SCIENCE 

 LECTURES 



HOLIDAY JOURNEYS 



Down through the ages the Plant 

 Kingdom has furnished man with 

 food, clothing, and shelter. But Nature 

 also goes beyond these basic necessities 

 to provide man with a wide variety of 

 little "extras," such as sweets and other 

 delicacies for his table. Although many 

 of these foods are available throughout 

 the year, it is during the holiday season 

 that they are most popular. 



"Nature's Sweet Tooth," Chicago 

 Natural History Museum's winter Jour- 

 ney, highlights not only some of Nature's 

 most delicious additions to our diet, such 

 as chocolate, honey, and walnuts, but 

 also some of the exotic delicacies popu- 

 lar in other lands, such as pomegranates, 

 betel nuts, and figs. 



Boys and girls interested in learning 

 more about "Nature's Sweet Tooth" 

 may pick up their tour directions and 

 the Journey questionnaire at the Mu- 

 seum doors. When filled out, Journey 

 questionnaires should be deposited in 

 barrels provided at either entrance. 

 Awards for successful completion of four 

 Journeys, or multiples of four, are given 

 at special ceremonies in the Museum 

 each spring. 



The new winter Journey on "Nature's 

 Sweet Tooth" is available from Decem- 

 ber, 1964, through February, 1965. 



Page 6 DECEMBER 



Once again holiday visitors to the 

 Museum are offered a self-guided 

 tour of exhibits showing the plants and 

 animals that lived in Bible times. In the 

 Hall of African Mammals, for example, 

 are the man-eating lions of Tsavo, which 

 fit perfectly the Psalmist's image of young 

 lions roaring after their prey until the 

 sun rises. Other Biblical animals in 

 Museum exhibits are serpents; the do- 

 mesticated water buffalo and its untam- 

 able relative, the Asiatic buffalo; the 

 camel; and the plague locusts that caused 

 famine many times in Bible lands. 



Many of the plants that can be seen 

 on the tour have now all but disappeared 

 from the countries of the Bible. Among 

 these are the date palm and the cedars 

 of Lebanon. Other exhibits show the 

 olive tree and the grape. 



Supplementing the holiday tour are 

 two Museum publications that give the 

 natural history of such Biblical plants as 

 the bulrush, the "rose of Sharon," and 

 the "lilies of the field"; and tell how 

 dugongs and corals, as well as many 

 other animals, were important to the 

 peoples of the Bible. The booklets are 

 available at the Museum Book Shop 

 for 25 cents each. Directions for the 

 self-guided tour may be obtained at the 

 Museum entrance doors free of charge 

 from December 12 through January 17. 



The most difficult, yet most important 

 scientific frontier of our time — the 

 human mind —will be explored in the 

 1 964 Holiday Science Lectures presented 

 at the Museum on December 28 and 29. 



Professor Francis O. Schmitt, eminent 

 molecular biologist at the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology — who has headed 

 an international research team investi- 

 gating the enigma of the mind — is the 

 lecturer. His audience will consist of 

 hundreds of outstanding high school stu- 

 dents from the Chicago metropolitan 

 area who have been selected by their 

 school principals to attend the lecture 

 series during Christmas vacation. 



In morning and afternoon sessions dur- 

 ing the two-day series Dr. Schmitt will 

 review the current state of research on 

 molecular organization and cell func- 

 tion, molecular information processing, 

 and molecular neurology. His final 

 subject, "The Science of the Mind: A 

 New Synthesis," sums up present-day 

 knowledge of the mind-body problem. 

 As in previous years, each lecture is ex- 

 pected to stimulate a lively and reward- 

 ing exchange of questions and answers. 



The Holiday Science Lectures, now in 

 their third year at the Museum, are 

 sponsored by the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science in co- 

 operation with scientific institutions in 

 major cities across the country. The pro- 

 gram is made possible by a grant from 

 the National Science Foundation. Its 

 purpose is to bring to high school stu- 

 dents and their teachers a first-hand re- 

 port of work being done by the na- 

 tion's foremost scientists. Inevitably, 

 such face-to-face contact not only broad- 

 ens the scientific horizons of the audi- 

 ence, but communicates to these young 

 people the excitement and inspiration of 

 the scientific endeavor. 



In previous years, the students have 

 heard Dr. Rene Jules Dubos, noted mi- 

 crobiologist and pioneer discoverer of 

 (Continued on page 8) 



