Events

    2023 Apr 22

    Alfred Russel Wallace Is 200!

    1:00pm to 4:00pm

    Location: 

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

    Join the Harvard Museum of Natural History in celebrating the bicentenary of Alfred Russel Wallace’s birth.

    If you are not familiar with Alfred Russel Wallace, you are not alone. Wallace (1823–1913) holds a relatively obscure place in the history of science, despite discovering the theory of evolution by natural selection independently of Charles Darwin.

    On the bicentenary of his birth and in celebration of Earth Day, the Harvard Museum of Natural History will spotlight Wallace’s contributions to our understanding of biodiversity and highlight why they are relevant...

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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 16

    Observatory Night: Monitoring Air Pollution from Space

    7:00pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian—Online

    This April, a Smithsonian and NASA-led instrument named TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) will be launched onboard a satellite into a geostationary orbit. From this vantage point, TEMPO will be able to monitor air quality over most of North America every hour, with unprecedented spatial resolution. In this presentation, atmospheric physicist Caroline Nowlan will talk about how we measure air pollution from space and how TEMPO promises to revolutionize our understanding of the air we breathe.

    ...

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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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    2023 Mar 08

    Education Now: How We Talk About Climate Change with Kids

    3:00pm to 3:30pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Graduate School of Education—Online

    The results of a new survey from the Aspen Institute suggest that concerns for children could unify and inspire more Americans to confront the climate crisis. But for many parents and caregivers, talking about climate change with children — especially if they themselves are anxious about it — is a challenge. We’ll offer strategies for how adults can be thinking and talking about climate, and we’ll look at how children’s media landscape is reflecting climate issues and what we can learn from young people and their mobilization on this issue.

    Guest: Anya...

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    2023 Mar 08

    Arriving at the Junction of Statistics and Biology: My Journey

    12:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Radcliffe Institute—Online

    Jingyi Jessica Li is an interdisciplinary expert in statistics and genomics. In this lecture, Li will share personal and professional experiences that illustrate why she became fascinated with biology and then statistics. She'll talk about examples that highlight the importance of statistical thinking and its application to biomedical research.

    Learn...

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    2023 Feb 07

    Steven Pinker on Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters

    6:30pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Science Center, Hall C, 1 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Internationally renowned writer and intellectual Steven Pinker brings to the stage a thought-provoking talk, based on his most recent book Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters. The event, organized by the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard & MIT and facilitated by Dr. Narath Carlile, will be followed by a Q&A discussion with the audience.

    ...

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    2023 Feb 02

    Black Holes: The Most Mysterious Objects in the Universe

    7:00pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Online or at Harvard University Science Center, 1 Oxford St., Cambridge

    In the last decade black holes have come to center stage in both theoretical and observational science. Theoretically, they were shown a half-century ago by Stephen Hawking and others to obey a precise but still-mysterious set of laws which imply they are paradoxically both the simplest and most complex objects in the universe. Compelling progress on this paradox has occurred recently. Observationally, they have finally and dramatically been seen in the sky, including at LIGO and the Event Horizon Telescope. Future prospects for progress on both fronts hinge on emergent symmetries...

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    2022 Dec 14

    Exploring the Landscape of Functional Proteins by Computational Design

    12:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Radcliffe Institute—Online

    A presentation from 2022–2023 Grass Fellow Bruno Correia.

    Correia is a bioengineer who develops and directs cutting-edge research in protein design, targeting practical applications in therapeutics, vaccines, and biosensing. At Radcliffe, he will take an interdisciplinary approach grounded in computer science and experimental immunology to tackle the challenge that antibody-mediated immunity poses for the development of novel protein-based drugs (termed biologics).

    ...

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    2022 Dec 07

    Algorithms for Personalizing Digital Interventions

    12:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Radcliffe Institute—Online

    A presentation from 2022–2023 Radcliffe Alumnae Professor Susan A. Murphy.

    Murphy is a statistician and computer scientist whose lab develops data analysis methods and experimental designs to improve real-time sequential decision making in mobile health—in particular, algorithms that can be deployed on wearable devices. During this fellowship year, she will focus on the development of algorithms that appropriately pool data from different individuals to learn more quickly about each individual—something that, in the language of statistics, requires careful analysis of the bias...

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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 Nov 28

    The Science of Peruvian Cooking

    7:00pm to 8:30pm

    Location: 

    Science Center, Hall C, 1 Oxford St., Cambridge

    The Harvard Science and Cooking Public Lecture Series pairs Harvard professors with celebrated food experts and renowned chefs to showcase the science behind different culinary techniques.

    On November 28, learn about the science of Peruvian cooking with Pia Leon, Chef and Co-owner of Kjolle, Central (Lima, Perú), MIL (Cusco, Perú), World's Best Female Chef of 2021, and Malena Martine, Co-Director of Mater Iniciativa, Central (Lima, Peru).

