Time: 7:00-9:00 p.m., Wednesday, October 30th Location: Armenise Amphitheater at Harvard Medical School, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston (link to directions) Speakers: Juliana Rhee Graphics: Olivia Foster Rhoades Have you ever wished you had an invisibility cloak? While this may sound like science fiction to us, coleoid cephalopods – octopus, cuttlefish, and squid – can change the color of their skin to disappear into the background in the blink … Continue reading October 30 – Masters of Disguise: How cephalopods change their colors

Time: 7:00-9:00 p.m., Wednesday, October 23rd Location: Armenise Amphitheater at Harvard Medical School, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston (link to directions) Speakers: Steven Torrisi Graphics: Jovana Andrejevic The problems facing society have technological solutions, but need materials we don’t have yet. Computers are one of our biggest tools in the quest for finding the materials of the future. We have a new and exciting edge against the problems of … Continue reading October 23 – Computers Dream of a Better Future: Artificial Intelligence in Materials Science

Time: 7:00-9:00 p.m., Wednesday, October 16th Location: Armenise Amphitheater at Harvard Medical School, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston (link to directions) Speakers: Anna Ponomarenko Graphics: Aparna Nathan Every year the world prepares for a new flu season. Scientists keep modifying and updating vaccines, as well as researching and testing novel anti-flu drugs. And the next season the race with the ever changing virus starts over. But why does flu … Continue reading October 16 – Mutants on the Rise: Survival tricks of a flu virus

Time: 7:00-9:00 p.m., Wednesday, October 9th Location: Armenise Amphitheater at Harvard Medical School, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston (link to directions) Speakers: Vicky Chou and Kevin Dervishi Graphics: Vicky Chou What do The Bachelor, America’s Got Talent, Hell’s Kitchen, and your brain have in common? They all need competition to work properly! Competition drives our development in ways that confused scientists for years. In this talk, we’ll learn about … Continue reading October 9 – America’s Next Top Neuron: How microscopic competition shapes our brains

Time: 7:00-9:00 p.m., Wednesday, May 8th Location: Pfizer Hall at Harvard University, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge (link to directions) Speakers: Jordan Wilkerson Graphics: Nick Lue The Arctic Circle has been getting slushier over the past century. The culprit is climate change. From Russia to Canada to Alaska, roads and buildings are beginning to collapse under the melting soil on which they rest. But humans aren’t the only ones … Continue reading May 8 – Cities Resting on Slush: Impacts of Climate Change on Earth’s Frozen Regions

Time: 7:00-9:00 p.m., Wednesday, April 10th Location: Pfizer Hall at Harvard University, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge (link to directions) Speakers: Michael Lerch Graphics: Alyson Warr Light is such a normal part of our everyday lives that we often fail to recognize that light can be a powerful tool. Over the last decades, scientists have increasingly used light to exert control. In chemistry, for example, light is used to steer … Continue reading April 24 –  Photopharmacology – How light can help improve medication

Time: 7:00-9:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 27th Location: Pfizer Hall at Harvard University, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge (link to directions) Speakers: Emily Kerr Graphics: Aparna Nathan How do you know that your light will definitely turn on within seconds of your flicking the switch? Ready and reliable access to energy has dramatically changed how human beings live their lives. In this talk, we will discuss how humans have harnessed … Continue reading March 27 – Energy: Where We Get It and Where We Are Going

Time: 6:30-8:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 13th Location: Pfizer Hall at Harvard University, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge (link to directions) Speakers: Dana Boebinger Graphics: Olivia Foster Rhoades Have you wondered why you see a black and blue dress, but your friend insists that it is white and gold? Perception is the process by which the brain gathers and interprets information about the world that it receives through our senses. … Continue reading March 13 – Creating Perception: How the Brain Constructs the World

Time: 6:30-8:30 p.m., Wednesday, November 28th Location: Armenise Amphitheater at Harvard Medical School, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston (link to directions) Speakers: Purvaja Kavattur, Moulshri Mohan, Nambi Ndugga Graphics: Lillian Horin What do Charles Darwin, climate change, and the birth control pill have in common? They have all significantly influenced sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) policies throughout history! Join us as we take you on a journey from … Continue reading November 28 – Sex, Science, and the State: The Role of Science in Sexual Reproductive Health and Policymaking

Time: 7-9 p.m., Wednesday, November 14th Location: Armenise Amphitheater at Harvard Medical School, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston (link to directions) Speakers: Buse Aktaṣ and Julia Ebert Graphics: Elayne Fivenson From Roomba to Mars rovers, robots perform a wide range of tasks from cleaning your living room to exploring the solar system. And with every new model, we expect them to be able to accomplish more with less of … Continue reading November 14 – Brains and Bodies: How to Make Smart Robots