Events Calendar

Penn Reading Project for entering freshman
Fall 2008
Evolution-themed book (title to be announced)

SAS Science Chairs Annual Symposium
Advances in Understanding Evolution: from the Universe to Local Communities
Monday, October 13, 2008
8:30am - 6:30pm
Location: Chemistry Building, University of Pennsylvania
A symposium for the University of Pennsylvania community  

Speakers and general topics:

• Astronomy and Astrophysics by Edward "Rocky" Kolb, University of Chicago
• Early Earth History by William Schopf, University of California, Los Angles
• Genome evolution by Michael Lynch, Indiana University and Dorothy Cheney, University of Pennsylvania
  
• Darwin's Finches and Speciation, Peter & Rosemary Grant, Princeton University
• Evolution, Intelligent Design, and Education by Hon. John E. Jones III, Federal Judge, Middle District of Pennsylvania
• Posters by students

Registration is required. Advance inquiries: Christopher Jeffrey, cjeffrey@sas.upenn.edu

Public Lecture and Keynote Speaker
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Janet Browne, author, Charles Darwin: Voyaging and the Power of Place

History and Philosophy of Science Scholarly Conference
Thursday and Friday, November 20 and 21, 2008

Details to come

This two day colloquium begins February 12, 2009, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, the originator of the modern theory of evolution of species by means of natural selection. It concludes on February 13.  Darwin’s theory is the foundation of all modern biology. The invited speakers will provide a comprehensive Darwinian and historical framework for current theoretical and empirical research.  As such, the symposium will emphasize how the work of Charles Darwin continues to inspire biology in the 21st century and beyond.

Program:
Introductory remarks: Dr. Warren Ewens, Emeritus Professor, Department of Biology

Dr. Deborah Charlesworth, FRS, Professor, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, will discuss plant breeding systems.

Dr. Dorothy Cheney, Professor of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, will lecture on the expression of emotions and cognition in primates

Dr. Jerry Coyne, Professor of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, will speak on the process and pattern of speciation

Dr. John Doebley, Professor of Genetics, University of Wisconsin, will discuss variation under domestication

Dr. Rick Grosberg, Professor of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, will speak on evolutionary dynamics in marine systems.

Dr. Ottoline Leyser, Professor of Biology, University of York, will discuss plant signaling

Concluding remarks: Dr. Paul Sniegowski, Professor Department of Biology

Public Lecture and Keynote Symposium Speaker:
Dr. Kenneth R. Miller, author, Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution
February 12, 2009
Penn Museum, 3260 South Street

Details to come

Advance information: Brenda Casper, bcasper@sas.upenn.edu (February 12 program)

This meeting will center on the Darwinian context of human variation and disease, the evolution of pathogens, and molecular evolution.

Program:
Dr. Rick Bushman, Professor of Microbiology, SOM. Introductory remarks.

Dr. Haig Kazazian, Seymour Gray Professor of Molecular and Medical Genetics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He will talk on retrotransposons in humans.

Dr. Bette Korber, External Professor, Santa Fe Institute, Staff Scientist, Los Alamos National Laboratory. She will talk on the evolution of HIV.

Dr. Sarah Tishkoff, David and Lyn Silfen University Associate Professor (Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor) in the department of biology and the department of genetics, SOM. She will discuss human variation.

Dr. Susan Lindquist, Professor of Biology at MIT, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Her talk will center on molecular evolution.

Dr. Junhyong Kim, Professor of Biology, SAS, concluding remarks.

Advance information: Howard Goldfine, goldfinh@mail.med.upenn.edu

Penn Museum
3260 South Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 898-4000
www.museum.upenn.edu

Surviving: The Body of Evidence
April 19, 2008 through May 3, 2009

Penn Museum takes an up close and personal look at the scientific study of evolution with this challenging new exhibition that puts you—and your fellow humans—at the center of the inquiry, on a journey of self-discovery.

Surviving, an interactive, multimedia exhibition supported in large part by a grant from the National Science Foundation, begins with the premise that you—and your fellow humans-—are survivors.  Your body holds the evidence.  The process of evolution and its outcomes have had a profound impact on every aspect of your daily lives.  And the process continues.