    ...

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    2022 Nov 14

    The Science of Chocolate Cake: Alternative Ingredients and Methods So We Can Have Our Cake and Eat It Too

    7:00pm to 8:30pm

    Location: 

    Science Center Hall C, 1 Oxford St., Cambridge

    The Harvard Science and Cooking Public Lecture Series pairs Harvard professors with celebrated food experts and renowned chefs to showcase the science behind different culinary techniques.

    On November 14, learn about the science of chocolate cake with Tracy Chang (@gopagu), Pagu Restaurant (Cambridge, MA).

    Learn more.

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    2022 Oct 14

    William Belden Noble Lecture Series: John Green

    7:00pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Divinity School, Memorial Church, 1 Harvard Yard, Cambridge

    New York Times bestselling Author John Green will be the first speaker in the 2022-23 William Belden Noble Lectures. Green is author of "The Fault in Our Stars," "Turtles All the Way Down," and "The Anthropocene Reviewed," among others. He is also widely-known video blogger, podcaster, and philanthropist. The title of his lecture is "How the World Ends."

    The lecture is the first of four this academic year. The four-part series will take a plunge into the moral and ethical questions surrounding the global climate crisis and the role of religious institutions, organization and...

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    2022 Oct 06

    Loeb Fellowship 50th Anniversary Symposium: Keynote by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

    6:30pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium (48 Quincy St., Cambridge)

    Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, policy expert, writer, and Brooklyn native. She is co-founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for the future of coastal cities. She co-edited the bestselling climate anthology All We Can Save, co-founded The All We Can Save Project, and co-created the Spotify/Gimlet climate solutions podcast...

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    2022 Oct 03

    Harvard Science and Cooking Public Lecture Series

    Repeats every week every Monday until Mon Nov 28 2022 except Mon Nov 07 2022, Mon Nov 21 2022.
    7:00pm to 8:30pm

    7:00pm to 8:30pm
    7:00pm to 8:30pm
    7:00pm to 8:30pm
    7:00pm to 8:30pm
    7:00pm to 8:30pm
    7:00pm to 8:30pm

    Location: 

    Science Center Hall C, 1 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Harvard Science and Cooking Public Lecture Series returns this 2022. New presenters this year include Arielle Johnson, Ph.D. (Flavor Scientist, Co-founder of the Noma Fermentation Lab), Chintan Pandya (Chef and Partner of Unapologetic Foods), Fatmata Binta (Chef of “Dine on a Mat” and Founder of Fulani Kitchen Projects), Kate Strangfeld (Founder of Bite Scized Education), Sean Sherman (Founder of The Sioux Chef) or Eduard Xatrutch (Chef at Disfrutar and Compartir), Pia Leon (Chef and Co-owner of Kjolle, Central, Mayo, MIL, Ichu) and Malena Martinez (Co-Director of Mater Iniciativa,...

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    2022 Sep 28

    Machine Learning Emergence from Quantum Matter Data

    12:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Radcliffe Institute—Online

    Eun-Ah Kim is the 2022–2023 Edward, Frances, and Shirley B. Daniels Fellow at Harvard Radcliffe Institute and a physicist. Kim’s research interests lie in the theoretical study of the collective phenomena condensed matter systems exhibit—and in understanding how such phenomena emerges from microscopic physics. At Radcliffe, she will collaborate with several Harvard physicists to harness machine learning tools to gain new insights for understanding and utilizing quantum matter from curated databases and quantum simulator data.

    ...

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    2022 Sep 07

    Harvard Science Book Talk: "Charged: A History of Batteries and Lessons for a Clean Energy Future"

    6:00pm to 7:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Division of Science, Harvard Library, and Harvard Book Store—Online

    In Charged, James Morton Turner unpacks the history of batteries to explore why solving "the battery problem" is critical to a clean energy transition. As climate activists focus on what a clean energy future will create―sustainability, resiliency, and climate justice―the history of batteries offers a sharp reminder of what building that future will consume: lithium, graphite, nickel, and other specialized materials. With new insight on the consequences for people and communities on the frontlines, Turner draws on the past for crucial lessons that will help us build a just and...

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    2022 Sep 06

    Why Sharks Matter: Shark Science and Conservation

    6:00pm to 7:15pm

    Location: 

    Virtual and In-Person – Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, Haller Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge

    Sharks are some of the most fascinating, most ecologically important, most threatened, and most misunderstood animals on Earth. Join award-winning marine conservation biologist Dr. David Shiffman, author of the new book Why Sharks Matter: A Deep Dive with the World's Most Misunderstood Predator, for a conversation about what's new and what's next in the world of shark science and conservation.

    Presented by the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture and the Harvard Museum of Natural History

    ...

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