Free and open to all.Take a brain break! Stop by for midday puzzling and a mini pie from Petsi Pies, available while supplies last. We’ll have an assortment of puzzles to enjoy - bring friends and colleagues!

Mr. Jeffrey Rathke from Johns Hopkins University will speak at the MIT Security Studies Program's Wednesday Seminar.Summary: Jeffrey Rathke will speak about recent transformations of German security and defense policy, focusing on changes under the Merz government and the ongoing challenges facing the German armed forces.

The Hip-Hop Deep-Space Monument / Mission (HHDSM) is a planned time capsule consisting of 50-100 of the culture's musical masterworks; the recordings with which, if the world was destroyed, one could perhaps start the culture over again.Our objective, in 2029 — the 50th anniversary of "Rapper's Delight"'s release — is to launch this archive on an interstellar journey toward a nearby exoplanet.In this talk, Harry will discuss the reasoning behind the HHDSM. Harry will explain the early and ongoing experiences which led him to become fascinated with hip-hop, outer space, and, especially, the time capsule as a unique form of spatio-temporal communication and monument-making. Also, Harry will elaborate on the unique challenges the project faces.Finally, though hip-hop has gone from relative insignificance to planetary dominance, he will reason on the need for it to claim its most expansive territory yet: The universe.

Ten minutes for your mind@2:50 every day at 2:50 pm in multiple time zones:Europa@2:50, EET, Athens, Helsinki (UTC+2) (7:50 am EST) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88298032734Atlantica@2:50, EST, New York, Toronto (UTC-4) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85349851047Pacifica@2:50, PST, Los Angeles, Vancouver (UTC=7) (5:50 pm EST) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85743543699Almost everything works better again if you unplug it for a bit, including your mind. Stop by and unplug. Get the benefits of mindfulness without the fuss.@2:50 meets at the same time every single day for ten minutes of quiet together.No pre-requisite, no registration needed.Visit the website to view all @2:50 time zones each day.at250.org or at250.mit.edu

Please join us on Wednesday, November 19, 2025 for the Pierce Seminar at 4 PM in Room 1-131 with Prof. Yida Zhang.Abstract Title: Chemomechanics At Interfaces: New Insights Into Environment-Driven Deformation And Degradation Of Materials And GeostructuresAbstract:Wolfgang Pauli once remarked, “God made the bulk; the surface was invented by the devil,” highlighting the complex nature of the interface between a solid and its surroundings. Following Pauli’s analogy, porous materials are creations from the In-Between — they behave like bulk solids but can contain surface area as vast as a football field per gram. Yet, poromechanics theories have seldom acknowledged the dynamic evolution of internal surface area and its properties under mechanical and environmental stimuli.In this talk, I will demonstrate how a diverse range of porous material behaviors, from the hygromorphs of plants to the permeability evolution of coals during methane production, can be systematically explained by bridging surface science with poromechanics. I will also explore how the same interfacial processes can accelerate the failure of brittle materials, from subcritical cracking of glass to the environment-enhanced degradation of large dams. Finally, I will highlight how this research theme paves the way for engineering innovations in civil infrastructure and materials.Bio:Yida Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Geotechnical Engineering and Geomechanics group within the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. He obtained his PhD degree from Northwestern University in 2016, MS degree from Louisiana State University in 2012, and BS degree from Zhejiang University in 2010, all in Civil Engineering. His research focuses on the physical-chemical-mechanical processes occurring at the molecular, pore, grain, and meso scales to better understand the emergent macro-scale behavior of geomaterials. He is a 2023 recipient of the NSF CAREER award.

Presented by Tamara Chaplin Professor of Modern European History and Lynn M. Martin Professorial Scholar University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Research Associate at Université de Paris Panthéon-AssasAbstract: Historian Tamara Chaplin has spent the last fifteen years researching what it meant to “become lesbian” in twentieth century France. Her book, Becoming Lesbian: A Queer History of Modern France (University of Chicago Press, 2024) argues that this process was inextricable from access to public space and public media. Contradicting the belief that WWII and the rise of Vichy quashed a golden age of lesbian emancipation in France, Becoming Lesbian reveals instead how the subcultural spaces of sapphic desire that emerged in the cabarets of interwar Paris outlasted the war and were instrumental to the politicization of lesbian identity in the decades after May ’68. The individuals implicated in this trajectory revolutionized lesbian life (expanding social access, cultural representation, and legal rights) while making possible new forms of sexual citizenship that have challenged the divisions between public and private that shape contemporary France. In so doing, their stories also contradict dominant understandings of the French past. At a moment when queer lives around the globe are increasingly under attack, join us for a conversation about what we can learn from lesbian history in these troubled times.Bio: Tamara Chaplin, Professor of Modern European History and Lynn M. Martin Professorial Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is also Research Associate at the Université de Paris Panthéon-Assas. A scholar of queer sexualities, social justice, and the media, her monograph, Becoming Lesbian: A Queer History of Modern France was published by U Chicago Press in 2024. It is forthcoming in French translation from Les Léonides (2027). A documentary film based on the book is under development with filmmaker Olivìa Pedroso. Chaplin’s work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Camargo Foundation, and the Center for Advanced Study among others. Previous publications include Turning On the Mind: French Philosophers on Television (2007), and the co-edited, The Global Sixties: Convention, Contest, and Counterculture (2017). A former professional dancer and trained actor, she is committed to activist scholarship whose impact extends beyond the academy. Chaplin and Hannah Frydman (Harvard) are currently curating a forum on writing lesbian history for French Historical Studies.