MARQUETTE, Mich.— The 2012 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Holiday Lectures will be webcast Thursday, Nov. 15, and Friday, Nov. 16, in the Mead Auditorium of the West Science Building at Northern Michigan University. The theme of these lectures is “A Changing Planet: Past, Present and Future.”

            There will be two lectures on Thursday, Nov. 15. At 9:30 a.m., Harvard University Professor Andrew Knoll will present “The Deep History of a Living Planet.” At 11:30 a.m., Naomi Oreskes, a professor from the University of California San Diego, will present, “Building Scientific Knowledge: The Story of Plate Tectonics.”

            On Friday, Nov. 16, Harvard Professor Daniel Schrag will present “Earth’s Climate: Back to the Future” at 9:30 a.m. and Oreskes will present “Climate Change: How Do We Know We’re Not Wrong?” at 11:30 a.m.

            These presentations are sponsored by the NMU Chapter of Sigma XI, the Scientific Research Society.