Boston Flora

Tag: Museum Of Science

  • Now Showing – Extreme Weather

    The Museum of Science is screening a 50 minute movie at its Mugar Omni Theater entitled Extreme Weather. Let famed storm chaser and award-winning giant screen filmmaker Sean Casey take you on a dramatic journey to places where few have gone before! Destinations include the edge of a 300-foot-tall calving glacier in Alaska, the front lines of massive wildfires in the Western United States, and directly in the path of deadly (yet mesmerizing) tornadoes in the plains.

    Also, follow the men and women on the forefront of climate research and the everyday heroes who put their lives on the line to help us understand and adapt to our ever-changing weather. Sponsored by MathWorks. Timed tickets are required. Order online at https://www.mos.org/imax/extreme-weather

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  • Sunday, June 26, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Should We Engineer the Mosquito?

    Mosquitoes are more than annoying pests — they’re carriers of the deadly malaria parasite. Every year, hundreds of millions of people are infected with malaria, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths. Insecticide resistance is increasing, and the drugs used to treat malaria are becoming less effective. Scientists have developed a way to alter mosquito DNA to reduce their ability to transmit malaria. Releasing genetically modified mosquitoes into affected environments could bring us closer to eradicating these diseases, but may also cause unforeseen consequences. Should we tinker with the mosquito?  Come to the Museum of Science on Sunday, June 26 beginning at 6 pm to discuss the potential benefits and trade offs. What would you do? Advance registration begins at 9:00 am, Saturday, June 11 (Thursday, June 9 for Museum members) at http://www.mos.org/public-events/should-we-engineer-the-mosquito. Image from www.ted.com.

  • Saturday, July 11 & Sunday, July 12, 10:00 am – 5:30 pm – Butterfly and Caterpillar Weekend

    On Saturday and Sunday, July 11 and 12, meet an amazing array of native New England caterpillars in various stages of development, and learn more about caterpillars and butterflies through live presentations and interpretations throughout the Museum of Science.

    On Saturday and Sunday from 10 – 3 there will be a Caterpillar Lab. This one-of-a-kind experience is a celebration of the impressive diversity of New England caterpillars. Each individual display includes a variety of caterpillars, in various stages of development and on their local host plants. With no glass between you and the displays, you can experience caterpillars up close — eating, pooping, camouflaging, or defending themselves with clever adaptations such as warning coloration, inflatable horns, strange smells, and squeaking mandibles.

    From 1 – 3 on both days you may Create Your Own Butterfly Habitat. With your paid admission to the Butterfly Garden, learn how to create and plant your own butterfly habitat. We’ll discuss the importance of using native plantings and how to get your garden started. Get your hands dirty planting native seeds and take them home to help start attracting butterflies!

    On Saturday at 11:30 hear Dr. Gerard Talavera from Harvard University describe the amazing migration of the Painted Lady butterflies, Vanessa cardui. Learn more about the challenging task of studying this beautiful insect, which is found on five continents. Also on Saturday, at 12:30, Dr. Naomi Pierce, curator of Lepidoptera at Harvard University, will introduce you to the insect-eating predators and their nourishing ant prey. Dave Champlin from the University of Maine unravels the amazing transformation of how the butterfly gets its wings on Sunday at 11:30, and finally, on Sunday at 12:30, Norah Warchola from Tufts University discusses the fascinating relationship between an endangered species of caterpillar and the ants that protect it from predators in exchange for a sugary bribe.

    Also on Saturday and Sunday there will be presentations on Gardening for Butterflies at 1:30 in the Shapiro Family Science Live! Stage, Green Wing, Lower Level. As a bonus, The Secret Lives of Fireflies will be featured both days at 3:30 pm. Watching fireflies is a special part of warm summer nights in New England. We watch and we enjoy, but do we really know what they are saying? This program sheds a little light on the secret lives of fireflies. You’ll also learn how you can participate in a scientific research effort to find out if these magical insects are disappearing from our landscape, and if so, why and what can be done about it. Solitary Bees: The Other Bees will be discussed at 5:30 pm on Saturday and Sunday. Honey bees are in decline. Since they are responsible for pollinating one third of our food crops, their disappearance threatens our food supply. While scientists try to find out why and how to reverse this trend, our crops still need to be pollinated. Find out how you can help by becoming a “solitary beekeeper.”

