar specimen on loan from NASA, collected during the Apollo 12 mission. Don’t miss the...

    Read more about Exhibition: Cosmic Origins

Pages