This is your last week to catch the MoMA's Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit, highlighting unique advances in modern design and scientific innovation, and examining how they complement our shifting society. Play with a giant touch-screen interface model for human relationships, see a robotic exoskeleton designed to give humans super strength, watch a hand-drawn sketch be instantly turned into a kitchen table, and experience the future of fabrics — just a few examples.

Can art be a catalyst for global environmental change? That's the question at the first UN Unlearning Intolerance Seminar. In a culture where scare tactics are used to sway sentiments about the environment, art tends to be ignored as a social and political motivator. Learn what environmental intolerance is and see how art can be used as a vehicle for environmental action at this day-long seminar. A contemporary art exhibition featuring seven international artists addressing environmental science and policy will also be on display.

Join four string theorists and cosmologists from institutions across the country as they discuss new ideas and observations relevant for understanding the universe from its very beginnings up until today — think faster-than-light (or superluminal) traveling in two dimensions. All this talk about time travel making you hungry? Fear not — lunch is provided for this day-long workshop at the New York Academy of Sciences.

Ben Neill has been tweaking what he calls the 'Mutantrumpet' since the late 1980s, working with designers and engineers to fuse his classical instrument with new sound technology and design. As he performs, a laptop synchronizes his three-belled, computer-interfaced trumpet with live digital audio and video projection. See Neill's acclaimed performance tonight at Monkey Town, a unique Brooklyn venue, and hear exactly what Mutantrumpet science can sound like.

Grab Mom and challenge her to see who can spot more birds in New York City this Saturday — or of course, you could always work as a team. Register for free and go on a hunt across the five boroughs to find as many bird species as you can. Think the only birds in New York are pigeons, or consider yourself too amateur? Get a beginner birding lesson in Central Park or at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge at 10:00 AM (register here). Science & the City has a few suggestions for where to start. In the Bronx, try the New York Botanical Garden, in Manhattan, explore Inwood Hill Park, check out Forest Park in Queens, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and on Staten Island try Lemon Creek Park. Happy birding...and mother's day!