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Randall Munroe
presents
How To:
Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems
in conversation with DR. KATE DARLING
This event includes a book signing
DateSep
3
Tuesday
September 3, 2019 7:00 PM ET |
LocationSanders Theatre
45 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138 |
Tickets
SOLD OUT.
There will not be a standby line for this event. |
Harvard Book Store, the Harvard University Division of Science, and the Cabot Science Library are thrilled to welcome RANDALL MUNROE—bestselling author of What If? and Thing Explainer and creator of the beloved webcomic xkcd for a discussion of his latest book, How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems. He will be joined in conversation by DR. KATE DARLING, leading expert in Robot Ethics and researcher at the MIT Media Lab.
Tickets
Update: This event is now sold out!
Tickets go on sale Friday, July 12 at noon through the Harvard Box Office only:
- in person at the Smith Campus Center (1350 Mass Ave, Cambridge MA 02138)
- over the phone at 617.496.2222
- online at https://www.boxoffice.harvard.edu/
Ticket prices range from $32 to $42, based on seat location. Each ticket includes a copy of How To by Randall Munroe. These copies of the book may only be picked up at the venue the night of the event, and cannot be picked up in-store beforehand.
About How To
For any task you might want to do, there's a right way, a wrong way, and a way so monumentally bad that no one would ever try it. How To is a guide to the third kind of approach.
It's full of highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole. Bestselling author and cartoonist Randall Munroe explains how to predict the weather by analyzing the pixels of your Facebook photos. He teaches you how to tell if you're a baby boomer or a 90's kid by measuring the radioactivity of your teeth. He offers tips for taking a selfie with a telescope, crossing a river by boiling it, and getting to your appointments on time by destroying the Moon.
And if you want to get rid of the book once you're done with it, he walks you through your options for proper disposal, including dissolving it in the ocean, converting it to a vapor, using tectonic plates to subduct it into the Earth's mantle, or launching it into the Sun. By exploring the most complicated ways to do simple tasks, Munroe doesn't just make things difficult for himself and his readers. As he did so brilliantly in What If?, Munroe invites us to explore the most absurd reaches of the possible.
Full of clever infographics and amusing illustrations, How To is a delightfully mind-bending way to better understand the science and technology underlying the things we do every day.
Tickets go on sale Friday, July 12 at noon. Each ticket includes a copy of How To by Randall Munroe.
Tickets are available through the Harvard Box Office only: in person at the Smith Campus Center, over the phone at 617.496.2222, or online at https://www.boxoffice.harvard.edu/.
Box Office Location and Hours:
Smith Campus Center (formerly Holyoke Center)
1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge MA 02138
Hours: 12PM-6PM, Tuesday through Sunday
Closed Mondays and some holidays.
Ticket Inquiry Contact:
tickets@fas.harvard.edu
Walking from the Harvard Square T station: 5 minutes
As you exit the station, reverse your direction and walk east along Mass. Ave. in front of the Cambridge Savings Bank. Cross Dunster St. and proceed along Mass. Ave for three more blocks. Take a left on Quincy St. and walk two blocks. Memorial Hall will be the large red brick building on your left side. Sanders Theatre is the main auditorium in Memorial Hall.
Unable to attend a Harvard Book Store author event? You can still pre-order a signed book by one of our visiting authors.
While we can't guarantee fulfillment of a signed book pre-order, our authors are almost always able to sign extra books to fulfill such orders.
Ordering a signed book on harvard.com:
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The Harvard Science Book Talks series is a collaboration between the Harvard University Division of Science, the Harvard Library, and Harvard Book Store. The series features talks by the authors of recently published books on a variety of science-related topics and is open to both the Harvard community and to the general public. Typically, lectures are followed by a book signing with the author and refreshments. Learn more and watch recordings of past talks here.
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