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Lectures Archive | Science on Screen Series

The Museum has hosted dozens of special lectures each year with speakers ranging from C3-PO to nanotechnologists to astronauts. Here is our online archive of these talks, many of which are still available via audio or video stream.


Best In Show (Lecture)

March 15, 2010
Master mockumentarian Christopher Guest (This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind) wrote and directed Best in Show, an inspired send-up of competitive canine culture. Winner of American, Canadian, and British Comedy Awards and a critical favorite, this gem follows a colorful group of contestants ... (details).
With: Dr. Nicholas Dodman, BVMS, MRCVS, professor, section head, and program director, Animal Behavior Department of Clinical Sciences, Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Fight Club (Lecture)

February 08, 2010
Director David Fincher's big-screen adaptation of the novel by Chuck Palahniuk was one of the most talked about films of the 1990s for its controversial takes on violence, manhood, and consumer culture. Brad Pitt and Edward Norton star as two frustrated 30-somethings who form an underground club where ... (details).
With: Richard Wrangham, Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology, Harvard University, and co-author, Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


The Wild Child (Lecture)

January 18, 2010
Forty years after its initial release, The Wild Child (L'enfant sauvage) endures as one of iconic French director Francois Truffaut's finest works. This deeply moving film, beautifully shot in black and white, is based on the true story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron, a feral youth found wandering naked ... (details).
With: Judy Shepard-Kegl, professor of linguistics and director of the Signed Language Research Laboratory, University of Southern Maine.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


American Beauty (Lecture)

December 07, 2009
Winner of five Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography), American Beauty weaves social satire and domestic tragedy into a single sublime package, moving seamlessly from dark, biting comedy to deeply moving drama. Starring Kevin Spacey ... (details).
With: Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology, Harvard University.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Babette's Feast (Lecture)

November 16, 2009
As part of its holiday menu, the Coolidge Corner Theatre serves art with a side of science with a special screening of the delectable Danish film Babette's Feast, paired with a talk on the science of taste. Set in a remote Danish fishing village in the late 19th century, this Academy Award-winning ... (details).
With: Guy Crosby, PhD, professor of food science and nutrition and science expert for Cook's Illustrated magazine and "America's Test Kitchen".
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Lecture)

October 19, 2009
Screen legend Spencer Tracy stars as the dual title role in this 1941 adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic horror tale. Dr. Henry Jekyll is a prominent, socially upstanding physician whose unorthodox theories alarm his older, more conservative colleagues. Jekyll believes that each man has two ... (details).
With: Anne Harrington, chair and professor, Department of the History of Science, Harvard University; John Durant, director, MIT Museum, adjunct professor, Science, Technology and Society Program, MIT, and executive director, Cambridge Science Festival.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Coma (Lecture)

September 21, 2009
The Coolidge Corner Theatre kicks off a new season of Science on Screen with a screening of the classic medical thriller Coma (1978), paired with a talk by special guest Robin Cook, MD, who wrote the best-selling novel on which the film is based. Something is not quite right at Boston Memorial Hospital ... (details).
With: Robin Cook, physician and author.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


An Evening with Ray Kurzweil (Lecture)

May 11, 2009
The Coolidge Corner Theatre concludes the 2008-2009 season of its popular Science on Screen series with a special program, An Evening with Ray Kurzweil. The celebrated futurist, inventor and entrepreneur gives a multi-media presentation based on his best-selling book, The Singularity is Near, and shows ... (details).
With: Ray Kurzweil, author, The Singularity is Near.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Night of the Living Dead (Lecture)

April 13, 2009
Science on Screen at the Coolidge Corner Theatre takes a dark twist with a presentation of Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero's 1968 genre-defying zombie horror film. When the reanimated corpses of the recently deceased begin to rise from the earth and seek human flesh as sustenance, a small ... (details).
With: Steven C. Schlozman, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and lecturer in education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education..
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (Lecture)

March 02, 2009
Science on Screen at the Coolidge Corner Theatre pairs Stanley Kramer's groundbreaking 1967 film about interracial marriage with a presentation on the science of prejudice by social psychologist Mahzarin Banaji, a pioneer in the study of unconscious bias. Made at a time when mixed-race marriage was ... (details).
With: Mahzarin Banaji, Richard Clarke Professor of Social Ethics, Department of Psychology, Harvard University.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Groundhog Day (Lecture)

February 02, 2009
Science on Screen at the Coolidge Corner Theatre celebrates the underappreciated holiday of Groundhog Day with a special presentation of -- appropriately enough -- Groundhog Day and a pre-screening talk by science historian and physicist Peter Galison. Director Harold Ramis's offbeat modern comedy ... (details).
With: Peter Galison, Joseph Pellegrino University Professor of physics and the history of science, Harvard University.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (Lecture)

January 19, 2009
Science on Screen at the Coolidge Corner Theatre delves into the world of electronic music with a screening of Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey, the 1994 documentary about the unusual electronic instrument and the strange life of Leon Theremin, its inventor and namesake. In 1918, using newly discovered ... (details).
With: Tod Machover, composer, inventor, and MIT professor of music and media; Dalit Hadass Warshaw, orchestral thereminist.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Contact (Lecture)

December 01, 2008
Science on Screen at the Coolidge Corner Theatre focuses on the possibility of life beyond Earth with a screening of Contact, the 1997 big-screen adaptation of Carl Sagan's novel of the same name. In Robert Zemeckis's adaptation of the novel, Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway (Jodie Foster) is a free thinker ... (details).
With: Paul Horowitz, astrophysicist and Harvard University professor.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Marnie (Lecture)

