Mount Greylock art teachers Karin Stack and Jane-Ellen DeSomma, left, are presented with the Phoebe Pepper Award by Mass MoCA Director of Programs Lisa Dent. NORTH ADAMS, Mass..
April 30th, 2021, 6:00AM / BY Anna Torres
Filmmaker and Director Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu will talk about the role of storytelling in her film “Kapaemahu” in a panel discussion presented by the Mother Tongue Film Festival on May 14. (Still from “Kapaemahu,” courtesy of Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu)
An evening with Food Journalist Mark Bittman, the Mother Tongue Film Festival and a virtual science café; stream these free programs and more this May through the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
Sixth Annual Mother Tongue Film Festival
Ongoing Filmmaker and Director Christopher Auchter will talk about the role of storytelling in his film “The Mountain of Sgaana” in a panel discussion on May 14. (Still from “The Mountain of Sgaana,” courtesy of Christopher Auchter)
Machaeropterus deliciosus) and its relatives. Murray Cooper/Minden Pictures
The genes behind the sexiest birds on the planet
Mar. 3, 2021 , 1:00 PM
For a glimpse of the power of sexual selection, the dance of the golden-collared manakin is hard to beat. Each June in the rainforests of Panama, the sparrow-size male birds gather to fluff their brilliant yellow throats, lift their wings, and clap them together in rapid fire, up to 60 times a second. When a female favors a male with her attention, he follows up with acrobatic leaps, more wing snaps, and perhaps a split-second, twisting backflip. “If manakins were human, they would be among the greatest artists, athletes, and socialites in our society,” says Ignacio Moore, an integrative organismal biologist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.