2019 Nov 07
Adversity, Belonging, and Survival Among Baboons
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
Join the Harvard Museum of Natural History for a public lecture with Susan Alberts, Robert F. Durden Professor of Biology and Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University. 
The social environment—both in early life and adulthood—has major effects on human health and survival. But how and why does the social environment get “under the skin” to also affect our physical health? Susan Alberts pursues this question by studying wild baboons in Kenya. Baboons, like humans, evolved as savannah dwellers. They rely on social relationships to solve problems and—like humans...
Read more about Adversity, Belonging, and Survival Among Baboons
2019 Oct 21
Voices of the Rainforest
6:00pm
Location: 
Harvard Art Museums, Menschel Hall, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge
Voices of the Rainforest is an experiential documentary about the ecological and aesthetic coevolution of Papua New Guinea’s Bosavi rainforest region and its inhabitants. The film immerses viewers in the rainforest, making myriad connections between the everyday sounds of the rainforest biosphere and the creative practices of the Bosavi people who sing to, with, and about it.
Following the screening, Steven Feld will discuss the film with Amahl Bishara, an associate professor of anthropology at Tufts University.
...
Read more about Voices of the Rainforest
2019 Oct 10
Plants Go to War: A Botanical History of World War II
6:30pm to 8:00pm
Location: 
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
As the first botanical history of World War II, Plants Go to War examines military history from the perspective of plant science. From victory gardens to drugs, timber, rubber, and fibers, plants supplied materials with key roles in victory. Author and botanist Judith Sumner will speak of the many plants that were incorporated into wartime safety materials, diet and rations, and even bombers.
...
Read more about Plants Go to War: A Botanical History of World War II
2019 Jul 20
Angiosperms and Gymnosperms: The Basics
2:30pm to 4:00pm
Location: 
Centre Street Gate, Arnold Arboretum, Boston
What better place to look for the differences between angiosperms (plants that flower and have enclosed seeds), and gymnosperms (plants with "naked seeds," including conifers, ginkgos, and others), than in the Arnold Arboretum landscape, where over 15,000 plants reside in a living museum. Join our guide as she points out trees in both groups and describes the characteristics of each.
...
Read more about Angiosperms and Gymnosperms: The Basics
2019 Jun 26
Bonsai Behind the Curtain: Uncovering Their Care and Cultivation
5:30pm to 6:30pm
Location: 
Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Join Manager of Plant Production, Tiffany Enzenbacher, for an evening of exploration into the oldest dwarfed plant collection in the United States. As one of the caretakers of the Arboretum's bonsai collection, Tiffany will highlight many of the procedures used by staff to maintain the health of these captivating specimens.
Learn more about and register for Bonsai Behind the...
Read more about Bonsai Behind the Curtain: Uncovering Their Care and Cultivation
2019 May 14
How Birds Work: Eggs
7:00pm to 8:00pm
Location: 
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
How does an egg become an egg? Why do chickens continue to lay eggs day after day? What controls the shape of eggs? Why do eggs of different species of birds have different colors? And how strong are eggshells?
In this talk which follows previous talks about bird flight, migration, and feathers, Lorna Gibson answers common questions about bird eggs.
Learn more...
Read more about How Birds Work: Eggs
2019 Apr 09
Lecture: Self-Domestication in Bonobos and Other Wild Animals
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
Domesticated animals such as dogs, pigs, and horses often sport floppy ears, patches of white hair, and other features that are unknown in their wild ancestors. These traits—collectively referred to by scientists as a “domestication syndrome”—are the result of breeding less aggressive individuals.
Drawing from his new book, The Goodness Paradox (2019, Pantheon Books), Richard Wrangham will show that our cousin apes, the bonobos, also exhibit a domestication syndrome, making them the first clear example of a “wild domesticate.” Self-domestication in the wild now seems...
Read more about Lecture: Self-Domestication in Bonobos and Other Wild Animals
2019 Apr 02
Living with White Sharks
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
The Cape Cod white shark population has increased in recent years in response to the dramatic increase in the seal population. Shark sightings—some close to popular swimming and surfing beaches—are becoming more frequent and negative interactions between sharks and humans have become a real concern.
Gregory Skomal has studied and tracked white sharks in the Atlantic for more than 30 years. In this lecture, he will examine the behavior, ecology, natural history, and population dynamics of this species, and how scientific research can help sharks and humans coexist in the Cape...
Read more about Living with White Sharks
2019 Feb 28
Do Your Garden Plants Have a Backstory?
7:00pm to 8:15pm
Location: 
125 Arborway, Hunnewell Building Landscape, Boston
Museums assign value to their collections by understanding each piece’s backstory – for instance, where did it come from, who created/collected it, what does it represent, what feeling does it elicit from a visitor? The plants in our own gardens can and should do the same, but too often have become generic and mundane because we have forgotten their backstories. Perhaps even worse, we may be losing our own personal connections to what we grow. Michael Dosmann will provide his own perspective on how to re-engage with our garden plants in ways that make it personal.
Fee...
Read more about Do Your Garden Plants Have a Backstory?
2019 Feb 20
The Amazonian Travels of Richard Evans Schultes
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Richard Evans Schultes—ethnobotanist, taxonomist, writer, photographer, and Harvard professor—is regarded as one of the most important plant explorers of the twentieth century. In 1941, Schultes traveled to the Amazon rainforest on a mission to study how Indigenous peoples used plants for medicinal, ritual, and practical purposes. A new interactive online map, produced by the Amazon Conservation Team, traces the landscapes and cultures that Schultes explored in the Colombian Amazon. Plotkin and Hettler will share this map and discuss the relevance of Schultes’ travels and...
