Boston Flora

Tag: Harvard

  • Wednesday, April 10, 6:00 pm – Chasing Ants (And Their Microbes) in the Rainforest

    Corrie Moreau, Moser Professor of Arthropod Biosystematics and Biodiversity, Cornell University , will give a free public lecture on April 10 at 6 pm in the Geological Lecture Hall of the Harvard Museum of Natural History, 24 Oxford Street in Cambridge.

    Microbes play critical roles in the biology and health of human beings, but we are not the only species that benefits from intimate relationships with microbes. Ants, for instance, rely on the microbial communities living in their guts to process food and make strong armor. Corrie Moreau will discuss this unique aspect of ant biology and what it tells us about the diversity and dominance of ants in terrestrial ecosystems, the evolutionary history of social insects, and the broad-scale evolutionary patterns of life.

    Evolution Matters Lecture Series

    Series supported by a generous gift from Drs. Herman and Joan Suit

    Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage

  • Saturday, March 9, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Plumage and Personality: An Art and Science Workshop

    The world of birds is full of diverse behaviors and appearances. Some birds blend in with their environment, while others do everything they can to stand out. How and why do birds achieve these visual feats, and what can it tell us about their natural history and evolution? Harvard University biologist Dakota McCoy will use feather and bird specimens from the University’s collections to explore how and why this diversity of forms and behaviors arose. Artist Erica Beade will show participants techniques to capture the nuance of avian color and form in their drawings. The workshop takes place March 9 from 9:30 – 12:30 at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street in Cambridge.

    Fees: $45 members/$55 nonmembers. Advance registration is required. Register at https://hmnh.harvard.edu/event/plumage-and-personality-art-and-science-workshop

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  • Tuesday, December 4, 7:00 pm – 8:15 pm – The Ethics of Species Conservation

    Ronald Sandler, PhD, Chair and Professor of Philosophy; Director, Ethics Institute, Northeastern University, will speak at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University on Tuesday, December 4 at 7 pm.

    Rapid ecological change, and climate change in particular, pose challenges to traditional conservation paradigms and strategies. It has also led some conservationists to endorse novel conservation techniques, such as assisted colonization, gene drives and even de-extinction.

    This talk will explore the values and philosophies that underlie species conservation under conditions of rapid change. It will ask us to think about what is valuable about species and why we ought to try to conserve them. Free for Arboretum members, $10 for nonmembers.

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  • Wednesday, November 14, 6:00 pm – Origins of the Green Revolution: Hybrid Seeds, Hunger, and Mexico-India Cooperation

    Gabriela Soto Laveaga, Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University, will speak on Wednesday, November 14 at 6 pm (site to be determined) on the Origins of the Green Revolution: Hybrid Seeds, Hunger, and Mexico-India Cooperation.

    As a devastating famine gripped India and Pakistan in 1966, a cargo of hybrid wheat seeds from Mexico arrived one fateful day on India’s coast. The seeds were first planted across the Punjab region using new agricultural methods, including intensive fertilizers and irrigation. The crop’s high yield surprised farmers and helped save many from hunger that year. Gabriela Soto Laveaga will talk about the origins of these hybrid seeds, their role in the Green Revolution, and the unexpected technological, environmental, and social impacts they had on both Mexico and India. Free and open to the public. Free event parking available at 52 Oxford Street Garage

    Presented in collaboration with the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. For updates on venue, visit https://hmnh.harvard.edu/green-revolution

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  • Monday, October 22, 12:00 noon – 1:30 pm – Marty Poirier

    For 40 years, Marty Poirier has combined insatiable curiosity with love of community life to practice landscape architecture fused with urbanity, social purpose, and aesthetics. His designs strive to shape expressive places that people connect with. Marty’s career is filled with assignments informed by the downtown centers in which he has lived and worked – Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cambridge, New York, and San Diego. His work has focused on places of dense human interaction – parks, college campuses, and city centers – where rigorous site analysis and program definition are masterfully transformed into remarkable landscapes.

    After 27 years of co-directing SPURLOCK POIRIER Landscape Architects, Marty rejoined mentor Peter Walker, to practice with PWP Landscape Architecture. The recipient of numerous design awards, Poirier has lectured widely throughout North America. He serves on the Harvard Graduate School of Design Alumni Council, and co-founded the Harvard DISrupt! conference series.

    Poirier finds great inspiration for his aesthetic pursuits through dialogue and collaborative projects with a diverse range of artists including Robert Irwin, Alexis Smith, Quincy Troupe, Ned Kahn, and Tim Hawkinson. This passion for aesthetics – conditioned to each setting – shapes his ongoing collaboration with Chef Thomas Keller and Laura Cunningham at The French Laundry and Bouchon. He will speak on Monday, October 22 at noon in Gund Hall, 112 Stubbins, at the Harvard School of Graduate Design. The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information visit http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/marty-poirier/

  • Thursday, May 3, 6:00 pm – Apples: A New England History

    Rowan Jacobsen, author and Knight Science Journalism Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will speak in the Geological Lecture Hall of the Harvard Museum of Natural History on Thursday, May 3 at 6 pm on Apples: A New England History.

