Ages before the dawn of modern medicine, wild animals were harnessing the power of nature’s pharmacy to heal themselves. In his new book, Doctors by Nature, Jaap de Roode discusses how an astonishing array of non-human animals—from ants to apes, bees to bears, and cats to caterpillars—use various forms of medicine to treat their own ailments and those of their relatives. Some also use natural toxins to deter parasites from infecting themselves and their offspring. De Roode argues these surprising behaviors, many of which have only recently been discovered, could point to ways that humans can improve agriculture, create healthier lives for our pets, sustain better habitats for wild pollinators, and develop new pharmaceutical drugs.

Jaap de Roode is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Biology at Emory University. His research includes pioneering studies on self-medication by monarch butterflies.

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Since Covid-19 swept the world, scientists have been grappling with an urgent issue: How do we prepare for the next pandemic—and at a time when science denial and misinformation are rampant. The question is not if, but when another pandemic will strike. Jon Cohen has spent his career as a science reporter talking to scientists, public health officials, politicians, and physicians on the front lines of combating infectious diseases, monitoring outbreaks, and developing new treatments, vaccines, and preventive measures. His new book, Planning Miracles: How to Prevent Future Pandemics, provides first-hand reporting on those efforts on four continents, and insights on how we might avoid disaster.

Jon Cohen is a longtime correspondent for Science magazine and a widely published magazine writer. He has collaborated on several science documentaries and series, and is the author of four previous books. His work has won awards from leading science academies and journalism organizations.

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Quantum mechanics turns 100 years old in 2025, which offers an opportunity to ask how some of the core ideas of quantum theory were introduced, debated, tested, and ultimately accepted. One of the central ingredients of quantum theory is entanglement, nowadays so important to next-generation technologies like quantum encryption and quantum computing. Yet the history of quantum entanglement has been far from straightforward. This talk will describe how a colorful group of physicists during the 1970s wrestled with entanglement, exploring the idea amid the California counterculture scene. Building on that history, the presenter’s own group recently conducted a new series of experiments, together with Nobel laureate Anton Zeilinger and his team. Their “Cosmic Bell” experiments provided compelling evidence for quantum entanglement while constraining certain alternative models more thoroughly than ever before.

David Kaiser is Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science and Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of several award-winning books on the history of modern physics, including How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival, which received the Davis Prize from the History of Science Society and was named “Book of the Year” by Physics World magazine. His latest book, Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World, was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title and honored as among the best books of the year by Physics Today and Physics World magazines. Kaiser directs a research group on early-universe cosmology in MIT’s Center for Theoretical Physics, and has also designed and helped to conduct novel experimental tests of quantum theory. A Fellow of the American Physical Society, Kaiser has received MIT’s highest awards for excellence in teaching. His work has been featured in Science, Nature, the New York Times, and The New Yorker magazine. His group’s efforts to conduct a “Cosmic Bell” test of quantum entanglement, together with Nobel laureate Anton Zeilinger, were featured in the documentary film, Einstein’s Quantum Riddle.

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There is standing joke among physicists that fusion power is the energy source of the future and always will be. Fifty years ago, the energy crises of the 1970s spurred demand for the technology, and scientists and engineers working in the field were optimistic about the scientific feasibility of generating electricity through fusion. In the 1990s, a device at Princeton University’s Plasma Physics Laboratory, and one in the United Kingdom demonstrated that fusion power could be generated for short periods of time, at least on a laboratory scale. But in the nearly 30 years since then, there has been little progress toward realizing a practical fusion power plant. Nevertheless, several dozen start-up companies in the United States and Europe are now investing more than $8 billion of private funds to try to build a working fusion power plant. Fred Dylla, who spent 15 years working on fusion research, will recount the history of this technology and discuss the prospects for these new investments.

Fred Dylla is co-organizer and co-moderator of the Lewes Public Library’s “Science and Society” lecture series. He has three degrees in physics from MIT. He spent 15 years as a research scientist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, followed by 16 years as the Chief Technology Officer at the Department of Energy’s Jefferson Lab in Newport News, VA, and finished his formal (paid) career as the Executive Director of the American Institute of Physics in College Park, MD, from 2007-2015. Fred now spends his time creating and teaching the art of woodcut prints as well as writing and lecturing about the history of science and art.

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