The New England Botanical Club will host a program for members on Friday, January 10 beginning with a potluck dinner at 5:30 with member’s “Show and Tell”. For more information visit http://www.rhodora.org. NEBC meetings are held in Haller Lecture Hall, room 102, found inside the door to the right of the Harvard Museum of Natural History entrance, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge.
Geophysicist Brendan Meade, using satellite technology, generates images of current fault-line activity to help predict earthquakes and to better understand earthquake cycles and the tectonic development of continents. Find out more about his research and the progress being made in predicting the timing and magnitude of earthquakes on Thursday, November 21, at 6 pm, in a lecture sponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Free and open to the public. Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free event parking is available in the 52 Oxford Street Garage after 5:00 pm.
On Thursday, November 14, beginning at 6 pm at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Scot Miller will discuss his seven-year project photographing northern Maine for his new book, The Maine Woods: A Photographic Journey Through an American Wilderness. Miller combines contemporary imagery with text from Henry David Thoreau’s classic essay collection, The Maine Woods (first published 150 years ago). He will also screen The Unexpected Journey, a short documentary about the making of the book.Free and open to the public. Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free event parking is available in the 52 Oxford Street Garage after 5:00 pm. Members-only gallery preview and reception to follow in the exhibition gallery. RSVP to members@hmsc.harvard.edu or call (617) 496-6972.
Although Alfred Russel Wallace co-discovered the theory of evolution by natural selection with Charles Darwin, he has held a relatively obscure place in the history of science. This year marks the centenary of his death and the Harvard Museum of Natural History, in conjunction with the Cambridge Science Festival, is celebrating Wallace’s rich legacy with “Wallace Day†on Saturday, October 26. Learn more about a brilliant scientist, a heroic naturalist, and a passionate social reformer.
Event Schedule
11:00 am – 4:00 pm (In the galleries, free with museum admission)
Explore the HMNH galleries and see a one-day-only display of Wallace-related specimens and objects from the Museum’s zoological collections. Come see Wallace’s spectacular birds of paradise and birdwing butterflies. At 2:00 pm
, join Alfred Russel Wallace himself (impersonated by Wallace historian and evolutionary biologist Andrew Berry) for a live presentation about his remarkable life as scientist, author, and social activist.
Evening program (below): Admission is free, but tickets are required. Tickets are available by online registration only. Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free event parking is available after 3:00 pm in the 52 Oxford Street Garage.
4:00 pm
Who was Alfred Russel Wallace?
A panel discussion with: James T. Costa, Professor of Biology at Western Carolina University; John Durant, Director of the MIT Museum; James Wood, Professor of Literary Criticism at Harvard University and staff writer for The New Yorker. Moderated by Janet Browne, Aramont Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University, and acclaimed biographer of Charles Darwin.
Parallel Lives: Edward O. Wilson & Alfred Russel Wallace
A conversation with Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor Emeritus, Harvard University, and Andrew Berry, Wallace historian and Lecturer on Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University.
The evening program will conclude with a reception in the HMNH galleries for all ticket holders.
The Harvard Museum of Natural History will present a lecture and reception with Daniel Lord Smail on Thursday, October 24, beginning at 6 pm in Haller Hall, 26 Oxford Street in Cambridge, entitled Time Reckonings. It is hard to imagine life functioning without a universal, scientific, and technologically-driven system of time-keeping and measurement, yet it once did. One of the great transformations in European history was the shift from relative time to absolute time. With this shift, the modern discipline of history became subject to chronological reckonings and concordances. Daniel Lord Smail will explore these ways of interpreting time. This event is in conjunction with the current Harvard Museums of Science and Culture exhibition Time and Time Again at the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. Lecture followed by reception in the HMNH galleries. Free and open to the public. Free event parking is available at the 52 Oxford Street Garage after 5 pm.
The New England Botanical Club will present Tom Rawinski, Botanist, USDA Forest Service, Durham, New Hampshire, on Friday, October 4. Tom will speak on Deer, Forests, and People: Understanding and Managing Socioecological Systems, beginning at 6:45 pm at Harvard University, Cambridge, in the Haller Lecture Hall (Room 102), Geological Museum, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge (door to the right of the Harvard Museum of Natural History entrance.) For information on the New England botanical Club, visit www.rhodora.org. Picture below from www.animalliberationfront.com.
The Harvard Museum of Natural History, along with the Office for the Arts at Harvard and the Office for Sustainability at Harvard, will co-sponsor a lecture and panel discussion with Kamal Bawa and Sandresh Kadur on Tuesday, October 1, beginning at 4 pm on Himalaya: Mountains of Life. Conservation biologist Kamal Bawa and conservation photographer Sandesh Kadur will share breathtaking photographs and stories from their new book, Himalaya: Mountains of Life, to spark a conversation about why the preservation of this land is so important not just for us, but for the future of all life on Earth. Following their presentation, a panel of distinguished Harvard professors, representing the arts, humanities and environmental disciplines, will lead a discussion with the authors on the interplay and interconnectedness of art and the humanities in building awareness of and potential solutions to global environmental challenges. Free and open to the public. Please note location: The Sackler Museum, 485 Broadway Street, Lecture Hall B029.
Evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman discusses the evolutionary history of the human body by examining major transformations the body has made over the millennia. The lecture, book launch and reception will take place Thursday, September 26, beginning at 6 pm. From the advent of bipedalism, to the rise of hunter-gatherers and the development of a very large brain, the human body has adapted in ways that allow for exceptional athletic endurance and intelligence. Central to Lieberman’s lecture are the effects of cultural evolutionary forces on our health and longevity. Lecture followed by a reception in the Harvard Museum of Natural History galleries.
Free and open to the public. Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free event parking is available at the 52 Oxford Street Garage after 5:00 pm.
Giraffes are one of the world’s most fascinating animals, but also one of the least understood. In his new book, Giraffe Reflections, science and nature author Dale Peterson expands our appreciation for these gentle giants by offering a new perspective on their place in our world, and urges us to protect their diminishing numbers.
Hear the author speak, followed by a book signing, at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street in Cambridge on Sunday, September 15, at 2 pm. Free with Museum admission.
On Tuesday, September 10, participate in a day of events and activities highlighting the importance of honey bees and beekeeping to biodiversity, the food supply, and human health. Learn more about the alarming decline of beehives (colony collapse disorder) widely documented in the U.S. and Europe.
Event Schedule
1:00–2:00 pm: The Plaza (in front of the Science Center)
Enjoy organic honey tasting at the Harvard Farmers’ Market.
4:00 pm
Take a tour of the beehives on Harvard’s campus, led by Harvard Undergraduate Beekeepers. Preregistration required; please visit the HMSC website for more information: www.hmsc.harvard.edu.
7:00 pm: Science Center, Hall C
Film screening of More Than Honey, followed by a discussion with Dr. Alex Lu, Associate Professor of Environmental Exposure Biology, Harvard School of Public Health, about current research on the link between colony collapse disorder and the use of agricultural pesticides.
Jointly sponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Harvard Undergraduate Beekeepers, the Harvard Farmers’ Market, the Food Literacy Project, and the Cambridge Entomological Club.
All activities and events are free and open to the public. The Plaza and the Science Center, 1 Oxford Street. Free event parking is available at the 52 Oxford Street Garage. For more information, visit www.hmnh.harvard.edu.