    No other fruit embodies the horticultural and cultural range of the apple. Originally from the mountains of Kazakhstan, apples have seduced bees, intoxicated monks, nourished colonists, and inspired artists, from Paul Cézanne to Rudolf Blaschka, who created Harvard’s collection of botanically precise glass apples (now on view in the Glass Flowers gallery). James Beard Award- winning author Rowan Jacobsen will discuss his book, Apples of Uncommon Character, and will explore the surprising ways in which the apple has shaped New England history. A tasting of heirloom ciders from Vermont’s Eden Specialty Ciders will follow the talk.

    Advance registration required at https://hmnh.harvard.edu/Apples.   Free and open to the public. Free event parking at 52 Oxford Street Garage. Reception sponsored by the Harvard Chapter of Sigma Xi
.

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  • Friday, April 13, 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Fifty Shades of Green: Tales from the Hothouse

    Alluring suitors with a pungent rotten odor, promising nectar for the exchange of goods, or going at it alone, plants have evolved interesting strategies to ensure their continued existence. In this bawdy botanical review at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University on April 13 from 7:30 – 8:30, Terry Huang delves into the sex lives of plants, dramatically explaining the challenges of courtship and consummation for those rooted in place. From mutualistic partnerships to deceit-filled ones that would rival the most twisted romance, his vivid pollination stories reveal the ingenious ways flowers deal with one of life’s (most) important needs. Sex. (Adult content: Rated PG) Fee $5 Arboretum member, $10 nonmember. Register at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

    Terry Huang earned a Bachelor of Science in Plant Biology at the University of Washington and a Master of Science in Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and University of Edinburgh. He enjoys sharing his passion for plants with anyone who will listen. He performed Fifty Shades of Green at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017.

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  • Saturday, February 24, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Botany Blast: Woody Plant Basics

    In this Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University introductory workshop on plant structure and function, we will focus on temperate forest tree and shrub species found around the Arboretum. We will cover topics such as basic plant function and the development of flowers to fruits to seeds. This interactive session will enhance your understanding of plants and amplify future hikes in the woods or wanderings throughout the Arboretum. The class will be taught on Saturday, February 24 from 1 – 3 by graduate students, led by Cat Chamberlain. Free for Arboretum members, $10 for nonmembers. Register by calling 617-384-5277, or email adulted@arnarb.harvard.edu.  Image from www.profitableplantsdigest.com.

  • Monday, January 22, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Replaying Life’s Tape Through the Lens of Plants

    Each winter, Director William (Ned) Friedman and the Arnold Arboretum present the Director’s Lecture Series, featuring nationally recognized experts addressing an array of topics related to Earth’s biodiversity and evolutionary history, the environment, conservation biology, and key social issues associated with current science. The Director’s Lecture Series is open to current Arnold Arboretum members only; visit http://arboretum.harvard.edu for information on becoming a member. Lectures take place in the Hunnewell Building Lecture Hall. Parking will be available along the Arborway and in front of the Hunnewell Building on lecture nights.

    This year’s series begins Monday, January 22 at 7 pm, with the Director himself speaking on Replaying Life’s Tape Through the Lens of Plants. What can an understanding of the history of photosynthetic life tell us of the human condition? Are we, as a cognitive species, an absolutely inevitable consequence of several billion years of evolution? Or, should we wake up every morning with an exhilarating sense of the sheer improbability of just being! For decades, going back to the book Wonderful Life, by Stephen J. Gould, the debate as to the probabilities of intelligent life evolving not only here on Earth, but throughout the universe, has ebbed and flowed. None of the chief protagonists in this debate (zoologists, microbiologists, or philosophers) has ever thought about how an understanding of plant evolutionary history might bear heavily on the conclusions one reaches. Professor Friedman will discuss how just a few tweaks to the evolutionary history of plants might ultimately have precluded human life from evolving on Earth – and whether such tweaks could occur upon replaying life’s tape.

    Register online at https://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/news-events/directors-lecture-series/

  • Monday, December 4, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Of Monarchs and Milkweed: A Story of Coevolution, Cultural History, and Conservation

    What if your host truly didn’t want you to visit? Found you intolerable, in fact, and didn’t want you to stay? You’d think that you’d be kicked out, but that isn’t the case with monarch butterflies and the common milkweed that supports their life cycle. Using striking visual imagery, evolutionary biologist Anurag Agrawal of Cornell University will speak about some of the natural history of monarchs and milkweed, the cultural importance of milkweed’s toxins, and the current predicament of monarch declines. The talk will be held in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum on Monday, December 4 at 7 pm. Dr. Agrawal is an award-winning scientist and educator, who has delved deeply into the coevolution of plants and animals. His book, Monarchs and Milkweed: A Migrating Butterfly, a Poisonous Plant, and Their Remarkable Story of Coevolution, will be available for purchase and signing. Fee: Free Arboretum member and student, $10 nonmember. Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.