Boston supports a pretty impressive culture of lectures and lecture-like events (conferences, unconferences, panel discussions, debates, symposia, festschrifts, workshops, poster sessions, mini-courses, roundtables, exhibitions, tech jams, demos, tours, etc.).  The selection represented by this list is intended to be of interest to science, technology, and in limited cases DIY buffs.  The intention is both to advertise specific events and convey a general sense of where science and engineering are right now - - what the people doing the work are talking about.  The list is not remotely comprehensive and selection criteria are subjective. Courses, exhibits, and networking meetups with no special focus are not well handled. Note that activity level can fluctuate from one or two events in a given week to several dozen.

Blue boxes represent events advertised as child- friendly; yellow boxes, multi-day events.  Asterisks (*) mark websites that seem especially well done.

There are two routes to this list: the website and the mailing list. The website carries events for the next month (roughly); the list, for the next week.   You can subscribe to the list here.  Please note that this landscape is highly volatile: Important details are often changed at the last minute.  Plus I make the occasional error (word of which I would be immensely grateful to receive).   All in all I strongly urge you to doublecheck the "Details" link before you head out.

Please let me know if I ought to be monitoring somebody not on my list of sources.

I would appreciate your mentioning this list to people with compatible interests.

-- Fred Hapgood

Last update: 29.2109

Selected Repeating Events: Exhibitions & Tours
Selected Groups, Clubs, Societies, & Meetups
Selected New England Museums
DIY-focused organizations & resources

Monday, January 30

8:15 - 9a.   "Healing Mozart? The Science of Music in Medicine."   Claudius Conrad.   BWH:  Bornstein Amphitheater.   Details.   0

Noon.   "Dietary Lifestyles, Epigenetics, and Prevention of Brain Aging."   Giulio Maria Pasinetti.   Tufts:  Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center, auditorium,711 Washington St.   Details.   0

Noon.   "Take the World from Another Point of View."   A Feynman film.   MIT:  6-120.   Details.   0

Noon.   "The MIT Future of the Electric Grid Study."   Richard Schmalensee.   Harvard:  Kennedy School, Bell Hall, Belfer Center 5th Floor, 79 JFK St.   Details.   0

12:30p.   "Chemical and Biological Discovery Driven by Evolution."   David Liu.   Liu lab.   HMS:  Bldg C, Cannon Rm.   Details.   0

12:30p.   "Mobile Surveys in the Developing World: Turning 2 Billion Cell Phone Subscribers into 2 Billion Human Subjects."   Nathan Eagle.   HSPH:  B Bldg, Room G13, 651 Huntington Ave.  Details.   0

1:30p.   "Higgs Boson Hunt at the LHC."   Markus Klute.   MIT:  6-120.   Details.   0

4p.   "Game-Theoretic Design for Networked Communities."   Mihaela van der Schaar.   BU:  8 St. Mary's St, Rm 339.   Details.   0

4p.   "Probabilistic Modelling, Machine Learning and the Information Revolution."   Zoubin Ghahramani.   MIT:  Stata Center, Patal/Kiva Rm (32-G449).   Details.   0

7p.   "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure."   A Coolidge Theater Science on Screen Presentation.   MIT physicist Edward Farhi will discuss the plausibility of time travel.   Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St.   Details.   0

Tuesday, January 31

Noon - 1:30p.   "The Distinction of Past and Future."   A Feynman film.   MIT:  6-120.   Details.   1

Noon.   "Global Change and Grasslands."   Alan Knapp.   Arnold Arboretum:  Weld Hill Lecture Hall, 125 Arborway.   Details.   1

12:30p.   "Designing for Remixing: Computer-supported Social Creativity.".   A Berkman Luncheon.   Andres Monroy-Hernandez.   Webcast details.   Podcast details.   RSVP required for lunch.   Harvard Law School: Berkman Center for the Internet and Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Flr.   Details & RSVP.  1

1:30p.   "Creating the Hottest Matter in the Universe with the Large Hadron Collider."   Bolek Wyslouch.   MIT:  6-120.   Details.   1

4p.   "Renewable Energy Research in Southern Arava."   Tareq Abu Hamed.   BU:  Photonics Center, Rm 339.   Details.   1

6p.   "The Biology of Adversity and the Roots of Impairments."   Jack Shonkoff.   Harvard:  Biolabs bldg, Rm 1080, 16 Divinity Ave.   Details & Registration.   1