Read more about The Amazonian Travels of Richard Evans Schultes
2019 Feb 02
Arboretum for Educators: Tree Study Part 3: Conifer Adaptations
9:00am to 11:30am
Location: 
125 Arborway, Hunnewell Building, Boston
Arboretum for Educators monthly explorations are a professional development opportunity for elementary and middle school teachers to introduce the Arboretum landscape as an outdoor classroom. Participants learn about specific hands-on life science topics that may be used or adapted by teachers for their own classrooms and outdoor spaces. Meet and network with other like-minded educators, and engage in life science learning.
...
Read more about Arboretum for Educators: Tree Study Part 3: Conifer Adaptations
2019 Jan 12
Nature Journal Workshop
1:00pm to 2:30pm
Location: 
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
Join botanical artist, Regina Gardner Milan, in this Nature Journal Workshop. Participants, ages 8-12, will develop observational skills while learning a new awareness of their environment. Seed pods, pine cones, and other plant material will be available for observation and drawing. If weather permits, you will go on a short walk to collect more specimens. Milan will do demonstrations of drawing and documenting important details, and then you will try your own hand at creating a personal nature journal....
Read more about Nature Journal Workshop
2018 Nov 14
Origins of the Green Revolution: Hybrid Seeds, Hunger, and Mexico-India Cooperation
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA
Gabriela Soto Laveaga, Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University
As a devastating famine gripped India and Pakistan in 1966, a cargo of hybrid wheat seeds from Mexico arrived one fateful day on India’s coast. The seeds were first planted across the Punjab region using new...
Read more about Origins of the Green Revolution: Hybrid Seeds, Hunger, and Mexico-India Cooperation
2018 Nov 07
The Secret Lives of Roots
2:30pm to 4:00pm
Location: 
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
The Arnold Arboretum is full of spectacular specimens from around the world that any visitor will appreciate. However, what they observe is only half the story. How a tree uptakes water and nutrients, stays grounded in place, stores energy, and sometimes even propagates itself, is all thanks to its roots. Join horticulturists Andrew Gapinski and Conor Guidarelli as they unearth these questions and more during an exclusive look into the extraordinary world of roots.
...
Read more about The Secret Lives of Roots
2018 Oct 26
The Undiscovered
9:00am to 5:00pm
Location: 
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA
To paraphrase Louis Pasteur, sometimes luck favors the prepared mind, as when Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin by noticing that mold growing accidentally in his lab seemed to kill bacteria. This 2018 Radcliffe Institute science symposium will focus on how scientists explore realities they cannot anticipate. Speakers from across the disciplines of modern science will present personal experiences and discuss how to train scientists, educators, and funders to foster the expertise and open-mindedness needed to reveal undiscovered aspects of the world around us.
...
Read more about The Undiscovered
2018 Oct 17
Here Come the Seeds: The Journey of a Seed from Collection to Propagation at the Arboretum
5:00pm to 6:00pm
Location: 
Larz Anderson Bonsai & Penjing Collection, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
Manager of Plant Production, Tiffany Enzenbacher, will discuss the Arnold Arboretum's propagule collection and documentation procedure. She will also display some of the different types of fruits, nuts, and seeds that are in the process of becoming the next generation of Arboretum plants. Seed showcased will be those collected during Tiffany's 2018 expedition to the Ozarks, as well as those collected on other institutional collecting trips.
Free,...
Read more about Here Come the Seeds: The Journey of a Seed from Collection to Propagation at the Arboretum
2018 Oct 16
Nature vs. Fiction in Sci-Fi Movies
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA
Miaki Ishii, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University
Recent volcanic eruptions in Hawaii and Guatemala remind us of how devastating these geological eruptions can be. Popular culture depictions of volcanic disasters found in movies like Dante’s Peak and Volcano can strongly distort the public’s understanding of volcanic activity and its immediate effects. As with many science-fiction films, Hollywood depictions of natural phenomena don’t always align with the scientific facts. Seismologist Miaki...
Read more about Nature vs. Fiction in Sci-Fi Movies
2018 Oct 15
Can Baby Corals Improve the Reefs of Tomorrow?
6:00pm
Location: 
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA
Aaron Hartmann, 2017–2018 Sarah and Daniel Hrdy Visiting Fellow in Conservation Biology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
Coral reefs are one of Earth’s most biodiverse and imperiled ecosystems. Corals form the foundation of this ecosystem. Substantial effort is being invested to help adult corals survive environmental degradation, but less attention is paid to their offspring and how they establish themselves on the seafloor. Unlike adult corals, baby corals move about in the water column, perhaps allowing them to...
Read more about Can Baby Corals Improve the Reefs of Tomorrow?
2018 Oct 02
How to Increase Bipartisan Leadership on Climate Change
12:00pm
Location: 
Kresge Building, 677 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA
Join us for the next “Voices in Leadership” event of the fall semester, featuring Rep. Bob Inglis, former U.S. Representative for South Carolina. Rep. Inglis was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1992, having never run for office before. In 2011, Inglis went full-time into promoting free enterprise action on climate change and launched the Energy and Enterprise Initiative (“E&EI”) at George Mason University in July 2012. In the fall of 2014, E&EI rebranded to become republicEn.org. republicEn is a growing grassroots community of over 5,000 Americans educating the country about free...
Read more about How to Increase Bipartisan Leadership on Climate Change
2018 Sep 20
Breakpoint: Reckoning with America’s Environmental Crises
6:00pm
Location: 
TBD
Jeremy Jackson, Emeritus Professor of Oceanography, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Senior Scientist Emeritus, Smithsonian Institution
...
Read more about Breakpoint: Reckoning with America’s Environmental Crises

Pages