Boston Flora

Tag: Harvard Museum Of Natural History

  • Saturday, November 15, 1:00 pm – The Art and Science of the Unfeathered Bird

    Imagine that you could see beneath the fluff and feather of a bird to view bone and muscle in action. What would this perspective reveal about movement, structure, and evolution? The Unfeathered Bird is a magnum opus, twenty-five years in the making, that features 385 finely-rendered drawings and paintings of 200 bird species. In a Harvard Museum of Natural History program intended for artists, scientists, and bird lovers alike, Katrina van Grouw will explain her approach to preparing and drawing the specimens featured in her book and share her insights into bird anatomy and biomechanics.

    Lecture and Book Signing will begin at 1:00 pm on Saturday, November 15, in Haller Hall of the Museum.  Enter at 26 Oxford Street in Cambridge. Regular museum admission rates apply. Free event parking available at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.

  • Saturday, November 8, 2:00 pm – Eight Extraordinary Years of Scientific Travel: Alfred Russel Wallace’s Malay Archipelago

    The Harvard Museum of Natural History will host Andrew Berry, Lecturer on Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, on Saturday, November 8, beginning at 2 pm in Haller Hall (entrance at 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge.) Alfred Russel Wallace, who co-discovered the theory of evolution by natural selection with Charles Darwin, was a remarkable scientist-explorer. His eight years of travel in Southeast Asia (1854–1862) greatly influenced his scientific thinking and resulted in the discovery of thousands of new species, as well as a wonderful account of his journeys, The Malay Archipelago. To celebrate the release of a new edition of this classic work, Andrew Berry will tell Wallace’s extraordinary story, discussing how the book originated and how it shaped future generations of scientific travel. Regular Museum admission rates apply, and enjoy free parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.

  • Saturday, October 25, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Harvard’s 2nd Ever Fungus Fair

    Explore the wondrous world of fungi! Join Harvard students on Saturday, October 25, from 10 – 1 for a closer look at the mushrooms, yeasts, and molds found in gardens, forests, labs—and even in our own refrigerators. Learn about the use of fungi in common foods such as bread and cheese. This is an opportunity to investigate museum collections and participate in hands-on activities and taste tests led by Harvard students. Regular museum admission rates apply. Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street.
    Free event parking available at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.

  • Saturday, October 25, 2:00 pm – Remembering North America’s Extinct Birds

    Join the Harvard Museum of Natural History at 2 pm on Saturday, October 25 for a screening of The Lost Bird Project, a film that honors five extinct North American birds: the Labrador Duck, the Great Auk, the Heath Hen, the Carolina Parakeet, and the Passenger Pigeon. Directed by Deborah Dickson, the film follows sculptor Todd McGrain as he sets out to create large bronze memorials to these lost birds and to install them in the locations where they were last seen in the wild. A discussion with McGrain and Andy Stern, the executive producer of the film, will follow the screening. A book about the project will also be available for purchase at the museum store. Free with museum admission.
    Haller Hall, enter at 26 Oxford Street. Free event parking available at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.

  • Thursday, October 2, 6:00 pm – Saving Lemurs from Extinction

    Primatologist and MacArthur Fellow Patricia Chapple Wright, Professor of Anthropology at Stony Brook University, and recipient of the 2014 Indianapolis Prize for her extraordinary contributions to conservation efforts, will discuss her work protecting the lemurs and ecosystems of Madagascar. Wright will share her experiences engaging the Malagasy government, community stakeholders, and scientists in a team effort to integrate conservation with development projects, including one collaboration that led to the establishment of Ranomafana National Park, a World Heritage Site in southern Madagascar. This Harvard Museum of Natural History event is free and open to the public.  The Thursday, October 2 lecture will begin at 6 pm in the Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St.  Presented in collaboration with the Indianapolis Prize. Free event parking available in the 52 Oxford Street Garage.

  • Friday, October 3, 6:45 pm – A Biogeographic Perspective on the Fern Genus Polystichum

    The New England Botanical Club (NEBC), founded in 1895, is a non-profit organization that promotes the study of plants of North America, especially the flora of New England and adjacent areas. The Club publishes the journal Rhodora, holds monthly meetings during the academic year (usually at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts), maintains an herbarium of more than 253,000 sheets, has a small library, and annually grants a graduate student research award and Fernald publication award.