VIP/Loren Eiseley Society preview of Surviving:The Body of Evidence
Thursday, April 17, 2008 
6-10 pm
Dinner speaker: National Science Foundation Director Dr. Arden Bement
Read more>>

Public Opening Celebration for Surviving: The Body of Evidence
Saturday, April 19, 2008
11 am-4 pm
Talks by curators and medical experts, films, family activities. Read more>>

FREE with Museum Admission Donation.

The Importance of Lucy
Donald Johanson, Director, Institute of Human Origins
Sunday, May 4, 2008
2 pm

In 1974, paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson added a crucial link to the evolutionary chain with his discovery of a 3.2-million-year-old hominid fossil in Ethiopia. “Lucy,” as the skeleton was called, represented a previously unknown human ancestor—Australopithecus afarensis.
Read more>>

Kluge: the Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind
Thursday evening, September 18, 2008

Gary Marcus, author, Kluge: the Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind, Director of the NYU Infant Language Learning Center, and Professor of Psychology at New York University, speaks.

Details to come.

Lecture by Clive Gable
Thursday evening, November 13, 2008

Clive Gable, author, Origins and Revolutions, Human Identity in Earliest Prehistory, and Professor, Department of Geography, Royal Holloway Universtiy of London, speaks.

Details to come.

Darwin Day and Evolution Teach In
Sunday, February 15, 2009
1 to 4 pm

FREE 200th Birthday Celebration at Penn Museum.  Short "teach in" talks, films, gallery tours, plus birthday cake and badminton with Darwin.

Lecture by Ian Hodder
Tuesday evening, April 14, 2009

Ian Hodder, author, Catalhoyuk: The Leopard’s Tale and Professor, Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Stanford University, speaks.

Details to come.

New!  Now on permanent display—a cast of the 370-million-year-old Arctic fossil Tiktaalik roseae, and the story of its discovery, by Academy paleontologist Dr. Ted Daeschler.  The fossil represents a clear evolutionary link between fish and limbed animals.

Display free with Museum admission: $8 children, $10 adults.  Tickets may be purchased at the door.

Learn the dramatic story of the brilliant 19th century friar who became the father of modern genetics. Recreate Gregor Mendel's famous pea experiment to discover the laws of heredity and meet modern scientists on the cutting edge of genetics. See the real thing: Mendel's botanical specimens, scientific instruments, correspondence and gardening tools. A mobile, collage, and sculpture are some of artists' interpretations of genetics concepts. Videos and hands-on interactive elements make the fundamentals of genetics accessible to everyone. Presented by Villanova University and The Academy of Natural Sciences.

Exhibition free with Museum admission: $8 children, $10 adults.  Tickets may be purchased at the door.

It's Gregor Mende's Birthday! Help us celebrate the father of modern genetics' birthday with a weekend full of discovery. Interactive presentations will highlight genetic research conducted at The Academy of Natural Sciences, and the key role that the humble gene plays in our everyday lives. Add live animal presentations, arts and crafts and you've got a weekend that would make Gregor smile.

Event free with Museum admission: $8 children, $10 adults.  Tickets may be purchased at the door.

The American Philosophical Society holds the largest collection of Darwin materials in North America. It is second only to Cambridge University as a resource for studying the life and work of Charles Darwin. Included are books and manuscripts related to the life and work of this seminal figure in the field of biology: the handwritten title page of On the Origin of Species and over 700 letters that reflect his correspondence with other scientists.  The APS collection also contains extensive materials on the history of the theory of evolution.

Dialogues with Darwin will draw on this remarkable collection to stimulate three kinds of dialogues with Darwin's ideas. Historical books and letters will document the scientific dialogue between Darwin and his science colleagues. Commissioned artworks, integrated into the exhibition, will create a contemporary dialogue linking present to past and art to science. Innovative interpretative activities and materials, embedded in the exhibition as well as on the web, will give visitors the opportunity to participate in their own dialogues not only with Darwin, but also with current Darwin experts and even with each other.

