Boston supports a pretty impressive culture of lectures and lecture-like events (conferences, unconferences, forums, panel discussions, debates, symposia, festschrifts, workshops, poster sessions, mini-courses, roundtables, exhibitions, tech jams, demos, tours, etc.).  The intention of this list is both to present a selection of these events and convey a general sense of what the people doing the research are talking about right now.  The list is not remotely comprehensive and selection criteria are subjective. Courses, exhibits, and networking meetups with no special focus are not well handled. The 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.

I occasionally link to the speaker's lab.  Researchers often see these sites as the preferred medium of communication with the public.   They put a lot of work into them and many are remarkable.

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.  Some events have limited seating and get sold out. 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: 16.1050

Selected Groups, Clubs, Societies, & Meetups
Selected New England Museums
DIY-focused organizations & resources

Wednesday, May 16

10 - 5p.   "New England Machine Learning Day."   Microsoft New England Research and Development Center, One Memorial Drive.   Details & RSVP.   6

Noon.   "Microbial Facebook: Probing bacterial social networks."   Marvin Whiteley.   Whiteley Lab.   The Forsyth Institute, Seminar Room A, 245 First Street, 17th Floor, Cambridge.   Details.   6

2p.   "When the Mind Matters for Morality."   Lianne Young.   Morality Lab.   BC:  de Marneffe Building, Room 218.   Details.   6

3:30 - 5p.   "Towards Mechanically-Tunable Materials Inspired by Nature."   LaShanda Korley.   Korley Research Group.   MIT:  66-110.   Details.   6

4p.   "Genetic Escape Pods or Promiscuous Little B$&@tards - GTAs in the Oceans."   John Paul.   Marine Microbiology Group.   MIT:  48-316.   Details.   6

4p.   "On the Chemical Origins of Nucleotides."   Matthew Powner.   Harvard:  Geological Museum, 24 Oxford St, Haller Hall, Rm. 102.   Details.   6

7p.   "Hacking Embedded Linux: More Hardware than You Require."   Federico Lucifredi.   MIT:  E-51, Rm 335.   Details.   6

7p.   "Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History."   Florence Williams.   Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave.   Details.   6

7 - 11p.   "Genome Sequencing and Analysis - Towards Personalized Medicine."   A conference.   Space with a Soul, 281 Summer St, Boston.   Details & Registration.   6

7 - 9p.   "Neglected Diseases of the Bottom Billion."   A Science in the News seminar.   Harvard:  Mallinckrodt Building, Pfizer Auditorium, 2 Oxford St.   Details.   6

Thursday, May 17

10:30 - Noon.   "Early Explorers."   Boston Nature Center, 500 Walk Hill St, Mattapan.   Details.   0

1 - 2:30p.   "Putting the Cone in Conifer."   Nancy Rose.   Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Bldg.   Details & Registration.   7

4p.   "The Make-Believe World of Real-World Physics."   Eric Mazur.   Mazur Group.   MIT:  10-150.   Details.   7

4p.   "Algorithms in Nature: From systems biology to distributed computing and back."   Ziv Bar-Joseph.   Systems Biology Group.   MIT:  Stata, Kiva (32-G449).   Details.   7

4:30p.   "New Approaches to the Treatment of Metastatic Tumors."   Bruce Zetter.   Children's Hospital:  Folkman Auditorium, Enders Building.   Details.   7

6p.   "Access and Innovation in the BPL."   Tom Blake, Digital Projects Manager; Scot Colford, Web Services Manager; and David Leonard, Director, Administration & Technology.   BPL, West End Branch, 151 Cambridge St.   Details.   7

6 - 7:30p.   "Borderline Personality Disorder: Patient Panel."   McLean Hospital:  Francis de Marneffe Building 132.   Details.   7

7p.   "Reading the Ocean by the Light of its Inhabitants."   Edith Widder.   New England Aquarium, Harborside Learning lab.   Details & Registration.   7

7:30p.   "Mercury, Venus, and the Dance of the Planets."   Owen Gingerich.   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.   7

Friday, May 18

9a.   "From Cognitive Neuroscience Research to Practice and Policy: Bridging the Bridges Too Far using Neuroimaging Research."   Fumiko Hoeft.   Children's Hospital:  1 Autumn Street, Basement 3.   Details.   8

2p.   "Languages for Social Computation."   Sep Kamvar.   MIT:  Stata Center, Patil/Kiva (32-G449).   Details.   8

2 - 5p.   "The 11th Annual Pappalardo Fellowships in Physics Symposium."   Five physics postdocs discuss their research.   MIT:  4-349.   Details.   8

3p.   "Plant Conservation."   Abby Hird.   Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Bldg.   Details & Registration.   8

Saturday, May 19

11 - 3p.   "Blue Discoveries Family Day -- Whales."   New England Aquarium.   Details.   9

12 - 4p.   "Scratch Day."   MIT:  Media Lab, 75 Amherst St.   Details & Registration.   9

Monday, May 21

5:30p.   "Transforming the Industrial State: Sustainable Development Through Technology and Policy Initiatives."   Nicholas A. Ashford.   Lincoln Laboratory Cafeteria, 244 Wood Street, Lexington.   Details.   1

6p.   "Colony Collapse Disorder."   Chensheng Lu.   Follow the Honey, 1132 Mass Ave.   Details.   1

Tuesday, May 22

12:30p.   "A Public Right to Hear and Press Freedom in an Age of Networked Journalism."   A Berkman Luncheon.   Mike Ananny.   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.  2