    The New England Botanical Club will hold its October meeting beginning at 6:45 on Friday, October 3 in the Haller Lecture Hall, Room 102, found inside the door to the Harvard Museum of Natural History entrance at 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge.  The speaker will be Dr. David S. Barrington, Professor of Plant Biology, Director of the Pringle Herbarium at University of Vermont, speaking on A Biogreographic Perspective on the Fern Genus Polystichum.  The meeting is open to the public.  For more information you may email neystersmith@bentley.edu.

     

  • Saturday, January 10 – Monday, January 19 – The Best of Natural Hawaii: Oahu, The Big Island & Maui

    Join friends of The Harvard Museum of Natural History as they explore three islands: Oahu, the Big Island, and Maui, each offering varied experiences and learning opportunities. Surrounded by ocean and formed by volcanic hot spots, Hawaii’s isolation and geological activity shape the islands’ biodiversity. With over 25,000 unique species, Hawaii is one of the planet’s most biologically diverse regions. A high percentage of these species are only found here, yet today these birds, insects, mammals, and plants live in a delicate balance. Hawaii’s position floating alone in the middle of the Pacific creates a unique cultural identity apart from the mainland United States. Life here feels easygoing and casual. The colorful history that shaped these islands remains clear; waves of immigrants who once labored in cane fields added their languages, foods, and cultures to the local mix. Today, there is no ethnic majority and common bonds are intangible.  The HMNH Study Leader is Dr. Peter Del Tredici, author of Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast and Senior Research Scientist of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.  The ten day trip takes place January 10 – 19, 2015. Double occupancy $5,740, with single supplement of $1,375.  For a complete itinerary call 617-495-2463, or visit http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/travel/pdf/HMSC%20Natural%20Hawaii.pdf.

     

     

  • Tuesday, May 20, 6:00 pm – Hemlock: A Forest Giant on the Edge

    For millennia, eastern hemlock trees have held irreplaceable cultural value and created unique forest habitat across New England. Today, eastern hemlocks are disappearing from our forests, falling by the tens of thousands as prey to an exotic insect foe.

    In the new book Hemlock: A Forest Giant on the Edge, eight Harvard Forest researchers reflect on eastern hemlock’s irreplaceable value to human culture, ecosystems, and scientific research.

    This free panel discussion, to be held Tuesday, May 20 beginning at 6 pm at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, 24 Oxford Street in Cambridge, featuring two of the book’s authors, Harvard Forest director David R. Foster and ecologist Aaron Ellison (recent speaker at The Garden Club of the Back Bay February meeting,) will explain connections between eastern hemlock’s modern decline and the larger challenges facing nature and society in an era of habitat fragmentation, native species loss, and global climate change.

  • Wednesday, May 7, 7:00 pm – The Extreme Life of the Sea

    Drawing on his newest book, The Extreme Life of the Sea, marine scientist Stephen Palumbi will explore the spectacular life forms, such as blind zombie worms, ageless jellyfish, and the unicorn-like narwhal, that thrive at the ocean’s most brutal limits. From the icy Arctic to boiling hydrothermal vents and pitch-dark trenches, Palumbi looks at extreme habitats and considers how humans may be driving dramatic changes to the ocean’s ecosystem. The lecture and book signing will take place Wednesday, May 7, beginning at 7 pm at the Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, and is sponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Stephen is the Jane and Marshall Steel Jr. Professor of Biology and Director of Hopkins Marine Station at Stanford University. Free and open to the public. There is free event parking in the 52 Oxford Street Garage.

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  • Thursday, April 17, 6:00 pm – How Natural Selection Shapes Contemporary Homo Sapiens

    Stephen C. Stearns, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University, will speak at the Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, at the Harvard Museum of Natural History on Thursday, April 17, beginning at 6 pm, as part of the Evolution Matters Lecture Series. Have modern sanitation and medicine stopped human evolution, as some claim? Does the pressure for sexual selection of males constrain the evolution of females, and vice versa? Does having children shorten or extend life? Analyzing the data from the renowned Framingham Heart Study, a long-term study initiated in 1948 that continues to this day, evolutionary biologist Stephen Stearns will explore how natural selection has shaped women’s bodies and physical health, and how reproduction has affected women’s average lifespan.

    The Evolution Matters Lecture Series is supported by a generous gift from Drs. Herman and Joan Suit. Free and open to the public, with free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.  For more information visit www.hmnh.harvard.edu.

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