Lisa Haushofer, Harvard University
Chemical Heritage Foundation - First Fridays (Philadelphia, PA)
Friday, June 3, 2016 6:45 pm EDT
Time: 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m
Presentation will take place at 5:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. The Museum at CHF will be open for self-guided tours throughout the evening.
Location: Chemical Heritage Foundation, 315 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Event Type: Open to the Public
Fee: Free
RSVP Online: No Registration Required
“Soylent Green is people!” Who can forget Charlton Heston’s dramatic revelation in the iconic film? In this imagined future world battered by pollution, overpopulation, and poverty, science has ostensibly come up with the perfect food ration to help us survive. Although this solution may seem straight out of fiction, we’ve been mining the body for medicinal or survival purposes for over a century. Before vitamins and dietary supplements entered the mainstream, we were experimenting with adding enzymes to our food. Scientists and consumers alike believed this process could solve everything from health woes to poverty during the Industrial Revolution. Join us for a fascinating evening as we dive into the strange world of edible health and the food thrift movement.
Lisa Haushofer is a Haas Fellow at the Chemical Heritage Foundation and a fifth-year PhD student in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University. Her dissertation examines the emergence of a new category of medicinal consumables located at the unstable conceptual and regulatory boundary of medicine and food in late-19th- and early-20th-century Britain and the United States. She holds an MA in history of medicine from the Wellcome Trust Center for the History of Medicine at University College London and an MD from the University of Witten-Herdecke, Germany.
About First Fridays
Spark your curiosity while exploring the exhibits after hours! First Fridays bring together a lively lineup of guest speakers and hands-on activities covering everyday science, historical oddities, and everything in between. Grab your friends, and kick off an evening of discovery, surprise, and a little nerdy fun.
First Fridays at CHF are always free and open to the public; no registration required. For more information about our First Friday programs, contact Alexis Jeffcoat at 215.873.8293 or ajeffcoat@chemheritage.org.