    While you are at the Museum, don’t miss Flight of the Butterflies at the Mugar Omni Theater each day at 1 pm. Weighing less than a penny, the monarch butterfly makes one of the longest migrations on Earth. Follow this perilous journey and join hundreds of millions of real butterflies in the remote mountain peaks of Mexico, with breathtaking cinematography from an award-winning team. Be captivated by the true, compelling story of an intrepid scientist’s 40-year search to find the monarchs’ secret hideaway. Purchase of separate timed ticket required for Omni film. You may buy these tickets on line at www.mos.org.

  • Wednesday, April 29, 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm – Eating Bottles, Drinking Clouds, and Texting Your Evening Meal

    This Reno Family Foundation Symposium on Wednesday, April 29 from 6:30 – 9 pm features an evening of discovery with David Edwards, the inventor whose artscience experiments are becoming cultural game-changers. Embark on sensorial adventure at Edwards’s newest culture lab, where the public is invited to join his “willful, joyful experimentation.” Sip poetic clouds of intense flavor from Le Whaf, explore olfactory music with the magical oPhone, and drink water out of flavorful, nutrient-rich WikiFood packaging. Contribute your own creative ideas to sensorial trends that will be changing our world.

    Edwards sees a new kind of learning igniting across America. In maker spaces, innovation programs, and cultural discovery environments, people young and old are starting to “learn to learn” to discover the undiscovered. Among the youngest people ever elected to the National Academy of Engineering, Edwards sees “culture labs,” like Le Laboratoire Cambridge, as propellers of discovery learning and a hopeful path for pioneering solutions to seemingly intractable global challenges.

    Location for this offsite Museum of Science program: Café ArtScience and Le Laboratoire Cambridge, 650 East Kendall Street, Cambridge, MA. Funding for this program provided by the Reno Family Foundation Fund. Additional funding provided by the Barbara and Malcolm L. Sherman Fund for Adult Programs.  $35.  Buy tickets online at http://www.mos.org/public-events/eating-bottles-drinking-clouds.

  • Wednesday, March 25, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – FED UP

    Traditional wisdom prescribes a relatively simple course for weight loss: eat less and exercise more. But what if the modern food industry has learned to manipulate the prescription? FED UP takes on industrial food giants and the products causing millions of Americans to become obese, diabetic, and difficult to treat.

    Join Mark Hyman, a physician featured in the film, for a screening and discussion of the defining public health issue of our time, at the Museum of Science on Wednesday, March 25 from 7 – 9 in the Cahners Theater.

    Free but advance registration begins at 9:00 am, Wednesday, March 11 (Monday, March 9 for Museum members).

    This program is free thanks to the generosity of the Lowell Institute. Additional funding provided by the Richard S. Morse Fund. For more information visit http://www.mos.org/public-events/fed-up

  • Friday, July 11 – Water Stories: Conversations in Paint and Sound

    On Friday, July 11, the Museum of Science will open a multi-media project entitled Water Stories: Conversations in Paint and Sound, an exhibit in the Blue Wing on Level 2. Water — our most precious resource. Easy to take for granted, but without it, there can be no life. Industrial practices, human behaviors, and climate change have caused us to face unquestionable challenges regarding the future of our water supply.

    Through paint and sound, artist Anne Neely, in collaboration with sound artist Halsey Burgund, focuses our attention on alarming stories unfolding today. This exhibition will consist of paintings dealing with the beauty and foreboding we face with the water issues in this country through either climate change or man-made problems. Neely invites inquiry into water’s unifying role in our world and the many ways humans affect it.  Free with exhibit halls admission. Image below copyright Anne Neely.

  • Wednesday, January 29, 7:00 pm – Symphony of the Soil

    Join The Arnold Arboretum on Wednesday, January 29 at 7 pm to explore the complexity and mystery of the miraculous substance, soil. Drawing from ancient knowledge and cutting edge science and filmed on four continents sharing the voices of some of the world’s most esteemed soil scientists, farmers and activists, the film Symphony of the Soil, by Deborah Koons Garcia, portrays soil as a protagonist in our planetary story. By understanding the elaborate relationships between soil, water, the atmosphere, plants and animals, including humans, we come to appreciate the complex and dynamic nature of this precious resource. Soil is alive, and its health and survival are intricately connected to that of all life. The free program will take place in the Cahners Theater, Museum of Science, Boston, and will feature a panel consisting of Thomas J. Akin, Conservation Agronomist, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service;  Serita D. Frey, PhD, Professor of Soil Microbial Ecology, University of New Hampshire and Research Faculty, The Harvard Forest ; Jim Ward, Farmer and Owner, Ward’s Berry Farm, Sharon, Massachusetts.  Registration for this program begins on Wednesday, January 15 at 9:00 am at www.mos.org.  Presented with the Museum of Science. This program is free thanks to the generosity of the Lowell Institute.

