If you would like to post your event, please e-mail Joseph Caputo at jcaputo@sciencemetropolis.com.
Sunday, October 5
2:00 p.m.
BOOK TALK
Harvard Museum of Natural History
Tuna: A Love Story
Author talk & booksigning by Richard Ellis
Author and marine artist Richard Ellis’s new illustrated book examines the physiology and behavior of the majestic tuna, and how the insatiable sushi market is pushing it to the brink of extinction.
2:00 p.m.
LECTURE
Museum of Science
“Technologies for Detecting Breast Cancer: What is Best for Me?”
An afternoon conversation with scientific experts as they discuss the latest breast cancer detection technologies. At 2 p.m., at the Museum of Science, 1 Science Park. Go to mos.org.
Monday, October 6
5:30 p.m.
PANEL DISCUSSION AND EXHIBIT TOUR
MIT Museum
“Red Lines, Death Vows, Foreclosures, Risk Structures: Architectures of Finance from the Great Depression to the Sub-Prime Meltdown”
5:30 p.m. tour in the Compton Gallery.
6:30 p.m. panel discussion in MIT360 Arena.
Free admission. Visit the Website for more information.
7:00 p.m.
LECTURE
New England Aquarium
“Whales: Candles, Cheeses and Pigs in Disguise?”
Dr. Heather Koopman, Assistant Professor, Duke University
Whales may not process all of the fats they ingest. How do we know? Whale feces tend to float at the surface and fat floats in water. Koopman observed this and hypothesized that whales may not be using all of the fats they consume.
Heather Koopman specializes in studying lipids or fats in marine mammals-primarily porpoises and whales
Tuesday, October 7
6:00 p.m.
BOOK TALK
Harvard Museum of Natural History
Elegant Eggs & Remarkable Nests
Lecture & booksigning by Rosamond Purcell
Photographer Rosamond Purcell has worked in museums in the US and abroad in search of the visual thrills that come from contemplating natural history specimens. With curatorial staff, she explored the ornithological holdings at the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology to capture the skills of nest-builders and the diverse beauty of their eggs. The resulting photographs appear in the new book, Egg & Nest.
Wednesday, October 8
6:00 p.m.
LECTURE
MIT Museum
“Soap Box”
With Ethan Zuckerman, Fellow, the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University Law School. Technologies and Emerging Democracies
Free admission, refreshments served
Visit the Soap Box Homepage.
Friday, October 10
3:00 p.m.
LECTURE
Harvard Book Store
“Sherry Turkle: The Inner History of Devices”
“Sherry Turkle and the contributors use memoirs, psychoanalysis, and ethnography to illuminate our attachments, our grief, our compulsions, our use of things to explore life and death, to shape new selves. Their insights make this book important reading not only for professionals but for everybody who wonders where innovation is taking us.” -Edward Tenner (Our Own Devices: How Technology Remakes Humanity) Visit the Harvard Book Store Website for more info.
5:00 p.m.
PRESENTATION
MIT Museum
“Energy Night”
An energetic evening of posters, networking, music, presentations and demonstrations. Sponsored by the MIT Energy Club. Full details on the MIT Events Calendar.
6:00 p.m.
BOOK TALK AND SIGNING
Harvard Book Store @ Brattle Theater
“The Way We Work: Getting to Know the Amazing Human Body” by David MaCaulay
$5 tickets go on sale Fri., Sept. 19th.
Many of us spend most of our lives oblivious to even basic information about the most amazing thing we’ll ever take for granted-our own bodies. In The Way We Work, David Macaulay gives readers an opportunity to discover just how remarkable the human body really is. This comprehensive and entertaining resource reveals the inner workings of the human body and all of its systems and mechanisms, as only David Macaulay could. Page after page of beautifully illustrated spreads detail everything from cells to the bones and organs they build, clearly explaining the function of each, and offering up-close glimpses, unique cross-sections and perspectives, and even a little humor along the way. (Visit the Harvard Book Store Website for more information.)
Monday, October 13
7:00 p.m.
BOOK TALK AND SIGNING
Harvard Book Store
“Greasy Rider: Two Dudes, One Fry-Oil-Powered Car, and a Cross-Country Search for a Greener Future” by Greg Melville
Is it possible to drive coast-to-coast without stopping at a single gas pump? Melville is determined to try. With his college buddy Iggy riding shotgun, this green-thinking guy-who’s in love with the idea of free fuel-sets out on an enlightening road trip. The quest: to be the first people to drive cross-country in a french-fry car. Will they make it from Vermont to California in a beat-up 1985 Mercedes diesel station wagon powered on vegetable oil collected from restaurant grease Dumpsters along the way? (For more info, visit the Harvard Book Store Website.)
