Science on Screen®: From Miracle Berries to “Chocolat”- A Neuroscientist’s Guide to the Wonders of Taste

The Gem has received a 2025 Science on Screen Grant and, over the next few months we’d like to partner with BAAM to bring you five S.T.E.A.M. events centered around the senses: Taste, Smell, Sound, Sight, and Touch. The first event will be most tasteful!

Please join us for a SWEET event on Saturday, February 15th, at 5:30pm. We welcome Dr. Hadley Horch to The Gem for a talk called “From Miracle Berries to Chocolat: A Neuroscientist’s Guide to the Wonders of Taste.” Following the talk, we will screen the film Chocolat.

Hadley Horch is the Norma L. and Roland G. Ware, Jr., Professor of Biology and Neuroscience and Chair of the Department of Biology at Bowdoin College. Her teaching mainly focuses on molecular neuroscience courses, and she conducts NSF-funded research on how cricket nervous systems are able to recover from injury. She enjoys gardening and modern quilting, and is grateful for her family, including her husband, Fred, and her three adult children.

In her talk, she will delve into the fascinating science behind the sensation of taste. After a short “miracle berry tasting party” we will learn more about our taste buds, why the miracle berry alters our sense of taste, and what this small experiment can tell us about our perception of complex flavors.

Chocolat Film Synopsis: When mysterious Vianne and her child arrive in a tranquil French town in the winter of 1959, no one could have imagined the impact that she and her spirited daughter would have on the community stubbornly rooted in tradition. Within days, she opens an unusual chocolate shop, across the square from the church. Her ability to perceive her customers’ desires and satisfy them with just the right confection, coaxes the villagers to abandon themselves to temptation — just as Lent begins.

5:00 to 6:00: Social Hour in Gem Lobby

5:30 Miracle Berry Tasting Party – come partake in this fun, hands-on science experiment having to do with taste

6:00 to 6:30 Talk given by Dr. Hadley Horch

6:30 to 8:30 Film Chocolat

A huge thank you to:

An initiative of the COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE, with major support from the ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION.

Tickets for this event are Pay What You Can. All proceeds go to helping cover the cost of the Science on Screen event and to support BAAM programming. We encourage MSAD44 students to choose the $0 ticket.