Boston Flora

Tag: Harvard Museums of Science and Culture

  • Saturday, December 14, 2:00 pm – 2:30 pm – Science Spotlights: Sweaty Shrubs

    On December 14 at 2 pm, meet up-and-coming scientists and learn about questions at the forefront of research today in this series of short talks. Presented by the Harvard Museum of Natural History and Harvard Museums of Science & Culture. The talk takes place in the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Classroom B on the third floor. No advance registration required.

    Sweaty Shrubs

    Speaker: Melissa Mai, Graduate Student, the Holbrook Lab

    How do plants deal with too much salt? From the world’s driest desert and tropical coastlines to your own neighborhood, plants get exposed to more salt than they’d like. Some plants have developed unique adaptations to handle extra salt, including a shrub that sweats! Join Harvard scientist Melissa Mai as she explains how multiple branches of science come together to help unearth this shrub’s secrets. Regular museum admission rates apply.

  • Wednesday, June 21, 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Summer Solstice Celebration at the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture

    Kick-off the summer in style at HMSC’s 10th annual Summer Solstice Celebration. Explore—free of charge—Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, and the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East. Then step outdoors to enjoy live music and circus performances, make flower crowns, and try out snacks at food trucks. Don’t miss this wildly popular event for all ages. Picnic blankets welcome.

    Free event parking starting at noon at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.

    This program is part of HMSC’s 10-Year Anniversary celebration.

  • Wednesday, February 23, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Lessons from Plants, Online

    Plants are essential to humans and the environment: they provide food, absorb carbon dioxide, produce oxygen,serve multiple ecosystem functions, and beautify landscapes. In Lessons from Plants (Harvard University Press, 2021) Beronda Montgomery, MSU Foundation Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Microbiology & Molecular Genetics at Michigan State University invites us to appreciate our interdependence with plants and the many lessons that can be gained from a better understanding of the ways in which plants grow, adapt, and thrive. In this February 23rd conversation with Brenda Tindal, Executive Director, Harvard Museum of Science & Culture at 6 pm, she will address what plants can teach us about relating to one another, building diverse communities and being resilient.

    Presented by the Harvard Museum of Natural History and the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture. The event is free. Advance registration required.

  • Thursday, February 24, 9:30 am – 11:30 am – Drawing Trees, Online

    Explore the variety and elegance of tree forms using pencil and paper. In this Harvard Museums of Science and Culture webinar, we will focus on capturing the shapes and volume of trunks and branches as well as techniques for drawing foliage in this online workshop. Groups will be limited to twelve, allowing ample time for individual feedback. All skill levels are welcome.

     $30 members/ $35 nonmembers. Register HERE.

  • Saturday, October 23, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm – The Art and Science of Frogs, Online

    Explore the rich diversity of frogs by observing and sketching 3D models printed from Harvard’s research collections. Artist and educator Erica Beade will introduce techniques for achieving accurate shapes and capturing volume in your drawings, while herpetologist and researcher, Dr. Mara Laslo, will explain how evolution has generated their amazing diversity. Groups will be limited to twelve, allowing ample time for questions and discussion.

    Members $40/Nonmembers $45.

    Advance registration required.

    Class, to take place on October 23 beginning at 10:30, will be held over Zoom. To join the program, you will need to download the free Zoom app in advance. If you already have Zoom, you do not need to download it again. For details on how to improve your Zoom experience, visit the How to Attend an HMSC Program webpage.

  • Wednesday, March 27, 6:00 pm – Ancient Egyptian Gardens

    Christian E. Loeben, Egyptologist and Keeper of Egyptian and Islamic Arts at the Museum August Kestner in Hamburg, Germany, will give a free lecture at the Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street in Cambridge, sponsored by the Harvard Semitic Museum.

    The oldest documented gardens in the world are from ancient Egypt. Gardens were described in hieroglyphic texts and depicted in paintings, and many have been recovered through archaeology. From these sources we know that ancient Egyptians maintained gardens at temples and tombs, as well as at royal palaces and local residences.

    Drawing on comparisons among paintings of gardens from over fifty Egyptian tombs and archaeological garden sites, Christian Loeben will highlight the symbolism and functions of gardens in the religious and personal lives of ancient Egyptians.

    Christian Loeben studied Egyptology and Art History at the Freie Universität of Berlin and has conducted fieldwork in Saqqara, Thebes and Deir el-Haggar, Dakhleh Oasis. Since 2004, he has been the keeper of Egyptian and Islamic Collections in the Museum August Kestner in Hanover, Germany, where he has curated more than ten exhibitions on ancient Egypt.

    He has held research and teaching positions at the University of Chicago, the Institut Khéops in Paris, and the Humboldt University (Berlin). He has published over 50 scientific articles and made contributions to more than 30 museum and exhibition catalogues. Since 1993 he has served as consultant Egyptologist for the Collection of Antiquities at the Cuban National Museum for the Fine Arts in Havana. He has lectured widely on Egyptology at universities in Leipzig, Havana, Marburg, Cologne, Göttingen, Leiden, Leuven, and Basel.

    Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.

    This event will be livestreamed on the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture Facebook page. A recording of this program will be available on the HMSC Lecture Videos page approximately three weeks after the lecture.

    Link to HMSC Facebook page:
    https://www.facebook.com/harvardmuseumsofscienceandculture/

    Link to HMSC Youtube page:
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjjvYQF81TLWObF7RqpHIlA L

  • Wednesday, April 12, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – The Songs of Trees

    Award-winning teacher and writer David George Haskell, PhD, Professor of Biology, Sewanee, The University of the South, expands his focus from one square meter (The Forest Unseen) to the expansive networked communities of life as observed in the presence of trees around the world. A keen observer of all living things, Haskell brings together ecological understanding with poetic narrative as he describes discoveries from root to branch tip, from one specimen to a forest of collaborators. Join The Arnold Arboretum on Wednesday, April 12 at 7 pm as Haskell expounds upon webs of connections that weave through the environment, human nature, science, and ethics. His book, The Songs of Trees, will be available for purchase and signing. Fees: Free Arboretum member and student; $10 nonmember.

    David George Haskell’s work integrates scientific, literary, and contemplative studies of the natural world. He is a professor at the University of the South and a Guggenheim Fellow. A profile in The New York Times said of Haskell that he “thinks like a biologist, writes like a poet, and gives the natural world the kind of open-minded attention one expects from a Zen monk rather than a hypothesis-driven scientist.”

    Offered with the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture. Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.