October 13, 2008
The Coolidge Corner Theatre continues its fall season of Science on Screen with a presentation of Alfred Hitchcock's classic psychological thriller, Marnie. Marnie Edgar (Tippi Hedren) is a habitual thief who uses her ample charm and good looks to gain the trust of her employers, only to rob them ... (details).
With: psychiatrist Phillip Freeman, MD.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Raiders of the Lost Ark (Lecture)

September 01, 2008
The Coolidge Corner Theatre introduces a new season of its popular Science on Screen series with a special showing of Steven Spielberg's adventure classic, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Harrison Ford stars as Dr. Jones, a world-renowned professor of archaeology hired by the U.S. government to track down ... (details).
With: Curtis Runnels, professor of archeology, Boston University.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Superman (Lecture)

May 12, 2008
The Coolidge Corner Theatre wraps up this season's Science on Screen series with Superman, the original superhero blockbuster starring Christopher Reeve. Clark Kent is a reporter for the Daily Planet -- at least part of the time. Born Kal-El of the planet Krypton, Kent has a secret identity: he's ... (details).
With: Max Tegmark, associate professor of physics at MIT.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Vertigo (Lecture)

April 21, 2008
Science on Screen at the Coolidge Corner Theatre continues in April with a special presentation of the Alfred Hitchcock classic, Vertigo. During a rooftop chase, police detective John "Scottie" Ferguson (James Stewart) is grossly overcome by his acrophobia (a deep fear of falling), which ultimately brings about the death of a fellow officer ... (details).
With: Catherine Kimble, MD.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Darwin's Nightmare (Lecture)

March 17, 2008
Darwin's Nightmare is Hubert Sauper's harrowing documentary about the devastating effects that a "globalized" economy has on the residents of a Tanzanian fishing village. Some time in the 1960s, the Nile perch was introduced into Africa's Lake Victoria as a scientific experiment. This voracious predator ... (details).
With: Les Kaufman, professor of biology, Boston University marine program.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Body Heat (Lecture)

February 11, 2008
As part of its ongoing Science on Screen series, the Coolidge Corner Theatre presents a special Valentine's Day-themed program with a screening of Lawrence Kasden's steamy, contemporary film noir, Body Heat. In one of his most memorable roles, William Hurt plays a Florida lawyer unwittingly drawn ... (details).
With: Michael Baum, PhD, professor of biology at Boston University.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Sleeper (Lecture)

January 21, 2008
The Coolidge Corner Theatre kicks off a new season of Science on Screen with Woody Allen's comedy classic Sleeper. When cryogenically preserved Miles Monroe (Woody Allen) is awakened 200 years after a hospital mishap, he discovers the world is ruled by an evil dictator: a disembodied nose. Miles ... (details).
With: Brock Reeve, executive director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


The Man Who Fell to Earth (Lecture)

November 26, 2007
The Man Who Fell to Earth is a daring exploration of science fiction as an art form. Walter Tevis's novel about an alien on an elaborate rescue mission provides the launching pad for director Nicolas Roeg's visual tour de force, an adventurous examination of alienation and cultural dislocation in contemporary life ... (details).
With: Cultural Anthropologist Robert Weller.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Pulse (Kairo) (Lecture)

October 29, 2007
Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse (Kairo) tells the story of a group of young friends rocked by the sudden suicide of one of their own, and his subsequent, ghostly reappearance in grainy computer and video images. The mysterious floppy disk they find in the dead man's apartment could provide a clue, but instead ... (details).
With: Alan Lightman, author and adjunct professor of humanities at MIT.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Everything's Cool (Lecture)

September 24, 2007
A hot documentary about global warming, Everything's Cool follows the struggle of a group of extremely dedicated, sometimes depressed, but always passionate global-warming messengers. Their journey provides a snapshot of the fight to end global-warming denial in the United States and create the political ... (details).
With: Adam Wolfensohn, co-producer of Everything's Cool; Ross Gelbspan, veteran journalist and bestselling author of The Heat Is On and Boiling Point; Beth Daley, environmental reporter for The Boston Globe; Kathleen Frith, assistant director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Lecture)

June 18, 2007
Admiral Kirk meets his nemesis Khan in the action-packed modern sci-fi classic, Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan. The genetically superior Kahn seeks revenge upon Kirk for having been imprisoned on a desolated planet. Their battle ensues over control of the Genesis device, a top-secret Starfleet project ... (details).
With: Dr. Jeffrey A. Hoffman, MIT professor and former NASA astronaut.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


So Much, So Fast (Lecture)

January 22, 2007
The critically acclaimed new documentary So Much, So Fast is a gripping, refreshingly candid chronicle of one family's remarkable battle with the paralyzing neural disorder ALS (Lou Gehirg's disease). Diagnosed with the disease at just 29 years old, Stephen Heywood resolves to carry on with his life's plans in spite of an uncertain future ... (details).
With: Jamie Heywood, founder, ALS TDF.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.


The Andromeda Strain (Lecture)

September 04, 2006
Decades before Spielberg's splashy dinosaur flick made Michael Crichton's name synonymous with summer blockbusters, there was The Andromeda Strain (1971), a taut, cerebral thriller adapted from Crichton's novel of the same name. When an army satellite falls to earth near a small New Mexico town, ... (details).
With: Dr. Alfred DeMaria, chief medical officer and the state epidemiologist, Massachusetts Department of Public Health; director, Center for Laboratories and Disease Control; director, Bureau of Communicable Disease Control; acting director, Massachusetts State Laboratory Institute and the Bureau of Laboratory Sciences.
This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.
 

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