Tuesday, October 14
6:00 p.m.
LECTURE
MIT Museum
Marty Klein, founder of Klein Associates, Inc. and developer of side scan sonar systems, currently featured in the Mark Epstein Innovation Gallery.
Free admission, refreshments served
7:00 p.m.
BOOK TALK
New England Aquarium
“Tuna: A Love Story”
Richard Ellis, author
This event will take place in the Aquarium’s Harbor View Café.
This book covers everything one could want to know about the biggest, fastest, warmest-blooded, warmest-bodied fish in the world, describing the various species of tuna and giving a thorough account of the history of recreational and commercial tuna fishing. The bluefin tuna-hovering on the brink of extinction-receives the most attention.
Richard Ellis is the author of more than a dozen books. He is also a celebrated marine artist whose paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world.
Wednesday, October 15
7:00 p..m.
BOOK TALK
Brookline Booksmith
“Daniel Levitin - The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature”
Author of the best-selling This is Your Brain on Music, the record producer turned neuroscientist employs evolutionary biology to explain how music is at the heart of human identity.
Thursday, October 16
7:00 p.m.
BOOK TALK
Harvard Museum of Natural History
Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity
Lecture & booksigning by Dr. Eric Chivian and Dr. E. O. Wilson
Sustaining Life (Oxford University Press) is the first book to examine the full range of potential threats that diminishing biodiversity poses to human health. Lead editor and author Eric Chivian, Director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, and Professor E. O. Wilson, who wrote the book’s forward, will discuss the importance of biodiversity to human health-from medicines, biomedical research, infectious diseases, and food production to the ecosystem services that support life on Earth.
7:30 p.m.
LECTURE
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
“Measuring the Universe,” Mark Reid, CfA
Over 2,000 years ago, the Greek scientist Hipparchus measured the distance to the Moon by triangulation from two locations across the Mediterranean Sea. Determining the distance to stars proved much more difficult, and it was not until the 19th century that this was accomplished. Even in the early 20th century, the nature of nebulae was debated: were they nearby objects or distant “island universes” (galaxies)? While we now know the distance to galaxies at the edge of the Universe, we have only just begun to measure distances accurately throughout the Milky Way and hope to learn what it really looks like.
Friday, October 17
8:30 p.m.
PERFORMANCE
All Asia, Cambridge, MA
Scientist Pardis Sabeti’s band “Thousand Days”
Live Friday night at All Asia. Playing with Electric Laser People, Glen Michael, and The Wrong Noises.
Monday, October 20
7:30 p.m.
LECTURE
Harvard Book Store @ First Parish Church Parlor Room | 3 Church St.
“Fred Pearce - Confessions of an Eco-Sinner: Tracking Down the Sources of My Stuff”
Cambridge Forum is pleased to Fred Pearce, a former news editor at New Scientist. Currently that magazine’s environment and development consultant, he has also written for Audubon, Popular Science, Time, the Boston Globe, and Natural History.
Wednesday, October 22
6:00 p.m.
LECTURE
MIT Museum
“Soap Box”
With Henry Jenkins, Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities. What is Civic Media?
Free admission, refreshments served
Visit the Soap Box Homepage.
Thursday, October 23
7:00 p.m.
LECTURE
New England Aquarium
“Midway Atoll and the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument”
Wayne Sentman, biologist and field naturalist, Oceanic Society
The only accessible wildlife refuge within the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, Midway offers one of the most incredible wildlife spectacles in the world. Similar to the Galapagos, much of the wildlife of Midway has remarkably little fear of humans. Few places on the planet allow visitors such close contact with seabirds.
Wayne Sentman has a B.S. from the University of Delaware and has completed graduate courses in Wildlife Management. He has worked as a naturalist and field biologist for the Oceanic Society since 1998.
Monday, October 27
7:00 p.m.
LECTURE
New England Aquarium
“Vernal Pool Conservation”
Dr. Aram Calhoun, Associate Professor, University of Maine
Take a look at the science behind vernal pool conservation and explore creative ways to effect conservation at the municipal level. Aram Calhoun’s research focuses on forested wetlands, vernal pools, amphibians and aquatic invasive plants.
