Fantastic Feathers: Form and Function

Speaker - Lorna Gibson, MIT

Talk Description - Have you ever wondered how birds work? Lorna Gibson’s new book, Birds Up Close: An Engineer Explores Their Hidden Wonders, draws on her experience as a professor of engineering at MIT and as a lifelong birder, to describe how birds work from an engineering perspective. Feathers, bones, bills, eggs, flight: all come in for scrutiny, sometimes at the microscopic scale, sometimes at a more macroscopic scale. Join Lorna as she shares highlights from the book on how the microscopic structure of feathers gives rise to their remarkable properties.

Book Sale - Queen Books will be selling Lorna's new book, Birds Up Close: An Engineer Explores Their Hidden Wonders at the club meeting. The cost of the book will be $54 (no tax). Cash or Card accepted. Members paying by cash are requested to bring the exact amount or be as close to the change as possible.

About the Speaker - Lorna Gibson is the Matoula S Salapatas Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT and a MacVicar Faculty Fellow, MIT’s top award for undergraduate teaching. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. She has always loved nature and getting outside to walk, bicycle and bird.