Boston Flora

Tag: Boston University

  • Thursday, April 20, 6:00 pm – Ocean Evolution Today

    A Harvard Museum of Natural History Panel Discussion on Ocean Evolution Today will take place Thursday, April 20, beginning at 6 pm in the Science Center, Hall D, 1 Oxford Street. Participants will include:

    Samantha B. Joye, Athletic Association Professor in Arts and Sciences, Department of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia

    Bruce H. Robison, Senior Scientist and Midwater Ecologist, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

    Randi Dawn Rotjan, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Boston University Marine Program

    Moderated by Peter R. Girguis, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University; Adjunct Research Engineer, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

    Human activities are causing changes in the ocean that could influence the evolution of its organisms. In this panel discussion, three marine scientists with expertise in chemistry, microbiology, geology, marine conservation, and the use of remotely operated vehicles to study deep-sea organisms will discuss the impact of human activity on ocean and coastal ecosystems and answer questions about actions that individuals and organizations can take to support the health of the ocean.

    Presented in collaboration with the Cambridge Science Festival. The Evolution Matters Lecture Series is supported by a generous gift from Drs. Herman and Joan Suit.  Free parking is available at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.Free and open to the public.

  • Tuesday, February 21, 6:00 pm – The New World of Coffee and Cacao

    The Pepin Lecture Series in Food Studies and Gastronomy, cosponsored by Jacques Pepin and Boston University’s Master of Liberal Arts program in gastronomy, will present The New World of Coffee and Cacao, with Matthew Block, on Tuesday, February 21 at 6 pm at 808 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 117, Boston.  Ever wonder about the mysterious journey that coffee and cacao beans take from their origins to their transformation into delicious specialty products?  Join importer Matthew Block, founder of Campesino Mateo, for a free talk that will cover the histories of coffee and cacao, their roles in Western culture, and the beans’ step-by-step journey from cultivation to finished product.  Block partners with traditional family  farmers from the most remote regions of Peru’s “eyebrow of the jungle” to help improve growing, harvesting, and processing practices.  Attendees will learn about – an  taste – the dramatic impact on aroma and flavor that different farming, processing, and production techniques impart.  Additionally, they will virtually meet some farmers on their lands, see how the plants and fruits grow in their raw form, and experience the various terroir factors that play so large a role in the finished products.  Register online at http://bu.edu/foodandwine.  Image from marinersmuseum.org.

  • Wednesday, November 30, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Six Ice Ages in One Billion Years, Climate Change, and Boston’s Earthquake Problem

    Our planet has experienced six ice ages in the last billion years. The first two at about 800 and 600 million years ago may have covered all or most of the earth in ice and is referred to as the “Snowball Earth.” The most recent Pleistocene ice age, perhaps not done, involved over 16 glacial cooling and warming events over the past 2.5 million years.

    Geologist James Lawford Anderson of the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University will speak on Wednesday, November 30 from 7 – 8:30 at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, about various ice ages, today’s climate, and end his lecture with Boston’s glacially-influenced earthquake problem. $5, free for Arnold Arboretum members and students. Register at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277. Image from www.air-worldwide.com.

  • Wednesday, April 13, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Fast Food: A Global Perspective

    Fast food is the most pervasive culinary trend of our time, for better and worse. Large multinational chains run an estimated one million outlets in virtually every corner of the world, serving hundreds of millions of customers every day. Scathing exposés have charged that the industry harms the environment, undermines the health of customers, degrades the diets of children, and underpays its workers. So why has this industry remained so successful? What makes observers so critical? And what are the options for the future? Andrew F. Smith, a culinary historian who teaches in the Food Studies Department at the New School in Manhattan, explores these questions and more. He is the author or editor of twenty-eight books, including his latest, Fast Food: The Good, Bad and Hungry (Reaktion, 2016). This free lecture, part of the Pepin Lecture Series in Food Studies and Gastronomy, will take place Wednesday, April 13 beginning at 6 pm in the College of Arts and Sciences at Boston University, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 211. Register at www.bu.edu/foodandwine/

  • Wednesday, March 16, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm – The Combat-Ready Kitchen

