FREDERICK LAW OLMSTEAD: THE ACCIDENTAL RENAISSANCE MAN

New York, NY (November 5, 2012) - Justin Martin, the author of Genius Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmstead, will detail the life of this remarkable man who is best remembered as the visionary designer of Central Park. As a journalist, Olmstead worked for the New York Times at its earliest incarnation, and traveled through the South to chronicle slavery and plantation life. His close observation of the institution of slavery turned him into a fiery abolitionist aiding the free-soilers during the Bloody Kansas struggles.

Olmstead played a key role in the preservation of Niagara Falls, Yosemite and other wild places, as well as leading a medical unit that served as the forerunner of the Red Cross. He settled into landscape architecture in his mid-40's, and his masterful designs include Prospect Park, The U.S. Capitol Grounds, Stanford University's Campus, and the Biltmore Estate.

November 5th, Monday
Check-In and Open Bar at 6pm, 7pm Start
Reservation Notes: Free for Explorers Club members; $20 for members of the public; $5 for students with a valid academic ID. Reservations are suggested on a first-come first-served basis. Please call 212.628.8383, or send your email to reservations@explorers.org.

The Explorers Club

46 East 70th Street (b/w Park and Madison Ave.)

New York, NY 10021

212.628.8383 

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EXPLORERS CLUB LECTURE SERIES: "To the Last Breath"

Please note that this event is now SOLD OUT.

New York, NY (May 7, 2012) -  This presentation from Francis Slakey will be about going to extremes, as well as his rigorous twelve year quest to complete what he called “the first global surf-n-turf.” Slakey will take us from the peaks of Mount Everest, Denali, and Puncak Jaya to the beaches of Bali, Morocco and Norway. As Slakey systematically conquers each milestone, unexpected encounters with danger and death forever changed his perspective – and his life.

 May 7th, Monday
Check-In and Open Bar at 6pm, 7pm Start
Reservation Notes: Free for Explorers Club members; $20 for members of the public; $5 for students with a valid academic ID. Reservations are suggested on a first-come first-served basis. Please call 212.628.8383, or send your email to reservations@explorers.org.

The Explorers Club

46 East 70th Street (b/w Park and Madison Ave.)

New York, NY 10021

212.628.8383

what can i do? ^__^

EXPLORERS CLUB LECTURE SERIES: Unveiled Secrets of China's Taklamakan Desert

New York, NY (April 23, 2012) - Author Christoph Baumer's lecture involves the archaeological results from his winter 2009 expedition to the heart of China's Taklamakan Desert, where he discovered an Iron Age graveyard that indicate links to nomadic steppe cultures much further north, along with a Bronze Age necropolis that revealed a surprising fertility cult and a 4,000-year-old unknown archaeological horizon. The naturally mummified corpses he found bore clear Indo-European traits, and the sites witness the existence of "Silk and Jade Road" trade routes 2,000 to 4,000 years old. 

April 23rd, Monday
Check-In and Open Bar at 6pm, 7pm Start
Reservation Notes: Free for Explorers Club members; $20 for members of the public; $5 for students with a valid academic ID. Reservations are suggested on a first-come first-served basis. Please call 212.628.8383, or send your email to reservations@explorers.org.

what can i do? ^__^

EXPLORERS CLUB LECTURE SERIES: Plastic Ocean with Captain Charles Moore

New York, NY (April 9, 2012) - Follow the inspirational story of an un-credentialed but committed "citizen-scientist," Capt. Charles Moore, who will unveil the grim unintended consequences of man’s unthinking love affair with plastics, describing the damaging "plastic footprint" left in its wake. On his routine homeward cruise from Hawaii to California in 1997, Capt. Moore kept spotting plastic scraps and fragments on the ocean surface, which astonishingly proved to outweigh the natural food base plankton by a ratio of 6:1. He learned that insidiously durable and potentially toxic plastics have crept into every corner of our lives, and tumbled by the millions of tons into the natural world where they do great harm to wildlife.

April 9th, Monday
Check-In and Open Bar at 6pm, 7pm Start
Reservation Notes: Free for Explorers Club members; $20 for members of the public; $5 for students with ID. Reservations are suggested on a first-come first-served basis. Please call 212.628.8383, or send your email to reservations@explorers.org. 

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SATURDAY SCIENCE WITH RICH WILKENS: Oh, the Gall of it! Insect Gall Diversity and Ecology

New York, NY (March 24, 2012) - There are few interactions in nature more exquisite than that between gall makers and their plants. Gall-making insects have the remarkable ability to utterly modify the genetic expression of plants. Indeed, they are able to usurp the genetic machinery of the plant and force it to construct a fully functional plant organ whose sole function is to provide protection and nourishment for the wasp. In the Long Island Pine Barrens there is a diverse assemblage of gall-makers that target mostly oaks and hickories. The gall-makers come from two groups of insects: Cynipid wasps and Cecidomyiid midge flies. That a great number of gall types exist in Long Island is well-known. We know virtually nothing else about the biology of gall-makers. In this talk, Richard Wilkens will share his work on scrub oak (Quercus Ilicifolia) in which he will sample five populations over five years for any and all gall-makers he could find. One remarkable and fortuitous discovery of this study was the utter and complete collapse of the entire gall assemblage in three of the sites after an early-season gypsy moth defoliation event in 2006. This research also shows how spatial heterogeneity strongly influence the community makeup of the gall-maker assemblage. Finally, Wilkens will present his work on the natural history and ecology of one type of Cynipid, the scrub oak gall-maker (Amphibilops Ilicifoliae). One key finding is that the rate of mortality due to attack by natural enemies is greater than 50% and, by some measures, above 70%. He will posit some possible ecological explanations for such a high mortality rate.

March 24th, Saturday at 9am
Reservation Notes: $10 for Explorers Club members and the public; free for students with ID. Reservations are suggested on a first-come first-served basis. Please call 212.628.8383, or send your email to reservations@explorers.org.

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EXPLORERS CLUB LECTURE SERIES WITH DAVID GEORGE HASKELL - The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature

New York, NY (March 26, 2012) -  David George Haskell will describe the outcome of an unconventional experiment in scientific and aesthetic exploration: he watched one square meter of old growth forest for a year, using his skills as an ecologist and evolutionary biologist to understand the workings of the forest. This lecture illustrates the insights that he gained from this experiment. He discusses the nature of communication in the forest, explaining how quiet observation opened the acoustic and chemical "social network" among the living organisms in the forest. The emphasis of this talk is scientific, but Haskell also reflects on humanity's relationship to forests, suggesting that contemplative practices in nature offer one way to integrate science and ethics.

March 26th, Monday
Check-In at 6pm, 7pm Start
Reservation Notes: Free for Explorers Club members; $20 for members of the public; $5 for students with ID. Reservations are suggested on a first-come first-served basis. Please call 212.628.8383, or send your email to reservations@explorers.org. 

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Closing in on Climate: Change What We Know and What We Don't Know

New York, NY (December 19, 2011) - Global warming has been so controversial and opinions about it, both for and against, have been so strongly stated by many experts, politicians and pundits that it is hard to determine what to believe. This presentation from Daniel Botkin will explain the importance of this matter, both from a national and global standpoint, as well as the potential effects of climate change on things that Explorers Club members like to do.

December 19th, Monday

Check -In at 6pm, 7pm Start

Reservation Notes: Free for Explorers Club Members; $20 for members of the public; $5 for students with ID. Reservations are suggested on a first-come first-served basis. Please call 212.628.8383 send your email to reservations@explorers.org.

what can i do? ^__^