Dr. Aram Calhoun recently co-edited “Science and Conservation of Vernal Pools in the Northeastern Parts of North America,” a practitioner’s guide to vernal pool ecology, stewardship and regulations.
Wednesday, October 29
6:00 p.m.
LECTURE
Harvard Museum of Natural History
Future(s) of Conservation
Lecture by Dr. Steven Sanderson
The case for wildlife conservation is losing ground to economic growth and a variety of other social concerns. Sanderson, President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society, will discuss how this came to pass, and what important new forces will shape the future(s) that might evolve. This lecture is cosponsored by the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Thursday, October 30
7:00 p.m.
BOOK TALK AND SIGNING
Harvard Coop
“Sustaining Life” by Eric Chivian
The Earth’s biodiversity-the rich variety of life on our planet-is disappearing at an alarming rate. And while many books have focused on the expected ecological consequences, or on the aesthetic, ethical, sociological, or economic dimensions of this loss, Sustaining Life is the first book to examine the full range of potential threats that diminishing biodiversity poses to human health.
Wednesday, Novemeber 5
6:00 p.m.
LECTURE
MIT Museum
“Soap Box”
With Dayna Cunningham, Executive Director of the Community Innovators lab at MIT’s Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning: Technologies and Communities Changing Each Other. Technologies and Communities Changing Each Other.
Free admission, refreshments served.
Visit the Soap Box Homepage.
Monday, November 10
7:00 p.m.
LECTURE
New England Aquarium
“Journey With a National Geographic Photographer”
Brian Skerry, National Geographic photographer and New England Aquarium Overseer
“The oceans are in trouble. As a photo-journalist, I feel a sense of urgency to tell that story,” Brian Skerry says. “It’s hard for people to understand. The ocean is so vast and deep, and from the surface, from the beach, from the fully stocked seafood restaurants, it looks healthy.” Underneath the waves, however, lies a completely different story. Come hear from this photographer who has traveled all over the world and see some of his breathtaking photographs.
Tuesday, November 18
6:00 p.m.
LECTURE
MIT Museum
“Soap Box”
With Ellen Hume, Research Director of MIT’s Center for Future Civic Media. The Future of the News.
Free admission, refreshments served.
Visit the Soap Box Homepage.
Thursday, November 20
7:00 p.m.
LECTURE
New England Aquarium
“Using Technology to Help Protect the North Atlantic Right Whale”
Kerry Lagueux, Associate Scientist, New England Aquarium
The North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) is one of the most endangered large whales in the world, with fewer than 400 individuals. New England Aquarium’s research department is employing mapping technology to help understand the patterns of risk for these cetaceans. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is being used to visualize right whale distribution, analyze potential conflicts with humans, and assess the compliance of current regulations to protect this species. Come explore right whale habitats in 3D, visualize ships moving in right whale habitats, and understand the spatial conflict between fishing and right whales.
7:30 p.m.
LECTURE
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
“The Truth About Black Holes,” Dan Evans, Harvard/MIT
Black holes get a bad rap. Too often seen as cannibalistic bullies, they are, in fact, crucial to the formation and evolution of the Universe. Tonight, Dr. Evans will discuss using the X-ray eyes of the Chandra X-ray Observatory to detect and study the properties of supermassive black holes in so-called “active” galaxies. Then, he will describe how astronomers use those observations to test Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity in the most extreme environments. Finally, Evans will present Chandra’s latest discovery - the “Death Star Galaxy” - and discuss the fact that while you might want to avoid this destructive black hole at present, it ultimately might not be a bad neighborhood in our Universe in which to live.
Thursday, December 18
7:30 p.m.
LECTURE
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
“Gems of the Winter Sky,” David Aguilar, CfA
While Cygnus the Swan glides over the western horizon, the Seven Sisters look on as Orion the Hunter stands up to Taurus the Bull in the clear skies of winter. On these brisk, cold nights, stars sparkle like brilliant diamonds overhead as the Earth turns away from our Milky Way galaxy. Join us as we reveal some easy-to-identify winter constellations and explore the deep-sky jewels hidden among them, like the Great Nebula in Orion - the ultimate stellar nursery. Gaze upon the double star Almaak - a solar system with two orange suns. Or David’s favorite, the dazzling double star cluster in Perseus - no stellar treasure hunt would be complete without it!