How to Hold a Rainbow

In–Person Workshop

Location: Harvard Museum of Natural History, Classroom B (Third Floor)

Instructor: Kathy Liu, PhD candidate | Aizenberg Biomineralization & Biomimetics Lab

Price: $30 members / $35 nonmembers

When you look around nature, you can glimpse brilliant rainbows everywhere—on the surface of a bubble, on butterfly wings, after a rainy day, or through a windowpane. Remarkably, many of these colors don’t involve a single chemical dye or paint. Instead, the colors originate from the structure of the materials themselves and how they play with light. Learn about the world of “structural color” and how to make rainbows from non-rainbow materials. The class will be led by Harvard science and engineering graduate student Kathy Liu! After seeing how nature creates these rainbows, you will get the chance to create your own holographic rainbow chocolate to take home—a yummy and beautiful treat.

This class is for teens (ages 12–18).

An AI-generated image of a butterfly on an iridescent bar of chocolate.