4p.   "Functional Brain Networks in Schizophrenia."   Neil Woodward.   Woodward Research labs.   McLean Hospital:  Francis de Marneffe Building 132.   Details.   2

4 - 5:30p.   "The Spread of Behavior in Social Networks."   Damon Centola.   BU:  School of Management, 595 Commonwealth Avenue (#302).   Details.   2

6 - 7:30p.   "Visualizing Science: Through the Lens."   A discussion.   MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Ave.   Details.   2

7p.   "Sleep."   An interactive forum.   Museum of Science, Cahners Theater.   Details & Register.   2

Wednesday, May 23

7 - 9p.   "Water in a Changing World."   John Briscoe.   Metropolitain Waterworks Museum.   Details.   3

Thursday, May 24

Noon.   "The Human Microbiome in Health and Disease."   Eric J. Alm.   Al, lab.   The Forsyth Institute, Seminar Room A, 245 First Street, 17th Floor, Cambridge.   Details.   4

7p.   "The Advent of Personalized Medicine."   John Quackenbush.   BU:  College of Arts & Sciences, 725 Commonwealth Ave, Room 502.   Details.   4

7p.   "The Secret Lives of Leatherbacks: Satellite Tracking the World’s Largest Sea Turtles."   Kara Dodge, Large Pelagics Research Center.   New England Aquarium, Harborside Learning Lab.   Details & Registration.   4

Saturday, May 26

2p.   "Watch Out for Vulture Vomit and Other Adventures in Bird Watching."   Bill Thompson III.   An author's event.   Harvard Museum of Natural History.   Details.   6

Sunday, May 27

5p.   "The Best Monitor Speaker Shootout."   BU:  Life Science & Engineering Bldg, 24 Cummington St, 103.   Details.   7

Tuesday, May 29

12:30p.   "Developing Tomorrow's Vaccines: AIDS and Universal Influenza Prevention."   Gary J. Nabel.   Vaccine Research Center.   HMS:  Warren Alpert Bldg., 563, 200 Longwood Ave.   Details.   9

May 30 - June 1.   "Cognitive and Neural Systems."   A conference.   BU, 677 Beacon St.   Details.   0 - 1

Wednesday, May 30

2p.   "Brain Abnormalities in PTSD: Evidence from Functional Neuroimaging Studies."   Kisa Shin.   McLean Hospital:  de Marneffe Building 218.   Details.   0

6p.   "Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems."   John Palfrey and Urs Gasser.   The Interoperability Project.   Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein West AB (2nd Floor).   Details & RSVP.   0

7p.   "The Day the World Discovered the Sun. "   Mark Anderson.   A book event.   Harvard Coop, 3rd level.   Details.   0

7 - 9p.   "Climate Change: What We Know and Where We Go From Here."   A Science in the News seminar.   Harvard:  Mallinckrodt Building, Pfizer Auditorium, 2 Oxford St.   Details.   0

Thursday, May 31

8:30 - 10:30a.   "MassTLC Robotics Cluster Meetup."   iRobot, 8 Crosby Drive.   Details & Registration.   1

Noon.   "Can We Detect Alzheimer's Disease a Decade Before Dementia?"   Reisa Sperling.   McLean:  Pierce Hall.   Details.   1

9:30 - 12:30p.   "Simulating Physics."   A workshop on a proprietary product.   Srikanth Vaidianathan, COMSOL, Inc.   Residence Inn Cambridge, The Doc Edgerton Room, 6 Cambridge Center, Cambridge.   Details & Registration.   1

6p.   "The Grand Diversity of Fishes: Form, Function, and Evolution."   George V. Lauder.   Harvard Museum of Natural History, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St.  Details.   1

June 3 - 8.   "Society for Information Display."   A symposium and exhibition.   Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.   Details.   3 - 8

Tuesday, June 5

5p.   "What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses."   Daniel Chamovitz.   Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave.   Details.   5

6p.   "The Last Venus Transit of the 21st Century."   A rooftop viewing.   Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St.   Details.   5

Wednesday, June 6

11 - 4p.   "World Oceans Day."   New England Aquarium, Central Wharf.   Details.   6

Friday, June 8

8:15 - 6:30p.   "Noise & Rhythm: Harnessing Complexity in Medicine and Robotics."   HMS:  Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, Amphitheater, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur.   Details & Registration.   8

June 9 - 10.   "High Impact Weather."   Museum of Science, Gordon Current Science & Technology Center.   Details.   9 - 0

Saturday, June 9

10a.   "Nature Walk in Concord."   Charles Davis.   location TBA.   Details & Registration.   9

Tuesday, June 12

6:30p.   "Autonomous Underwater Robotics for Commercial, Scientific and Defense Applications."   David P. Kelly, President, CEO, Bluefin Robotics.   Bluefin Robotics, 553 South St, Quincy.   Details.   2

7p.   "Beyond the Gene: Epigenetics Revealed."   Mary Gehring.   BU:  College of Arts and Sciences, 725 Commonwealth Ave, Room 502.   Details.   2

Thursday, June 14

6 - 9p.   "Can Games Save Education?"   A panel discussion.  Microsoft (New England Research and Development Center), One Memorial Drive.   Details & Registration.   4

Saturday, June 16

11a.   "Discovering Nature in your Own Backyard."   Loree Griffin Burns.   Harvard Museum of Natural History.   Details.   6

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