Part of the LOCAL HISTORY/LOCAL NOVELISTS READING SERIES at Forbes Library.

A tiny insect secretes a resin that makes things shine. A brilliant scientist, convicted at the peak of his career of making illegal drugs in his campus laboratory, attempts to poison the judge who sentenced him. A romantic comedy about global warming promises to keep people laughing and thinking. The strangest stories are true and the most serious stories are comic in this evening of fiction and nonfiction strange stories of science.

Faith Deering is a museum educator in Historic Deerfield’s Department of Museum Education. Before coming to Deerfield, she worked at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History as an entomologist

Peter Kobel is the author of The Strange Case of the Mad Professors: a True Tale of End Endangered Species, Illegal Drugs, and Attempted Murder, about the brilliant career and spectacular disgrace of primatologist John Buettner-Janusch. Peter is a longtime journalist who has worked as an editor at such magazines as ARTnews, Entertainment Weekly, Saveur and Premiere and has contributed articles to The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.

Brian Adams is author of the novel Love in the Time of Climate Change, which will be released this month. He is a Professor of Environmental Science at Greenfield Community College.