Wednesday, February 1

Noon - 1:30p.   "Probability and Uncertainty."   A Feynman film.   MIT:  6-120.   Details.   1

1 - 4:30p.   "Beta Rhythms and Cognition."   A symposium.   BU:  Hillel House, 213 Bay State Road.   Details.   1

1:30p.   "Gravitational Lensing is Fantastic!"   Simona Vegetti.   MIT:  6-120.   Details.   1

2p.   "Implicit Programming."   Viktor Kuncak.   MIT:  Stata Center, Star (32-D463).   Details.   1

4p.   "Chemical Tools to Illuminate the Brain."   Evan W. Miller.   MIT:  56-114.   Details.   1

4p.   "Electronics for Future Medical Devices: From Connected Implants to Point of Care Diagnostics."   Simone Gambini.   BU:  Photonics Center, 8 Saint Mary's St, Room 339.   Details.   1

6p.   "The Origin of Cellular Life."   Jack Szostak.   Szostak lab.   Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St.   Details.   1

6 - 9p.   "A Decade of Software Security: From the Bug Parade to the BSIMM."   Gary McGraw.   Tufts:  Nelson Auditorium, Anderson Hall.   Details.   1

7p.  "Extreme Weather."   Bonnie Schneider.   Museum of Science:    Details & Registration.   1

Thursday, February 2

10a.   "Microscopy Resolution and the Abbe Limit."   Lai Ding.   Optical Imaging Program.   HMS: Goldenson 122.   Details & RSVP.   2

2:50 - 4p.   "Hybrid User Interfaces for Augmented Reality."   Alex Olwal.   Tufts:  Halligan 111.   Details.   2

3:30 - 5p.   "Design to Scale -- Developing Technologies for Global Impact."   MIT:  56-114.   Details & RSVP.   2

4p.   "Pharmacologic Enhancement of Human Cognition: Opportunities and Risks."   Steven Hyman.   Harvard:  Yenching Auditorium, 2 Divinity Ave.   Details.   2

4p.   "Prefrontal Computations Underlying Decision-Making."   Jonathan Wallis.   MIT:  46-3002.   Details.   2

4p.   "Big Data Analytics -- New Challenges in Query Processing."   Florian Waas.   MIT:  Stata Center, Patil/Kiva (32-G449).   Details.   2

4p.   "Cells, Termites, and Robot Collectives."   Radhika Nagpal.   Harvard:  Maxwell Dworkin G115.   Details.   2

6p.   "Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom."   Rebecca MacKinnon.   MIT:  Media Lab.   Details.   2

7p.   "Liberty Ship models."   Robin Neill, owner of Small Ship Models.   Charles River Museum of Industry, 154 Moody Street, Waltham.   Details.   2

Friday, February 3

10:30a.   "Hybrid Cochlear Implants, Speech Perception, and Pitch Plasticity."   Lina A.J. Reiss.   BU:  44 Cummington St, Rm 203.   Details.   3

Noon - 1:30p.   "Seeking New Laws."   A Feynman film.   MIT:  6-120.   Details.   3

1:30p.   "The Biophysical Borderline: Exploring the Boundary Between Inanimate and Living Matter."   Jeremy England.   MIT:  6-120.   Details.   3

Sunday, February 5

2p.   "Digging for Mastodons: Discovering an Ice Age World in the Colorado Rockies."   Kirk Johnson.   Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St.   Details.   5

Monday, February 6

Noon.   "Sleep is For Brain Energy Balance."   Radhika Basheer.   BWH:  Bornstein Amphitheater, 45 Francis St.  Details.   6

4p.   "Security and Reliability for Internet-Scale Services."   Phillipa Gill.   BU:  Photonics Center, 8 Saint Mary's St., Room 339.   Details.   6

6 - 8p.   "NFC in Smartphones Transforms Healthcare."   A panel discussion.   MIT:  EG&G Education Center, Room 34-101, 50 Vassar St.   Details & Registration.   6

7 - 8:30p.   "The Global Forests of Greenhouse Earth."   Kirk Johnson.   Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Bldg.   Details.   6

7p.   "Too Big to Know."   An author's event.   David Weinberger.   Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St, Brookline.   Details.   6

February 7 - 8.  "Simulating Physics."   A workshop on a proprietary product.   MicroTek, 25 Burlington Mall Rd, 2nd Floor, Burlington.   Details.   7 - 8