    Did you know that much of the science used in creating processed foods was developed courtesy of the U.S. military? Armies have sought better ways to preserve, store, and transport edibles since the days of Napoleon, and, as part of this quest, the U.S. army spearheaded the invention of energy bars, restructured meat, extended-life bread, cling wrap, cheese powder, TV dinners, active dry yeast, instant coffee, and much more. After World War II, as part of our national policy of preparedness, the Defense Department enlisted the help of huge corporations such as ADM, ConAgra, General Mills, Hershey, Hormel, Mars, Nabisco, Reynolds, Smithfield, Swift, Tyson, and Unilever. But the help came with a catch. Anastacia Marx de Salcedo, the author of Combat-Ready Kitchen: How the U.S. Military Shapes the Way You Eat, instructs on the ways those traits most prized in soldier sustenance—imperishability, durability, affordability, and appeal to a broad range of palates—have ended up dominating our grocery store shelves and refrigerator cases, often to the detriment of consumer health. Free lecture will be held Wednesday, March 16 beginning at 6 pm at the Boston University College of Arts and Sciences, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 211. For more information visit www.bu.edu/foodandwine/

  • Thursday, October 8, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Anson Mills

    Chefs all over the country turn to one source for hand-milled, heirloom grits, grains, and flours: Anson Mills. Anson Mills’ products are grown, cultivated, and processed in the traditional Southern style, nearly lost to modernity and revered by professional cooks and home consumers alike. At Boston University’s Demonstration Kitchen at 808 Commonwealth Avenue on Thursday, October 8, from 6 – 8, Barry Maiden, winner of the prestigious James Beard Award for Best Chef Northeast 2015, will demonstrate recipes showcasing some of these exemplary products, while Glenn Roberts, founder of Anson Mills, will discuss the creation and journey of each bag, from plant to plate. $70. Register online at http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/registration-manager-catalogs/foodandwine/app/catalog.php?action=section&course_section_id=3201

  • Friends of the Public Garden Docent Tours

    More than a dozen people, including members of The Garden Club of the Back Bay, have recently taken a very special interest in the Public Garden and have been studying this iconic greenspace for hours on end. What they are learning about America’s first public botanical garden is not for a class or research for a book. This studious bunch is the inaugural group of volunteer docents of the Friends of the Public Garden that will be serving as guides for a new tour program. Incoming GCBB Vice President Sherley Smith and Beacon Hill resident Sidney Kenyon have been key organizers for this special endeavor.

    Walking a route that encompasses the northern half of the Garden, tour participants will gain a deeper understanding of the Garden’s special place in the history of Boston and the country. Hour-long tours will include interesting facts and anecdotes about history, horticulture, and sculpture. Casual visitors of the area are likely to find a new appreciation of its significance and neighbors who use it frequently are likely to discover at least a thing or two that might surprise them.

    Docents have spent many volunteer hours learning about the Garden and working to craft their tours. In February, their training began with a Friends-sponsored lecture, Searching for the Histories of the Boston Public Garden by Boston University Professor Keith Morgan, held at Suffolk University. Friends President Emeritus Henry Lee gave a talk at the Friends office that traced the Garden’s history as well as the founding of the organization and highlights from its 45 year work in caring for the Garden in partnership with the Boston Parks and Recreation Department. Additional information sessions included trees and plantings by Friends Project Manager Bob Mulcahy; the history of the Swan Boats by fourth generation owner Lyn Paget; and the Garden’s sculpture including the Friends sculpture care program by Friends Collections Care Manager Sarah Hutt.

    FOPG members $5, nonmembers $15. Register online at http://friendsofthepublicgarden.org/programs-projects/tours-2/ Tours run through September, and you are advised to bring a hat, sunscreen, and dress for the weather.  Photo below by Caroline Phillips-Licari.

    (Photo: Caroline Phillips-Licari)

  • Tuesdays, May 5 – May 26, 12:00 noon – Preservation is U

    A special midday tour series will take place every Tuesday, May 5 – May 26 at noon, as part of the City of Boston’s 2015 Preservation Month.  Long celebrated as the Athens of America, Boston is home to more than 2 dozen colleges, universities, and professional schools.  Not surprisingly, these institutions number among their campuses many architecturally significant properties.  Often converted for academic use rather than originally planned for that purpose, these buildings run the aesthetic gamut from Gothic to Art Deco, and include distinguished works by architects both famous and obscure.

