The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources
Author talk and booksigning by Michael Klare
Saturday, APRIL 21, 2:00 pm
In his newest book, The Race for What’s Left, Michael Klare, Five College Professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College, describes a world facing an unprecedented crisis of resource depletion—from oil to coal and natural gas, copper and cobalt, water, and arable land.
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Learning From Insects: How Our World is Shaped by Bees, Ants and Other Social Insects
A Dialogue and Booksigning with Thomas Seeley and Bernd Heinrich
Tuesday, April 3, 6:00 pm
To celebrate the publication of Harvard University Press’ collection of its best essays in Entomology, A World of Insects, Thomas Seeley, Biology Professor at Cornell University, and Bernd Heinrich, Professor Emeritus at the University of Vermont, discussed their research and why it’s critical that we study and learn from insects. Moderated by Professor Naomi Pierce, Curator of Lepidoptera at the Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Image from A WORLD OF INSECTS: THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS READER edited by RING T. CARDÉ and VINCENT H. RESH appears courtesy of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 2012 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
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The Social Conquest of Earth
Lecture and booksigning by Edward O. Wilson
Thursday, APRIL 12, 6:00 pm
Edward O. Wison, Professor Emeritus at Harvard, has dedicated much of his 60 years in biology to the study of social insects. In his latest book, The Social Conquest of Earth, he turns his focus to another successful organism—humans—and addresses three fundamental questions of religion and philosophy: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? Wilson addresses many fields—mathematics, human genetics, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and evolutionary biology—to explain the origin of humans and our domination of the Earth’s biosphere.
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New Directions in EcoPlanning Annual Lecture
A Great Green Cloud: The Rise and Fall of the City of Elms
Lecture by Thomas J. Campanella
Thursday, March 8, 6:00 pm
Thomas J. Campanella, Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the University of North Carolina, explored elm culture in the U.S., and how our love affair with this giant nearly brought it to the edge of disappearance.
Watch this lecture on the Video Page.
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Why Evolution is True and Why Many People Still
Don’t Believe It
Lecture by Jerry Coyne
Wednesday, May 2, 6:00 pm
Jerry Coyne, a professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago and author of the seminal book, Why Evolution is True, is one of the world’s most eloquent defenders of evolutionary science in the face of legal, religious, and cultural opposition. In this talk, Coyne explored the multifarious evidence for evolution, why Americans are so resistant to accepting the theory, and what can be done to make the country more evolution-friendly.
Photo by Paul Merideth.
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Evolutionary Medicine at 20: Not yet Mature, but on the Way
Lecture by Randolph Nesse
Thursday, March 29, 6:00 pm
Randolph Nesse, Director of the Evolution & Human Adaptation Program at University of Michigan, is one of the nation’s foremost researchers in the emergent field of Darwinian medicine—the application of modern evolutionary theory to the understanding health and disease.
Watch this lecture on the Video Page.
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From Democratic Consensus to Cannibalistic Hordes: The Principles of Collective Behavior
Lecture by Iain Couzin
Tuesday, February 28, 6:00 pm
Why do billions of locusts suddenly break into motion? How do ants carry heavy loads and march with orderly precision along densely packed trails? How do flocks of birds and schools of fish select their navigators? And how do we—humans—make decisions as citizens, drivers, and numerous other social situations? Learn about the major contributions Iain Couzin, Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton, has made to understanding the dynamics and evolution of collective animal behavior.
Watch this lecture on the Video page.
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The Sounding of the Whale: Science and Cetaceans in the Twentieth Century
Author talk by D. Graham Burnett
Sunday, March 11, 2:00 pm
D. Graham Burnett, Professor of History at Princeton, discussed how 20th century scientific research and environmental awareness has led to an appreciation of whales as highly evolved, complex mammals critical to marine ecosystems and deserving of regulatory protection.
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Paleo Planet: A Look at Life in the Past
Family Festival
Saturday, March 3, 9:00 am-5:00 pm
Travel back in time to explore the amazing world of dinosaurs, Ice Age mammals, trilobites, and other fossils. Consider how the planet itself has changed over time. Investigate human ancestors through fossils. Meet Harvard scientists and hear about their research. Examine rare specimens, search for clues about the past in common fossils, and make your own models. This festival is appropriate for all ages with more than a dozen different activities appealing to different ages.Paleo Planet is made possible in part with support from Cambridge Trust Company.
Photo by Nate Dean.
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The Biology and Evolution of Mollusks
Exhibition opening lecture by Gonzalo Giribet
THursday, February 16, 6:00 pm
From tiny snails to the giant clam (Tridacna gigas), mollusks are the most diverse and widely distributed family of marine invertebrates. Professor Gonzalo Giribet, Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at Harvard’s MCZ, discussed how scientists are decoding the Mollusca genetic family tree to learn how they’ve adapted, survived, and thrived since the pre-Cambrian era, and to explore the potential benefits of mollusks from medicine to human health, and other fields.
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Digging for Mastodons: Discovering an Ice Age
World in the Colorado Rockies
Family Program with Kirk Johnson
Sunday, February 5, 2:00 pm
Paleontologist Dr. Kirk Johnson of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science share the latest news about Snowmass Village, the massive site in the Colorado Rockies where he’s leading a team that has recently unearthed a treasure trove of over 5,000 fossils of Ice Age animals—including mastodons, Columbian mammoth, Jefferson’s ground sloth, giant bison, camels, and other species.
Photo by Charles Mayer.
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The Origin of Cellular Life
Lecture by Jack W. Szostak
Wednesday, February 1, 6:00 pm
Jack Szostak, a Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Distinguished Investigator at Mass. General, described how efforts to design and build very simple living cells are testing our assumptions about the nature of life, generating ideas about how life emerged from the chemistry of early Earth, and offering clues as to how modern life evolved from its earliest ancestors.
Photo by Jussi Puikkonen.
Watch this lecture on the Video page.
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Strange New Worlds: From Meteorites in Antarctica to the Search for Life Beyond Our Solar System
Lecture and booksigning by Ray Jayawardhana
Wednesday, January 18, 6:00 pm
Renowned astronomer Ray Jayawardhana, University of Toronto and current Radcliffe Institute fellow, gave a lively talk on cutting-edge science of today’s planet hunters, the prospects for discovering alien life, and the debate and controversies at the forefront of extrasolar-planet research.
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