[Sci-tech-public] FW: Two events this week

Mon Sep 22 15:40:16 EDT 2008

Below are two messages from Harvard's History of Science event announcement
listserve.  Apologies for duplicate postings.

1) Historical Colloquium at Center for Astrophysics, Sept 25

2) Language of Color - opening lecture 9/25/08, exhibit open 9/26/08-9/6/09

-------- Original Message -------- 

Subject: 

Historical Colloquium at Center for Astrophysics, Sept 25

Date: 

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:55:10 -0400 (EDT)

From: 

Owen Gingerich  <mailto:ginger at cfa.harvard.edu> <ginger at cfa.harvard.edu>

Reply-To: 

ginger at cfa.harvard.edu

To: 

all-hs at fas.harvard.edu

The CfA at 60 Garden Street includes a history of science colloquium in 
its schedule each year, and this coming Thursday afternoon (Sept 25) at 
4 p.m. in Phillips Auditorium Jim Evans will speak.  Evans is editor-elect 
of the Journal for the History of Astronomy, and known for his book THE 
HISTORY AND PRACTICE OF ANCIENT ASTRONOMY.  If you would like to join 
Evans for dinner afterward, contact Owen Gingerich at 5-7216.

Speaker: James Evans (Program in Science, Technology and Society, 
University of Puget Sound)

Title: Gravity in the Century of Light: The Gravitation Theory of 
Georges-Louis Le Sage

Abstract: Each generation of physicists, or natural philosophers, has 
sought to place universal gravitation in the context of its own worldview. 
Often this has entailed an effort to reduce gravity to something more 
fundamental. But what is deemed fundamental has, of course, changed with 
time. Each generation attacked the problem of universal gravitation with 
the tools of its day and brought to bear the concepts of its own standard 
model. The most successful eighteenth-century attempt to provide a 
mechanical explanation of gravity was that of Georges-Louis Le Sage 
(1724-1803) of Geneva. Le Sage imagined a sea of ultramundane corpuscles, 
streaming in all directions and characterized by minute mass, great 
velocity, and complete inelasticity. Mostly these corpuscles just pass 
through large bodies such as apples or planets, but a few are absorbed, 
leading to all the phenomena of attraction. Le Sage's theory is an 
especially interesting one, for several reasons. First, it serves as the 
prototype of a dynamical explanation of Newtonian gravity. Second, the 
theory came quite close to accomplishing its aim. Third, the theory had a 
long life and attracted comment by the leading physical thinkers of 
several successive generations, including Laplace, Kelvin, Maxwell and 
Feynman. Le Sage's theory therefore provides an excellent opportunity for 
the study of the evolution of attitudes toward physical explanation. The 
effects of national style in science and generational change take on a new 
clarity.

  _____  

From: events-hs-bounces at lists.fas.harvard.edu
[mailto:events-hs-bounces at lists.fas.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of hsdept
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2008 1:53 PM
To: events-hs at fas.harvard.edu
Subject: [events-hs] [Fwd: Language of Color exhibition opening Sept 26 at
Harvard Museum of Natural History, Press preview 9/25]

Language of Color opens September 26, 2008, at Harvard Museum of Natural
History

Whether it's the brilliant blue wings of a butterfly, the scarlet feathers
of a tanager, or iridescent beetles that shimmer purple and green, animals
display color in vastly different ways. Language of Color, a new exhibition
at the Harvard Museum of Natural History will explore how animal colors are
produced, the varied ways in which color is perceived, and the diverse
messages that animal colors can convey.  The exhibit will open September 26,
2008 and be on display through September 6, 2009.  

Dr. Hopi Hoekstra, the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Biology in the
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and the Curator of Mammals
at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, will offer the
Language of Color exhibition opening lecture on Thursday, September 25th at
6:00 pm. Dr. Hoekstra's lecture, Nature's Palette: the Biological
Significance of Color, will be free and open to the public. 

"This exhibition combines a spectacular array of species, and reveals the
truly dazzling spectrum of colors used by animals to communicate with each
other," said Elisabeth Werby, Executive Director of the Harvard Museum of
Natural History.  "Language of Color also showcases some of the cutting-edge
evolutionary research ongoing at Harvard today." 

With dramatic displays of real animal specimens including bird, mammal,
reptile, fish, mollusk, and insect specimens from Harvard's vast
collections, Language of Color will help visitors to understand the nature
of color, how different animals "see" it, and how animal color and its
perception have co-evolved to produce an extraordinarily complex and diverse
palette of colors. 

Colors can conceal, warn, intimidate, or attract; and animal colors are so
diverse both because these messages vary and because the animals receiving
the messages perceive colors in different ways.  Through computer
interactives, visitors will be given the opportunity to "see" colors through
the eyes of other animals, including large parts of the color spectrum that
are imperceptible to humans.   

Visitors will also have the opportunity to examine the colors in bird
feathers and butterfly wings as if through an electron microscope, to
explore the contrasting black and white stripes of a 9-foot-high hide of a
mountain zebra, and to learn through a video presentation about how zebra
stripes develop and why they have evolved. Some scientists have theorized
that the variation in width of different zebras' stripes might be explained
by differences in when, in the early development of the zebra fetus, the
gene for striping "turned on."  Another exhibition highlight is a stunning
display of live dart frogs whose colors warn predators that they are a bad
choice of food.  Another video, filmed by Woods Hole scientists, shows
dramatic instantaneous color change in flounder, octopus and cuttle fish. 

The Harvard Museum of Natural History is located at 26 Oxford Street,
Cambridge, MA, a 6 minute walk from the Harvard Square T station. The Museum
is handicapped accessible. For general information please call 617 495 3045
or visit www.hmnh.harvard.edu <http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/> .

With a mission to enhance public understanding and appreciation of the
natural world and the human place in it, the Harvard Museum of Natural
History draws on the University's collections and research to present a
historic and interdisciplinary exploration of science and nature. More than
160,000 visitors annually make it the University's most-visited attraction. 

Language of Color has been organized by the Harvard Museum of Natural
History.   

For images and more information, contact Blue Magruder,
bmagruder at oeb.harvard.edu or call 617-496-0049

Mary Blue Magruder
Director of Communications & Marketing
Harvard Museum of Natural History
26 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA  02138
617-496-0049
bmagruder at oeb.harvard.edu

Explore www.hmnh.harvard.edu

Language of Color, opens September 26, 2008

Fall lectures announced:
http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/lectures_and_special_events/index.php

Harvard Museum of Natural History elected Boston 2008 'Best Museum for Big
Kids' on Nickelodeon's ParentsConnect
http://gocitykids.parentsconnect.com/ParentsPicks/cityresults.htm?city_id=9

Looking at Leaves: Photographs by Amanda Means, thru Feb.8, 2009

Sea Creatures in Glass, Harvard's Blaschka marine models, thru Jan 4, 2009

Visit our Press Room for releases, links to images,
http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/press_room/index.php

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