Science Public Lecture Series

THIS EVENT IS FREE; NO REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED! A quiet revolution is transforming our understanding of sunlight’s effects on human health. For decades, a “zero-sun” policy has characterized our approach to sun protection, advising us to stay out of the...

THIS EVENT IS FREE; NO REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED! Spiders are often found lurking in dusty corners, where we can observe them with interest or brush them away with disgust—or make a run for it, as the agitated Miss Muffet does. They are just as prevalent...

Please note special time! Tens of billions of birds share the planet with us, an astonishingly diverse array of species that are present nearly everywhere humans call home—and many places we do not. With their flamboyant plumage, joyous dawn serenades...

In her highly acclaimed debut, distinguished cosmologist and particle physicist Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein shared with her audience an abiding sense of wonder at the cosmos, while imagining a world without the entrenched injustice that plagues her field...

Our DNA is the indispensable set of instructions that guides our growth and vitality. The common misconception is that this molecular blueprint stays the same throughout our lives. In reality, the genetic makeup of our cells is continuously mutating, from...

The deep sea is our planet’s last frontier. For most of human history, it was a vast, unknown realm that invoked awe and terror. And despite how much we’ve learned, it remains largely unexplored. In The Dark Frontier, marine microbiologist and explorer...

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE: JEFFERSON LAB 250, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA! Welcome to the easy-to-digest user’s manual for your body’s unsung hero: the gut. Leading Harvard gastroenterologist, Dr. Trisha Pasricha takes us on a riotous deep dive into...

How did the world as we know it—from the soil beneath our feet to the air we breathe and the life that surrounds us—come to be? Geologists have proposed one set of answers while biologists have proposed another. Earth and Life is the first book to reveal...

THIS EVENT IS FREE; NO REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED! As one of the world’s leading scientists examining how our DNA shapes differences in temperament, temptation and behavior, Kathryn Paige Harden has seen firsthand how we—in public and in our most private...

In the early nineteenth century, the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck proposed the first evolutionary theory of life and, with it, a new science: biology. Yet for centuries, evolutionary theorists have endeavored to discredit Lamarck and his theory...