Science

2024 Jan 16

Hybrid Lecture: The Fascinating Feathers of the Sandgrouse

6:30pm to 8:00pm

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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2023 Dec 13

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

12:00pm

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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2023 Nov 06

Soil to Foil: Aluminum and the Quest for Industrial Sustainability

6:00pm to 7:00pm

Location: 

Harvard Museums of Science & Culture—Online or at Haller Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

In Soil to Foil (Columbia University Press, 2023), Saleem Ali tells the extraordinary story of aluminum. He reveals its pivotal role in the histories of scientific inquiry and technological innovation as well as its importance to sustainability. He highlights scientists and innovators who discovered new uses for this remarkable element, ranging from chemistry and geoscience to engineering and industrial design. Ali argues that aluminum use exemplifies broader lessons about stewardship of nonrenewable resources: its seeming abundance has given rise to wasteful and destructive...

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2023 Nov 06

View from Above with Colonel Terry Virts

3:30pm to 5:00pm

Location: 

Klarman Hall, Harvard Business School, Kresge Way, Boston

This talk features astonishing aerial images of Earth from Colonel Terry Virts' book and takes of life from the edge of the atmosphere.

Colonel (USAF retired) Terry Virts has spent over seven months in space during his two spaceflights, piloting the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2010 and commanding the International Space Station in 2014/2015. He served in the US Air Force as a fighter pilot, test pilot, NASA astronaut, and is a graduate of the US Air Force Academy, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and Harvard Business School General Management Program.

...

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2023 Nov 15

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

4:30pm to 6:00pm

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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2023 Nov 14

Lecture: "Surprises in soliton physics with quantum gas mixtures"

4:30pm to 6:00pm

Location: 

Harvard Physics Department—Online

Lecturer Jean Dalibard (Professor, Collège de France):
Solitons are nonlinear wave packets that maintain their shape during free propagation. In quantum gases, bright and dark solitons are observed for attractive and repulsive interactions, exhibiting relatively simple behavior. However, mixtures of gases result in a much more complex physics, with the emergence of dark-bright and magnetic solitons. Here, we examine some non-intuitive phenomena in this context, including the following experimental observation: a magnetic soliton exposed to a constant force...

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2023 Nov 13

Lecture: "Scale invariance, a hidden symmetry explored with quantum gases"

4:30pm to 6:00pm

Location: 

Harvard Physics Department—Online

Lecturer Jean Dalibard (Professor, Collège de France):
"Scale invariance, a concept initially introduced in high-energy physics, has gained numerous applications in the physics of quantum fluid. It is applicable to strongly interacting Fermi gases, two-dimensional Bose gases, as well as few-body systems that exhibit the 'Efimov effect.' In the presentation, I will illustrate how scale and conformal invariance emerge in cold atomic gases. I will use various examples ranging from thermodynamics to soliton physics to specific structures with periodic time evolution...

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2023 Nov 15

Bringing Inclusivity and Rigor to the Science of Sex Differences

12:00pm

Location: 

Harvard Radcliffe Institute—Online

A presentation from 2023–2024 Radcliffe fellow Donna L. Maney

Much of Maney's current work focuses on how sex differences are discovered and reported in biomedical research and how these differences influence public policy. At Radcliffe, she is collaborating with scientists at Harvard University and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health to develop resources to help make biomedical research more sex/gender inclusive.

...

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2023 Nov 08

What’s Inside a Generative Artificial-Intelligence Model? And Why Should We Care?

12:00pm

Location: 

Harvard Radcliffe Institute—Online

A presentation from 2023–2024 Sally Starling Seaver Professor Fernanda Viégas

During her fellowship, Viégas is excited to explore new modes of human/AI interaction that draw from her roots in data visualization and human-computer interaction. She is interested in the possibility of leveraging advances in AI interpretability (usually aimed at experts) to help drive improvements in lay user agency and control of AI systems. She looks forward to working with colleagues from various departments at Harvard to uncover creative and useful ways of empowering a wide range of...

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2023 Nov 16

Lecture: The Botany of Thanksgiving

6:30pm to 7:45pm

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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2023 Oct 08

Tree Mob: Oaks on Peters Hill

1:15pm to 2:00pm

Location: 

Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston

Oaks are one of the most recognizable trees in New England, and one of the most ecologically important. Join Horticulturist Ryan Devlin for a Tree Mob on the Arboretum's oak collection on Peters Hill and get a closer look at this common but fascinating genus. Learn about oak reproduction, different oak species, mast years, and more through this short landscape talk.

Learn more and RSVP.

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2023 Oct 19

Astronomy is for All of Us: Celebrating Women Astrophysicists and the History of Cosmic Discovery

5:00pm to 8:00pm

Location: 

Harvard College Observatory Plate Stacks, 47 Concord Ave., Cambridge

During Massachusetts STEM Week, join us for an evening celebrating remarkable women in astronomy from across the galaxy. Enjoy a dynamic lecture on exciting applications of astronomy, explore a captivating exhibition in the Great Refractor, engage in family-friendly STEM activities, and cap off the night with fall refreshments and stargazing.

  • Remarks from Professor Lisa Kewley, Director, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
  • Welcome remarks from Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, highlighting...
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