Lecture: How Cooking Made Us Human, Wednesday, January 27

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human

Program with Richard Wrangham

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 6:00 PM

In his latest book, Catching Fire, Richard Wrangham, Professor of Biological

Anthropology at Harvard, puts forth the bold theory that our Paleolithic Homo ancestors tamed fire and began cooking 1.8 million years ago, much earlier than conventionally believed. Wrangham will discuss how cooking started a revolution in human evolution, which drove large-scale changes in our physiology, behavior, and cognition and has defined our species to this very day. The program will include a discussion moderated by Noel Michele Holbrook, Professor of Biology and Charles Bullard Professor of Forestry at Harvard. Free and open to the public in the Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge 

• 617.495.3045
• hmnh@oeb.harvard.edu

Lecture: Six Years on Mars, Thursday, December 10

Six Years on Mars

Lecture by Andrew Knoll

Thursday, December 10, 6:00 PM

Andrew Knoll, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard and a member of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover science team, hasn’t actually been to Mars, but he has spent a lot of time examining its rocks, including four-billion-year-old salt deposits investigated by the rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Knoll will reflect on six years of NASA Mars Rover exploration; what the evidence tells us about the history of water and its implication for life on the ancient surface of the Red Planet. Intended audience is teens and older. Free and open to the public in the Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street.  
Note: The museum's galleries will be open both before and after the lecture. See Night at the Museum below.

• 26 Oxford Street
• Cambridge, MA 02138
• 617.495.3045
• hmnh@oeb.harvard.edu

Lecture/Talk: 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner, Osamu Shimomura, November 17

Please join Professor Emeritus Osamu Shimomura, PhD, School of Medicine, Recipient of 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry as he speaks to the BU Medical Campus community. A reception will follow Dr. Shimomura's formal remarks.
When	Tuesday, Nov 17, 2009 at 3:00pm until 5:00pm on Tuesday, Nov 17, 2009
Where	670 Albany Street Auditorium
Who	Open to Boston University: Students Staff Faculty BUMC Admission is free
Contact	BUMC Corporate Communications Lisa Brown brownl@bu.edu 617-638-8491

Talk: William Kamkwamba at MIT, October 21

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind:
Elegant Design Out of Junk and Spare Parts

William Kamkwamba
Read about William on CNN's World
See William on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart-October 7th!
Wednesday, October 21
7:00pm
MIT: Room 6-120 — click here for map
Introduced by Amy Smith, founder of D-Lab, MIT

William Kamkwamba, is a senior at the African Leadership Academy, a pan-African high school in Johannesburg, South Africa. A 2007 and 2009 TEDGlobal Fellow, Kamkwamba has been profiled on the front page of the Wall Street Journal and his inventions have been displayed at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. He's often invited to tell his story at such venues as the World Economic Forum in Africa, CES, Aspen Ideas Festival, Maker Faire Africa and the African Economic Forum.

William Kamkwamba will share his story of how he achieved his dream of bringing electricity, light, and the promise of a better life to his family and his village. It started with a bicycle dynamo—simply a pedal-powered wheel that generated light. This taste of electricity (a luxury enjoyed by just two percent of Malawians) filled William with a desire to create. Before long, his scientific curiosity sent him on a quest to build a windmill. Besides dealing with financial obstacles and technical difficulties, William became a self-taught physicist, overcame local superstitions, and withstood being mocked for his “crazy” ideas.

For a full biography of William, please click here.
This program is co-sponsored with the Edgerton Center.

Lecture: How Apes and Monkeys May Help Us Understand the Economic Crisis , October 08

When	Thu., Oct. 8, 2009, 6 – 7 p.m.
Where	Harvard Museum of Natural History
Type of Event	Environmental Sciences, Presentation/Lecture, Science, Social Sciences
Organization/Sponsor	Harvard Museum of Natural History
Speaker(s)	Marc Hauser, director of the Cognitive Evolution Lab at Harvard
Cost	Free and open to the public
Contact Info	617.495.3045, www.hmnh.harvard.edu
Note	Humans are the cause of the current global economic crisis. Can Darwin and our primate relatives provide some insight into the world’s problems? In this lecture, Marc Hauser, director of the Cognitive Evolution Lab at Harvard, argues that many of the problems in our own economic decision-making can be traced back millions of years when our primate ancestors were small-brained quadrupeds lacking any concept of money or the stock market. Cosponsored with Zoo New England. Free and open to the public.
Link	www.hmnh.harvard.edu