Boston Flora

Tag: Biology

  • Wednesday, October 25, 6:45 pm Eastern – Nature’s Toxins: From Spices to Vices, Online

    Scratch beneath the surface of a coffee bean, a red pepper flake, a poppy seed, a mold spore, a foxglove leaf, a magic mushroom cap, a marijuana bud, or an apple seed, and you’ll find a bevy of strange chemicals. We use these to greet our days (caffeine), titillate our tongues (capsaicin), recover from our surgeries (opioids), cure our infections (penicillin), mend our hearts (digoxin), bend our minds (psilocybin), calm our nerves (CBD), and even kill our enemies (cyanide). But why do plants and fungi produce such chemicals? And how did we come to use and abuse some of them?

    Using cutting-edge science in the fields of evolution, chemistry, and neuroscience, author and evolutionary biologist Noah Whiteman reveals the origins of toxins produced by plants, mushrooms, microbes, and even some animals, the mechanisms that animals evolved to overcome them, and how a co-evolutionary arms race made its way into the human experience. This perpetual chemical war drove the diversification of life on Earth and is also intimately tied to our own successes and failures. Whiteman uncovers the deadly secrets that lurk within our spice racks, medicine cabinets, backyard gardens, and private stashes.

    This Smithsonian Associates lecture will take place on Zoom on October 25 at 6:45 pm Eastern. $20 for Smithsonian Associates members, $25 for nonmembers. Register at www.smithsonianassociates.org

  • Wednesday, January 18, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Introduction to the Ecology of Galls, Online

    Fascinating adaptations, galls are highly modified tissues in plants caused by arthopods, fungi, viruses, or bacteria. Surprisingly little is known about the biology and ecology of galls, making them a prime topic for naturalists to study. This New York Botanical Garden online class on January 18 at 6:30 pm will focus on the ecology of galls created by wasps, midges, aphids, psyllids, and more in the northeastern U.S. Participants will receive some tips on how to identify some of the more common species around so you can begin to study them come spring.

    John Butler, the lecturer, earned a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology from the University of Vermont in 2013, and in 2021 a masters degree in Geographic Information Sciences at CUNY Lehman College. Currently the Program Director of Restoration & Stewardship at the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, John develops goals for forest restoration and management across the park’s 640 acres of forested land, all while engaging community members in this important work.He is a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner through the Society for Ecological Restoration and a lover of salamanders.

    NYBG members $45, nonmembers $49. Register HERE

  • Wednesday, November 10, 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm – Biogeography Across Broken Continents and Sunken Islands, Online

    Gonzalo Giribet, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology; Curator of Invertebrate Zoology, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology, and Director, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, will speak online on November 10 at 6 pm as part of Harvard’s Evolution Matters Lecture Series, supported by a generous gift from Drs. Herman and Joan Suit. Free, but advance registration required at https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Nu9A1HZZQvKx8IgISFXtyw

    The major continents of the Southern Hemisphere—Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica—as well as India and islands in the Pacific, were once part of Gondwana, an ancient supercontinent that began to break up about 180 million years ago. How did this breakup influence the evolution of ecosystems and organisms found on modern continents and islands? This is one of the questions that biogeography, the study of how organisms are distributed across space and time, seeks to answer. Gonzalo Giribet will discuss how he uses biogeography and tiny invertebrate species to understand the biological and geological history of New Zealand and New Caledonia, two islands that were once part of Gondwana.

  • Sundays, January 7, 14, and 21, 10:00 am – 3:30 pm – Conservation Biology

    In this New England Wild Flower Society introduction to conservation biology and biodiversity, you will learn what makes a species vulnerable to extinction and which strategies and tools can be used to protect plants and ecosystems. Instructor Nancy Eyster-Smith will explore the interdisciplinary nature of conservation biology through readings, group exercises, and video clips. Participants will receive a bibliography of resources for further study. Bring a bag lunch. Class will take place at Garden in the Woods in Framingham on three Sundays, January 7 – 21, from 10 – 3:30, with a snow date on January 28 if needed. $254 for NEWFS members, $300 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.newfs.org/learn/our-programs/conservation-biology-1

  • Tuesday, May 10, 6:00 pm – The Secrets of Field Notes: Capturing Science, Nature and Exploration

    In a fascinating new collection, Field Notes on Science and Nature, Harvard University Press provides a rare glimpse into the journals and sketches of top scientists such as Charles Darwin, George Schaller, and Kenn Kaufman. Editor Michael Canfield, lecturer in biology at Harvard, will discuss what makes these notes and journals so important, the secrets they reveal, and how they can help us cultivate skills as a gardener, citizen scientist, or adventurer. The free lecture will take place at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street in Cambridge, on Tuesday, May 10, from 6 – 8.  For more information, log on to www.hmnh.harvard.edu, or call 617-495-3045.

  • Tuesday, February 23, 6:00 pm – From Cooking Food to Cooking the Planet: Growing Constraints to Food Production

    To keep pace with the world’s food demand, it is estimated that agriculture production must double by 2050.  Dr. Samuel Myers, Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a practicing physician, will discuss troubling trends, including climate change and increased threats from pests and pathogens that may constrain the world’s resources, requiring new approaches to sustainable agriculture.  The program will include a discussion moderated by Noel Michele Holbrook, Professor of Biology and Charles Bullard Professor of Forestry at Harvard. Free and open to the public. Part of the Food for Thought program series.

    Location:
    Harvard Museum of Natural History
    26 Oxford St.
    Cambridge , MA 02138

    Sponsor: Harvard Museum of Natural History
    Time(s): 6:00 pm, Tuesday, February 23
    Cost: Free and open to the public
    Phone: 617-495-3045
    Email: hmnhpr@oeb.harvard.edu
    http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/lectures_and_special_events/index.php