Thurs April 26

Electric harpist Deborah Henson-Conant may have a Grammy nomination under her belt and a reputation as one of Boston's most dynamic genre-blending musicians, but she is not one to rest. On laurels or anything else. Henson-Conant is part of this month's Cambridge Science Fair with a free show called "Inviting Invention" at Novartis Auditorium at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research. She'll be collaboraitng with lecturer, demonstrator and peforming scientist Daniel Rosenberg, Melissa Franklin, Harvard's first tenured female professor of physics and Dr. Ted Selker, Director of MIT Media Lab's Context Aware Computer Group. It's all about creative invention and the alchemy of collaboration. To wit, Henson-Conant poses a question like "How is being a nuclear physicist like being a musician and how can the two possibly create something together? Right now, in front of an audience." We'd say that's flying high without a net, but we have a feeling Henson-Conant and company will pull it off.  Selker joins her Thursday April 26 at 2:30, the final performance, for a session about engaging audiences with ideaas and objects called "Smart Designs and Renegade Instruments: From Thinking Beds to Wearable Harps." (Henson-Conant uses a strap-on. No dirty jokes, please.) At any rate, this should be one mind-boggling, engaging series and further proof that the world of music is not independent of the world at large. And that science can be fun!

220 Massacusetts Ave., Cambridge, 781-483-3556 hipharp.com