The Lunchtime Lecture Series is a virtual weekly talk series on the history of science, technology, and medicine. We invite historians and speakers from the sciences, arts, and humanities to cover intriguing topics followed by a Q&A.
Now combined with our Saturday Speaker Series, Lunchtime Lectures take a rigorous and entertaining approach to exploring topics for scholars and anyone interested in stories about the history of science. The talks help expand perceptions of the nature of science and how it’s done.
This season, we’re showcasing historians and scientists whose work analyzes the past, present, and future of environmental science.
The Lunchtime Lecture Series is a project of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry at the Science History Institute. For more information about this series, please contact lunchtimelectures@sciencehistory.org.
Recent Lunchtime Lectures
Most of the following lectures have been recorded and are available to view. Click on the titles for more information.
Eleanor Armstrong
Footprints of Outer Space on Earth
William San Martín
Governing Nitrogen Species: Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Inequalities, and the rise of Earth-System Governance
Odinn Melsted
Harnessing the Earth’s Heat and Power: Oil Spillovers and the Development of Iceland’s Geothermal Resources, 1930s–1970s
Stefanie Kroll
Amazing Adaptations of Aquatic Insects
Ashanti Shih
Collecting “Queer” Specimens: Settler Botany and Male Intimacies in Interwar Hawaii
Hannah Pell
Three Mile Island: On the Closure and Decommissioning of a Nuclear Power Plant
Megan Raby
Working Naturalist: Episodes in the Life of Marston Bates, Life Scientist for Hire
Beans Velocci
Sex and the Species: Making Human Meaning of Animal Bodies at Cold Spring Harbor Eugenics Laboratories
D. O. McCullough
From Collections to Curriculums: Object Loans for Schools at the American Museum of Natural History, 1903–1919
Emily Herring
Henri Bergson’s Creative Evolution and 20th-Century Biology
Jenna Tonn
The Evolutionary Brotherhood: Manliness and Experimental Zoology in 19th-century America
Robin Wolfe Scheffler
Brightening Biochemistry: The Role of Humor in Scientific Research