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    2019 Oct 30

    The Peril and Promise of Solar Geoengineering

    6:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Solar geoengineering research aims to reduce the impacts of global climate change. One possibility is to put aerosols into the stratosphere to alter Earth’s energy budget. This emerging technology entails risks and uncertainties, along with serious challenges to global governance. The greatest threat, perhaps, is that it will be used as a technical fix and encourage people to avoid the emissions cuts that are fundamental to curbing long-term climate risks.

    Lecturer David Keith will describe the simple physics underlying the climate’s response to stratospheric aerosols, the...

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    2019 Oct 26

    Fabulous Fungus Fair

    2:00pm to 4:00pm

    Location: 

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

    Explore the wondrous world of fungi! Join Harvard students for a closer look at the mushrooms, yeasts, and molds found in gardens, forests, and labs—even in our own refrigerators. This is an opportunity to investigate fungal diversity and participate in hands-on activities led by Harvard students.

    Note: Regular museum admission rates apply.

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    2019 Oct 25

    Making the Cut: Promises and Challenges of Gene Editing

    9:00am to 5:00pm

    Location: 

    Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Knafel Center, 10 Garden St., Cambridge

    Gene editing holds extraordinary promise but also raises serious legal and ethical issues. In this science symposium, leading scientists, clinicians, and ethicists will explore case studies of particular therapies and the legal and bioethical implications of gene editing.

    ...

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    2019 Oct 21

    Native Woody Plant Materials

    Repeats every week every Monday until Mon Oct 28 2019 .
    10:00am to 3:00pm

    10:00am to 3:00pm

    Location: 

    Garden in the Woods, 180 Hemenway Road, Framingham

    Explore the vast variety of native trees, shrubs, and woody vines. Learn which species grow well in shade, which support local wildlife, and how to stagger plantings for continuous bloom, fruit production, and fall color. The class discusses growth characteristics, cultural requirements, and best horticultural uses. It begins with lectures and walks at Garden in the Woods in Framingham and includes a field trip to the Arnold Arboretum in...

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    2019 Oct 16

    Smartphone Photography: Capturing the Colors of Autumn

    Repeats every week every Wednesday until Wed Oct 30 2019 .
    1:30pm to 3:30pm

    1:30pm to 3:30pm
    1:30pm to 3:30pm

    Location: 

    Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    Capture the drama of fall, when landscapes present a vivid array of colors and the palette is most striking. Professional photographer Nancy Katz will introduce fundamental concepts of landscape photography and then teach techniques for getting the best photographs from your smartphone camera. You will capture images in dynamic color and muted shades, then learn to enhance them using a host of editing tools provided in the Snapseed App. For best results, bring your smartphone and a commitment to completing the weekly homework assignments. Class will take place indoors and out.

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    2019 Oct 16

    National Fossil Day

    10:00am to 4:00pm

    Location: 

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

    Celebrate National Fossil Day with ancient trilobites, sea scorpions, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, and more. Meet Harvard paleontologists and learn about the amazing prehistoric animals on exhibit. Bring your curiosity and questions to this event for all ages!

    Note: Regular museum admission rates apply.

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    2019 Oct 10

    An Evolutionary Journey through Domestication

    6:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    As the earliest farmers began to select wild plants and animals that had desirable traits, they initiated a series of genetic changes in these species that gradually made them more suitable for agriculture. Plants became easier to grow, had greater yields, and were of higher quality. Animal species exhibited favorable changes in behavior, coat color, and reproductive traits. Barbara Schaal will discuss how the artificial selection of these species—a pivotal technological achievement—has influenced their genetics, evolution, and capacity to flourish in the care of humans.

    ...

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    2019 Oct 06

    Reptile Day

    11:00am to 1:00pm

    Location: 

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

    Celebrate reptiles! Join Harvard students from the Harvard College Conservation Society for a variety of reptile themed activities including a scavenger hunt, storytime, and crafts. Come learn about the history and diversity of reptiles, and why they need to be conserved! All ages are welcome.

    Please note: Regular museum admission rates apply.

    Learn more about Reptile Day.

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    2019 Sep 28

    Research in the Collections: A Scientific Exploration of the Arnold Arboretum

    2:00pm to 3:30pm

    Location: 

    Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    The Arnold Arboretum provides both extensively documented collections for research and the facilities for the researchers—labs, greenhouses, and growing chambers. From around the world, scientists come to use the trees and shrubs in the Arboretum landscape, studying climate change, plant evolution, natural selection, and species adaptation. Join docent Esther Miller to hear about the science of the Arboretum.

    ...

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    2019 Sep 25

    Wildhood: Coming of Age on Planet Earth

    6:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Adolescence is dangerous, difficult, and destiny-shaping for humans and other animals. In Wildhood (Simon & Schuster, 2019), Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers look across species and evolutionary time to find answers to a single, consequential question: Why do some adolescents safely, successfully, and independently enter the adult world, while so many others do not? The authors apply the results of their five-year study of wild animal adolescence to our species, presenting a new understanding of the dangers, stresses, and challenges we face on our journeys to...

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    2019 Sep 21

    Tree Spotters Citizen Science Program: Basic Training

    10:30am to 12:00pm

    Location: 

    Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

    With nearly 4,000 different kinds of plants represented in the Arboretum's living collections, every day presents rich opportunities to see something new. If you enjoy learning about plants and their unique characteristics, you can contribute to science as a participant in the Arnold Arboretum's Tree Spotters program. This citizen science project opens a window into the Arboretum's phenology: the timing of natural events, such as the leafing out and flowering of trees in the spring and changing foliage colors in the fall. Your observations will assist Arboretum scientists in their...

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    2019 Sep 20

    Exhibit: Visual Science: The Art of Research

    Fri Sep 20 (All day) to Mon Sep 7 (All day)

    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...

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    2019 Sep 19

    All That Glitters Is Gold: Gravitational Waves, Light, and the Origin of the Heavy Elements

    4:15pm

    Location: 

    Knafel Center, 10 Garden St., Cambridge

    Edo Berger, professor of astronomy at Harvard University, will discuss his efforts to explore the long-standing question of how gold and other heavy elements are created in the universe. In particular, his work aims to demonstrate the creation of these elements in neutron star collisions detected through their gravitational wave emission and the implications of the answer.

    Learn more about and...

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    2019 Sep 18

    The Ancient Maya Response to Climate Change: A Cautionary Tale

    6:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Ancient Maya civilization—known for its cities, monumental architecture, ceramics, hieroglyphic writing, and advanced understanding of mathematics and astronomy—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.

    In this lecture, Billie Turner will examine...

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    2019 Sep 17

    Lecture and Book Signing: Assembling the Dinosaur

    6:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Join the Harvard Museum of Natural History and the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments for a free lecture and book signing by Lukas Rieppell, David and Michelle Ebersman Assistant Professor of History at Brown University.

    Dinosaur fossils were first found in England, but a series of late-nineteenth-century discoveries in the American West turned the United States into a world center for vertebrate paleontology. Around the same time, the United States also emerged as an economic powerhouse of global proportions, and large, fierce, and spectacular creatures...

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