Join Long Now Boston for an evening of science, history, and exploration at the Harvard-Smithsonian Observatory with Philippe Reekie. We’ll have a talk on the search for life on other worlds, a tour of the Observatory, including a visit to the Great Refractor telescope, and, weather permitting, a viewing of deep-time celestial objects.

Harvard Book Store and the Long Now Boston Foundation welcome Kyle Paoletta—local author whose reporting and criticism has appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s, and New York Magazine—for a discussion on his new book American Oasis : Finding the Future in the Cities of the Southwest. He will be joined in conversation by Julia Sklar—story editor for Sierra Magazine.

On Tuesday, Oct 29, 02024, Long Now Boston was proud to co-host a conversation between Greg Epstein, humanist chaplain at Harvard and MIT, and Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, at the Cambridge Public Library. 

What is the oldest living thing in New England? And what could we learn from it about seeing the past and future from the perspective of hundreds of years and about being good ancestors?

Members of Long Now Boston and their friends set out in October to answer these and other questions on an expedition to find the oldest living thing in New England. A number of authorities claim that the oldest living thing would likely be a tree of a long-lived species such as tupelo (black gum), cedar, and Eastern hemlock, examples of which can live over 600 years.