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  • Wednesday, November 13, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – What is Life?

    Three seminal figures in biological and biomedical sciences, George M. Church, PhD, Gary Ruvkun, PhD, and Jack Szostak, PhD, discuss life as we know it, life as it may have begun, and life as it may evolve in the future, in the Cahners Theater at the Museum of Science on Wednesday, November 13, beginning at 7 pm. From basic elements of human biology to nuances in aging and illness and on to life forms we’ve never known before, venture into an investigation of what we know, what we may find out, and what we have yet to imagine. Cocktail reception follows this Reno Family Foundation Symposium. $20. Tickets available online at https://store.mos.org/index.php?action=showevent;event_id=746;c=1.

    George M. Church, PhD is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and MIT, Director of the NIH Center for Excellence in Genomic Science, Synthetic Biology Platform Lead at Hansjorg Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and recipient of the 2011 Franklin Bower Award for Achievement in Science for his contributions to genomic science, including the development of DNA sequencing technologies, and his efforts in personal genomics and synthetic biology.

    Gary Ruvkun, PhD (pictured below) is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and recipient of the 2008 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research and the 2012 Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research for his discovery of microRNAs.

    Jack Szostak, PhD is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, the Alexander Rich Distinguished Investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine, the 2008 Dr. H.P. Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics, and the 2006 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research for his discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.

    Funding provided by the Reno Family Foundation Fund.

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  • Tuesday, September 3, 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm – Immortality: Can We Live Forever and Should We Want To?

    Join The Museum of Science at the home of GrandTen, producers of small-batch, craft-distilled spirits, for a gripping exploration of the most universal of human obsessions — the tireless effort to cheat aging and death.

    From vampires to the billion-dollar anti-aging industry, our culture is fascinated with the concept of eternal life. In The Book of Immortality: The Science, Belief, and Magic Behind Living Forever, Adam Leith Gollner, the critically acclaimed author of The Fruit Hunters, weaves together religion, science, and mythology. The book delves into a strange array of contemporary and historical characters, cults, religions, and myths all devoted to this primal human pursuit.

    Enjoy craft cocktails, selections from The Dining Car food truck, and a chance to take and share animated GIFs of yourself in the Bosco’s enhanced photo booth.  GrandTen Distilling is located at 383 Dorchester Avenue, South Boston, MA 02127.  Special thanks for in-kind support from The Bosco and Yelp.

    http://www.rjjulia.com/files/rjjulia/The_Book_of_Immortality.jpg

  • Wednesday, March 13, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – One Seed at a Time

    One Seed at a Time, a Reno Family Foundation Symposium at the Museum of Science, with Cary Fowler, PhD, special advisor and executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, will take place Wednesday, March 13, beginning at 7 pm. Tucked away beneath the snow of the Arctic Circle is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Sometimes called “the doomsday vault,” it’s nothing less than a backup of the planet’s horticultural biodiversity. Inside the vault, Dr. Cary Fowler and his team work with seeds from hundreds of crops that have nurtured humanity since our ancestors began tilling the soil. Their goal: to ensure that the world’s food supply can survive the dangers of disease, famine, climate change, and identical GMOs. Nearer the equator, documentary filmmaker Yung Chang shows us how intertwined we are with the fruits we eat in The Fruit Hunters. Guided by devoted exotic fruit lovers, he takes us on a cinematic odyssey through nature and commerce, changing not only the way we look at what we eat, but how we view our relationship to the natural world.

    Following the program, taste a selection of exotic fruits and enjoy a cash bar, featuring tropical Bellinis. Learn how to extract and save seeds, where to trade, exchange or swap, and make seed “bombs” for random acts of gardening–just throw and grow!  Funding provided by the Reno Family Foundation Fund.  $15 admission.  For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit www.mos.org/public-events.

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