All upcoming programs

Discover the world’s deadliest caterpillars; a butterfly that shares its world with polar bears at one extreme and penguins at the other; and screaming moths that can jam the sonar of predatory bats. Wildlife documentary filmmaker Steve Nicholls looks at why it seems there’s no end to the tricks that evolution has come up with as it turned the Lepidoptera into one of the most successful of all insect groups.

Assateague Island National Seashore and Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge are home to natural splendor, cultural treasures, and coastal charm. Spend two days with naturalist and educator Liana Vitali immersed in island life, exploring the natural wonders the barrier islands have to offer—and hear the lore of the Chincoteague ponies’ origin.

The COVID-19 pandemic won't be our last, says biological anthropologist Sabrina Sholts of the National Museum of Natural History, because what makes us vulnerable to pandemics also makes us human. Drawing on her new book, The Human Disease: How We Create Pandemics, from Our Bodies to Our Beliefs, Sholts travels through history and around the globe to examine how and why such pandemics and many other infectious disease events are an inescapable threat of our own making.

From beneficial yeasts that aid digestion to toxic molds that cause disease, we are constantly navigating a world filled with fungi. Drawing on the latest advances in mycology, biologist Nicholas P. Money explores the amazing ways fungi interact with our bodies, showing how our health and well-being depend on an immense ecosystem of yeasts and molds inside and all around us.

Silk, prized for its lightness, luminosity, and beauty is also one of the strongest biological materials known. The technologies it has inspired—from sutures to pharmaceuticals, replacement body parts to holograms—continue to be developed in laboratories around the world. Author Aarathi Prasad outlines the cultural and scientific history of the fabric including its origins, the ancient silk routes, and its future as a powerful resource.

Humans have long thought of their bodies and minds as separate spheres of existence, with the body as physical and the mind as mental. But such thinking is a barrier to discovery and understanding, and a new framework is needed, argues neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux. He shares his latest research, which says that human beings are a composite of four fundamental realms of existence—biological, neurobiological, cognitive, and conscious. Together our realms account for all of what and who we are, LeDoux says.

In the distant past, people were both awed and alarmed by comets. We now know that comets are leftovers from the dawn of our solar system around 4.6 billion years ago. They may yield important clues about the solar system’s formation. Carey Lisse, an astronomer at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, highlights what we know about comets and what we are still hoping to find out.

Tucked away along coastal Maine, Hog Island is the home of a National Audubon Society camp that has been operation since 1936. Isolated from the outside world and filled with both pristine forest and coastal habitats, the surrounding Muscongus Bay teems with terns, bald eagles, common eiders, and seals. Naturalist Matt Felperin shares his experiences at the camp, displays striking wildlife photos, and reveals why Hog Island should be on your bucket list of nature-education programs.

The earliest known copy of work by Archimedes. Gutenberg and other early Bibles and Muslim manuscripts. Historical astronomical plates. All these historical objects have been digitized by Michael B. Toth, president of R. B. Toth Associates, and his colleagues in humanities and science. Toth discusses ongoing work on historic objects and offers examples of texts and objects that have been digitized using the latest advanced imaging systems.

Looking at the shared pasts of literature and computer science, former Microsoft engineer and professor of comparative literature Dennis Yi Tenen provides a context for recent developments in artificial intelligence. Rather than a magical genie capable of self-directed thought or action, Yi Tenen draws on labor history, technology, and philosophy to examine why he views AI as a reflection of the long-standing cooperation between authors and engineers.