    But what makes these properties so attractive to institutions?  With vacant city land always at a premium and new construction hardly a bargain, colleges recognize that the superior design, materials and workmanship of historic structures make them ideal candidates for adaptive reuse.  Smart university administrators understand that whether converted to classrooms or offices, residence halls or performance spaces, old buildings have many decades of useful life ahead of them.  And they have learned that they can ask for no more enthusiastic partners in this effort than our historic commissions and the resourceful professionals who staff them.

    Concentrated in central Boston, the historic buildings now owned by Boston University, Emerson College, Northeastern University and Suffolk University reflect a common appreciation for the city’s built heritage: both as the vessel of a storied past, and as a vehicle to an exciting future.  We’ll be exploring many of the best examples in a month-long series of lunch hour walks we’re calling Preservation is U. Please join the Boston Landmarks Commission each Tuesday in May for an informal graduate course in this familiar but seldom-considered aspect of Boston’s architectural record.

    May 5 – Downtown Boston.  Elizabeth Stifel, Boston Landmarks Commission Staff Architect. Contact elizabeth.stifel@boston.gov today to reserve a place.

    May 12 – Beacon Hill.  Erin Doherty, Beacon Hill Architectural Commission Staff, and Joe Bagley, City Archaeologist. Contact erin.doherty@boston.gov before May 8 to reserve a place.

    May 19 – South End. Meghan Hanrahan Richard, South End Landmark District Commission Staff.  Contact meghan.hanrahan@boston.gov before May 15 to reserve a place.

    May 26 – Bay State Road. William Young, Director of Design Review. Contact william.young@boston.gov before May 22 to reserve a space.

  • Wednesday, May 13, 6:00 pm – The Taste of Germany – Exploring a Nation Through its Food History

    Defying popular perception of the meat and potatoes diet, Ursula Heinzelmann’s book Beyond Bratwurst delves into the history of German cuisine and reveals the country’s long history of culinary innovation. Heinzelmann’s May 13 talk, part of the Pepin Lecture Series in Food Studies and Gastromony, will discuss German food history, particularly the late and rapid industrialization as it is defined through cheese production. There will be German Alpine cheeses and German wine to sample as part of the discussion. Fee of $30 includes book. The class takes place at 808 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 117, and you may register online at www.bu.edu/foodandwine.

  • Wednesday, March 11, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm – The Brookline Troika: Olmsted, Richardson, Sargent and the Planning of a “Model Community”

    The Massachusetts Historical Society presents The Brookline Troika: Olmsted, Richardson, Sargent and the Planning of a “Model Community” on Wednesday, March 11, at their offices at 1154 Boylston Street, with a reception at 5:30 and lecture at 6:00.  Keith Morgan, Director of Architectural Studies at Boston University is the featured speaker.

    Derived from the recently publish book, Community by Design: The Olmsted Office and the Making of Brookline, Massachusetts, this lecture will explore the close and dynamic relationship of the country’s leading landscape architect, architect, and horticulturalist in the evolution of Boston’s premier suburb. These three men lived within easy walking distance of each other in the Green Hill section of Brookline and used their private residences and landscapes as teaching and professional spaces as well. Their friendships and (occasional) conflicts informed the character of the suburban development for a community that called itself “the richest town in the world” and believed that its model was worthy of emulation.

    Keith N. Morgan is a Professor of the History of Art & Architecture and American & New England Studies at Boston University, where he has taught since 1980. He currently direct BU’s Architectural Studies Program and is a former national president of the Society of Architectural Historians. Written in collaboration with Elizabeth Hope Cushing and Roger Reed, Community by Design was published in 2013 by the University of Massachusetts Press for the Library of American Landscape History and received the Ruth Emery Prize of the Victorian Society in America.

    This series has been made possible by the generous underwriting of Stephen Stimson Associates Landscape Architects and is cosponsored by the Mount Auburn Cemetery and the Nichols House Museum. $10 fee (no charge for Fellows and Members of the MHS, Mount Auburn Cemetery and the Nichols House Museum.) Register online at https://dnbweb1.blackbaud.com/OPXREPHIL/EventDetail.asp?cguid=76FBBAD5-59FC-442D-8347-A5AE40DBF561&eid=50859&sid=28E3AC1C-BE75-4D62-BB6E-EC1C9D0EE6AB