Objective: Have you ever wondered, "How long do I need to keep my office records? Can I throw them away when I am done with them?" This workshop provides tools and advice to help you determine how long to keep your records and what to do when you no longer need to hold onto them. Whether you feel like you’re drowning in information or you're concerned that you're keeping records too long or not long enough, this workshop is for you.

Length: 1 ½ hours

Who should attend: All employees who want to...

Journey with your family into the world of the microscopic with Harvard researcher Scott Chimileski and museum educator Amy Gunzelmann. Learn about how we use technology to visualize the tiny world of microbes, unseen with the naked eye! Try out modern microscopes, build simple microscopes, and use a macro lens to capture images with your smartphone. All activities are designed to be fun and interactive experiences for elementary age students and their families to participate in together.

Fees: $15 members/$25 nonmembers, per person includes admission...

Learn to capture birds with colored pencils in this hands-on workshop. Explore basic avian anatomy and observational drawing techniques, then dive into some techniques for working with colored pencils to build up rich colors and plumage textures. All skill levels are welcome.

Instructor: Erica Beade

Fees: $35 members/$45 nonmembers.

Advance registration required.

On July 12, 1969, Ruth Davis, a young American volunteer at Dr. Jane Goodall’s research site in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, left camp to follow a chimpanzee into the forest. Six days later, her body was found floating at the base of a high waterfall. What happened? Drawing on his recent book, The Ghosts of Gombe, Dale Peterson will delve into the full story of day-to-day life at Gombe during the months preceding Ruth’s death. These months were marked by stress, excitement, social conflicts, cultural alignments, and the friendships that developed among three of...

Welcome the winter season with a polar-themed evening. Go behind the scenes in the Museum of Comparative Zoology to view animals that are well adapted to living in a cold climate. Explore this theme further in the HMNH galleries with educators and hands-on activities, while enjoying seasonal treats. Don’t forget to stop by The Shop at HMNH to do some holiday shopping and to take advantage of the special 25% member discount.

Reservations Open October 29

Not a member? Join today so you can...

As a devastating famine gripped India and Pakistan in 1966, a cargo of hybrid wheat seeds from Mexico arrived one fateful day on India’s coast. The seeds were first planted across the Punjab region using new agricultural methods, including intensive fertilizers and irrigation. The crop’s high yield surprised farmers and helped save many from hunger that year. Gabriela Soto Laveaga will talk about the origins of these hybrid seeds, their role in the Green Revolution, and the unexpected technological, environmental, and social impacts they had on both Mexico and India.

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Sweeping technological innovations in the field of genomics are enabling scientists to extract and analyze ancient DNA—genetic material from human remains dating back up to hundreds of thousands of years—as never before. This research is revealing new insights into our lineage as modern humans and has become as important as archaeology, linguistics, and the written word in understanding our past. David Reich, author of Who We Are and How We Got Here, will discuss the potential of ancient DNA for revealing the history of our species.

Evolution Matters...

Explore the wondrous world of fungi! Join Harvard students for a closer look at the mushrooms, yeasts, and molds found in gardens, forests, labs—even in our own refrigerators. This is an opportunity to investigate museum collections and participate in hands-on activities led by Harvard students.

Special Event

Regular museum admission rates apply.

Free parking is available at the ...

Recent volcanic eruptions in Hawaii and Guatemala remind us of how devastating these geological eruptions can be. Popular culture depictions of volcanic disasters found in movies like Dante’s Peak and Volcano can strongly distort the public’s understanding of volcanic activity and its immediate effects. As with many science-fiction films, Hollywood depictions of natural phenomena don’t always align with the scientific facts. Seismologist Miaki Ishii will illustrate this point by looking at popular films that depict both scientifically accurate and...

Coral reefs are one of Earth’s most biodiverse and imperiled ecosystems. Corals form the foundation of this ecosystem. Substantial effort is being invested to help adult corals survive environmental degradation, but less attention is paid to their offspring and how they establish themselves on the seafloor. Unlike adult corals, baby corals move about in the water column, perhaps allowing them to find better environments. Aaron Hartmann will highlight the importance of these juvenile corals for the long-term survival and conservation of coral reefs in a changing world.

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The Kindness Cure: Healing Your Heart and World through the Science of Compassion

Based on her new book, The Kindness Cure, psychologist Tara Cousineau shares some of the recent findings about the science of kindness and compassion; how we can make sustainable changes in our lives, encourage more kindness for clients and organizations we work with, and how to ignite goodwill and generosity for things we stand for in times of hardship and uncertainty. Most of all, you will learn how cultivating kindness brings us profound happiness and joy.

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Learning meditation and achieving mindfulness can seem as elusive as catching a unicorn for some new to the practice. Enter yogic meditation, a practice of directed breathing coordinated with simple body movements. This practice gives the restless mind more "doing" to latch onto, and tends to yield a focused, quieter, even peaceful state of mind, for many new students who previously found only squirrels in the attic. It can provide a useful entre to meditation, an important and satisfying "pre-mindfulness".

Douglas Baker, LICSW is a therapist in Cambridge, a Kripalu yoga...

With the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, our attention is being drawn to the damaging effects of systematic racism on the bodies and minds of people of color, particularly black people. Racial trauma is becoming embedded in the national conversation concerning the lasting effects of trauma both mentally and physical as well as on the genetic level. However, racial trauma is not limited to brown and black bodies, but any body that has undergone the process of racialization, including white bodies. In...

This lecture will address practical ways to be less judgmental of ourselves, to navigate failure, rejection, and trauma, and to shift from competitive concerns toward activating the mammalian tend-and-befriend system instead—leading to greater psychological freedom and comfort with vulnerability.

At the end of this event, participants will be able to:

1. Specify how mindfulness-based insights into the nature of the “self” and causes of suffering can enrich and enliven any psychotherapy.

2. Describe ways to move beyond evolutionarily hard-...