Boston Flora

Tag: William (Ned) Friedman

  • Monday, April 30, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – When Darwin Met Thoreau

    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.

    Randall Fuller, PhD, Herman Melville Distinguished Professor of American Literature, University of Kansas, will speak on Monday, April 30 at 7 pm. On January 1, 1860, Henry David Thoreau learned about a new work of science entitled On the Origin of Species. Within a month, he had read the book, taken extensive notes, and begun to incorporate Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection into his understanding of nature. In this talk, Professor Randall Fuller will recount Thoreau’s deep engagement with what remains one of the most important concepts of the nineteenth century. Fuller is the author of The Book that Changed America.

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

  • Monday, March 26, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – The Fingerprints of Sea Level Change in a Warming World

    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.

    On Monday, March 26 at 7 pm, Jerry X. Mitrovica, PhD, the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University, will speak on The Fingerprints of Sea Level Change in a Warming World. Sea level changes are a particularly dramatic consequence of global warming and estimates of the average rise in sea level over the past decade are routinely reported in the media. However, such estimates obscure the fact that observed sea level changes vary dramatically around the globe. Professor Jerry Mitrovica will describe the sources of this variability and focus on the unique patterns – or fingerprints – of sea level change that follow the melting of ice sheets and glaciers. Those of us who live on the US east coast should be far more concerned about the fate of the distant Antarctic Ice Sheet than the future of our neighbor, the ice sheet that now covers Greenland.  Image from www.sciencedaily.com.

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

  • Tuesday, February 13, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – A Field for Women’s Work

    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.

    On Tuesday, February 13 at 7 pm. Dava Sobel, author and science reporter, will speak on A Field for Women’s Work. In the late 19th century, botany was the science generally deemed acceptable for a woman to pursue. At the Harvard College Observatory, however, women were welcomed as computers, observers, and discoverers of new celestial phenomena. They attracted international attention as they created a taxonomy for the stars and found a way to measure distances across space. Dava Sobel, author of The Glass Universe, Galileo’s Daughter, and Longitude among others, will speak about the women of the Observatory, their careers devoted to the heavens, and their passions encompassing plants and all things natural.

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

  • 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/

  • 2018 Director’s Lecture Series at the Arnold Arboretum – Advance Notification

    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 four lectures, on January 22, February 26, March 26, and April 30, will be individually featured as posts on this website in the coming months, but because the series tends to “sell out” quickly, we suggest visiting https://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/news-events/directors-lecture-series/ right now and signing up for one or more of these stunningly diverse lectures. Ned Friedman will begin with a talk on the history of photosynthetic life, Dava Sobel will talk about women in the Harvard College Observatory, taken from her book The Glass Universe, Jerry Mitrovica discusses sea level change, and Randall Fuller will present on Henry David Thoreau and Charles Darwin.