Most Recent
Lecture
Remembering the Reformation
Wed., May 23, 2018
Alexandra Walsham, professor of modern history at the University of Cambridge, explores how the English Reformation was remembered, forgotten, contested, and reinvented between 1530 and 1700 and discusses the enduring legacies that these processes have left in more recent cultural memory.
Video
Carnegie Lecture: Astronomical Alchemy: The Origin of the Elements
Mon., May 21, 2018
Maria Drout, Hubble, Carnegie-Dunlap Fellow at the Carnegie Observatories, discusses how a recent discovery of a "kilonova" associated with the cataclysmic merger of two neutron stars has filled in one of the final pieces of the elemental puzzle: the origin of many of the heaviest elements in the
Lecture
Silk, Slaves and Stupas
Sun., May 20, 2018
Author Susan Whitfield (Silk, Slaves and Stupas: Material Culture of the Silk Road) is joined by renowned theater director Peter Sellars for a fascinating conversation about the diversity of peoples and cultures that traveled the ancient trade routes of Afro-Eurasia.
Video
Video - Out of the Woods: Celebrating Trees in Public Gardens
Fri., May 18, 2018
Deborah Friedman documented the California Sycamore as part of her botanical illustration studies with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
Lecture
The Search for Perfection in an Imperfect World
Thu., May 17, 2018
Best-selling author Simon Winchester (The Professor and the Madman; The Men Who United the States) explores the origins of "precision" and the invisible role it plays, for good or for ill, in the way we live our lives.
Lecture
The Frankenstein Challenge
Thu., May 10, 2018
David Baltimore, President Emeritus and Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology, discusses the challenge of globally controlling technology when potentially 200 different jurisdictions might be involved.
Lecture
Reconstructing the Mindscape of a 17th-Century Korean Literati Garden: Garden of Seyeonjeong
Tue., May 8, 2018
Art historian Katharina I-Bon Suh of the Seoul National University discusses how the Garden of Seyeonjeong's design and layout served practical purposes but also alluded to philosophical metaphors and fantastical worlds in this East Asian Garden Lecture.
Video
Dark Energy and Cosmic Sound
Mon., May 7, 2018
Daniel Eisenstein, professor of astronomy at Harvard University and director of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III, discusses the sound waves that propagated through the Universe after the Big Bang is this Carnegie Astronomy Lecture Series.
Lecture
California Plants
Sun., May 6, 2018
Author Matt Ritter, professor of botany at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, takes readers on a visual "tour" through the state's most iconic flora in a lecture based on his new book, California Plants.
Lecture
Designing with Palms
Sat., May 5, 2018
Jason Dewees discusses how the sensory appeal of palms, along with their beautiful diversity, earn them a place in well-designed gardens.
Video
Video - Radiant Beauty: E. L. Trouvelot’s Astronomical Drawings
Wed., April 25, 2018
A rare set of exquisite lithographs depicting the pastel drawings of planets, comets, eclipses, and other celestial wonders by artist/astronomer Étienne Léopold Trouvelot (1827-1895) are highlighted in the focused exhibition "Radiant Beauty: E. L. Trouvelot's Astronomical Drawings."
Lecture
Every Picture Tells a Story
Wed., April 25, 2018
Richard White uses images shot by landscape photographer Jesse White to explore California's story.