Tuesday, February 7

Noon.   "Topics in Bioengineering."   Shulamit Levenberg.   Harvard:  Maxwell-Dworkin G-135, 33 Oxford St.   Details.   7

4p.   "How Cancer Works: the latest."   Robert Weinburg.   MIT:  E19-623.   Details.   7

4p.   "How Activity Changes Synapses In the Mammalian Brain."   Tobias Bonhoeffer.   HMS:  Armenise Amphitheater, 210 Longwood Avenue, Boston.  Details.   7

4p.   "Black Holes- the Harmonic Oscillators of the 21st Century."   Andrew Strominger.   Brandeis:  Abelson 131.   Details.   7

6p.   "Game Theory & Applied Probability in Relation to Market & Network Behaviors."   Constantinos Daskalakis.   MIT:  Stratton Student Center, Room 407.   Details.   7

7p.   "The Global Forests of Greenhouse Earth."   Kirk Johnson.   Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Bldg.  Details & Registration.   7

7p.   "Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are."   Sebastian Seung.   Seung lab.   TED talk.   Harvard Book Store:  1256 Massachusetts Ave.   Details.   7

7p.   "Geologic History and Evolution of Boston Harbor."   Peter Rosen.   Northeastern:  Marine Science Center, 430 Nahant R, Murphy Bunker, Nahant.   Details.   7

Wednesday, February 8

4p.   "Aging and Stem Cells."   Anne Brunet.   Brunet lab.   Brandeis:  Gerstenzang 121.   Details.   8

4p.   "How and Why People Hack."   David Seidman.   BU:  HIC Seminar Room (MCS-180), 111 Cummington St.   Details.   8

5:30 - 9p.   "The Future of the Personal Genome."   A panel discussion.   MIT:  EG&G Education Center, Room 34-101, 50 Vassar St.   Details & Registration.   8

Friday, February 10

5 - 8p.   "Spacewar Turns 50."   MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Ave.   Details.   0

6 - 8:30p.   "Sex at the Zoo."   Rory Browne.   Franklin Park Zoo, Tropical Forest Pavilion.   Details.   0

Saturday, February 11

9:30 - 11:30a.   "Convergent Evolution, Adaption and Sexual Selection."   Martha Munoz.   Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St.   Details.   1

2 - 3:30p.   "Capturing Forest Animals with Pencil and Paper."   Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St.   Details.   1

Tuesday, February 14

3:30p.   "RNA Silencing."   Philip Sharp.   Sharp lab.   MIT:  E19-623.   Details.   4

Wednesday, February 15

4p.   "How do Bugs' Gases alter Planetary Atmospheres?"   Paul Falkowski.   Harvard:    Details.   5

7 - 8:30p.   "Interaction and Data Visualizations."   Mark Shifferli.   Constant Contact, 1601 Trapelo Rd, Waltham.   Details & Registration.   5

7:30p.   "State Of The Birds - Documenting Changes In Massachusetts' Birdlife."   Dave Larson.   Mass Audubon's Joppa Flats Education Center, Newburyport.   Details.   5

Thursday, February 16

8 - 10a.   "Alzheimer Diagnostics and Therapeutics."   Jorge Sepulcre and Gad Marshall.   Swissnex Boston:  420 Broadway, Cambridge.   Details & RSVP.   6

6p.   "Zanconato Custom Cycles."   Mike Zanconato.   Hyatt Regency, Cambridge.   Details.   6

7:30p.   "The Life of Super-Earths."   Dimitar Sasselov.   Observing from the observatory roof if weather permits.   Note that these events are usually very well-attended.   If you cannot come early you might want to watch online.   Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics:  Phillips Auditorium, 60 Garden St.  Details.   6

Saturday, February 18

10 - 4p.   "2012 Model Engineering Show."   Charles River Museum of Innovation and Industry.   Details.   8

Monday, February 20

6:30p.   "Bioinspired Hybrid Locomotion For Miniature Robotics."   Mirko Kovac, Katie Hoffman, Kevin Ma; Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory.   Harvard Microrobotics Lab, 60 Oxford St.   Details.   0

7p.   "Crimes and Misdemeanors."   A Coolidge Corner Theater Science on Screen presentation.   David DeSteno will discuss emotions and morality.   Social Emotions Group.   Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St.   Details.   0

Thursday, March 1

4p.   "Printing Biomimetic Materials."   Jennifer Lewis.   Lewis Research Group.   Wyss Institute, Room 521, 3 Blackfan Circle.   Details.   1

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