The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) offers a diverse program of public events, including colloquia, seminars, and workshops. Our Institute’s Colloquium is open and free to attend. Our other events often require registration or invitation—please check each individual event for details.
October 2026
- 13:30
- Talk
Nourishing Life: Cultures of Food and Health in Early Modern Japan
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265- 12:00 to 16:00
- Workshop
Mapping Saturn: The Visual Cultures of a Planet from Antiquity to the Early Modern World
- Dept. AAK
- Several Speakers
Organizer(s)AddressHarnack Haus, Ihnestraße 16-20, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomLynen Room- 15:00 to 16:00
- Reading Group
Transmission of Mechanical Knowledge between Late Antiquity and Early Islam
AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 141
November 2026
- 13:30 to 15:00
- Colloquium
Knowing Orchids: Observation, Classification, and the Making of Botanical Knowledge in Song Natural History
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265 & Online- 18:00 to 21:00
Copy-Paste Nature: Promises and Limits of Biomimicry
- Dept. AAK
- Several Speakers
Organizer(s)AddressJägerstraße 22-23, 10117 Berlin, Germany
RoomBerlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften- 15:00 to 16:00
- Reading Group
Water and a Mamluk Basin in Use
AddressMax-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
- 13:30 to 15:00
- Colloquium
Energy Literacy in Extreme Climates
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265 & Online
December 2026
- 15:00 to 16:00
- Reading Group
Time and Place in Premodern Arabic Technical Recipes
AddressMax-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
January 2027
- 13:30 to 15:00
- Colloquium
Reckoning with Time in Precolonial India
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265 & Online
February 2027
- 13:30 to 15:00
- Colloquium
Choosing What Remains: Silk, Material Knowledge, and the Making of Chinese Archaeology
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265 & Online- 13:30 to 15:00
- Colloquium
When Affliction Becomes Disease: Gu 蠱, Healing, and the Boundaries of Medicine in China
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265 & Online