Three IMAX movies have an evolutionary theme!
Ticket prices per movie: $9.00, $5.50 as a Sci-Pass upgrade.  Reservations: (215) 448-1254

From the depths of an ocean that once divided the United States in two comes a tale of survival and discovery more than 80 million years in the making.  Using computer-generated animation, Sea Monsters recreates an underwater world from the Late Cretaceous period, inhabited by creatures of massive size and ferocity.  The adventures of a dolichorynchops, a creature that lived towards the bottom of the food chain, are combined with footage of excavations in which paleontologists attempt to unravel the mystery surrounding these ancient creatures.

Only the giant screen could do this adventure justice. Join paleontologists from the past and present as they travel around the world on the hunt for dinosaur bones. Truly awesome computer animation melds with actual footage from the expeditions of American Museum of Natural History scientist Roy Chapman Andrews, believed to be the inspiration for the Indiana Jones character.

In the early 20th century, the billions of sardines inhabiting the waters off the coasts of Europe and North America were a seemingly limitless resource.  Over the years, these vast shoals have been depleted by overfishing and industrial excess.  Today in South Africa, the practice of responsible and sustainable fishing aims to allow man's coexistence with one of the last great migrations and feeding frenzies on the planet, as billions of sardines migrate up the KwaZulu-Natal Coast each year.  Witness spectacular up-close footage of breaching whales, feeding sharks and diving gannets and learn how the economic impact of this underwater struggle has prompted people living off the African shores to joined forces with business and government to protect the invaluable resource.

The Mütter Museum highlights some of the ways in which evolution has necessitated the advancement of medicine.

A new small exhibit addresses how the evolutionary advancement of the human species becoming bipedal (walking on two legs) resulted in a narrower pelvis in females. This coupled with the increased cranial size in newborns resulted in the need, over the years, for assistance in giving birth. We have advanced from primitive birthing stones (10,000 years ago) to the modern day field of obstetrics.  The exhibit addresses this evolutionary phase and considers how we have adapted. Featured are some of the Museum's prized instruments and objects, such as an original replica of a Chamberlain Forceps, the first known obstetrical forceps ever invented, and some examples of a female pelvis, as well as other objects and images that highlight this topic.

An accompanying handout for both school groups and general visitors, available beginning in May, guides visitors through the evolution related exhibits in the museum. In addition, a supplemental Cell Phone Audio Tour Guide, available beginning in May, explores certain portions of the exhibits in more depth while also focusing on evolutionary aspects.

Upcoming: related lecture, to be announced.

Evolution programs to be announced.

The Free Library of Philadelphia offers one of the country's most extensive collections - more than 6 million items, ranging from books and magazines to art, music, film, and other media, as well as a rich and varied program of special events.

The Zoo is a great place to learn more about humans place in the natural world!  Of particular interest: the primates.

Primates include lemurs, monkeys and apes. We're primates too! There is no single feature that is unique to primates versus other mammals, but there is a combination of characters that set primates apart, including opposable thumbs for grasping, flat nails rather than claws in most species, forward facing eyes, and relatively large brains. Some of the primates at the Philadelphia Zoo include western lowland gorillas, Sumatran orangutans, ring-tailed lemurs and golden lion tamarins. When you visit the Zoo, you'll find most of the primates at PECO Primate Reserve and Dodge Rare Animal Conservation Center, but there are also some at the Small Mammal House and other locations.

Ongoing: 

The Wagner Free Institute of Science’s natural history museum contains more than 100,000 specimens illustrating the various branches of the natural world. Dr. Joseph Leidy, a featured scientist in Penn Museum’s Surviving: The Body of Evidence, became the head of the Institute’s scientific and educational programs in 1885. Leidy’s most lasting and significant contribution to the Institute was his reorganization of the Institute’s museum. Leidy expanded the collection and personally developed and supervised their reorganization into a systematic display in which specimens and cases were arranged so that visitors moved from simpler to more complex organisms and through geologic time as they walked through the exhibition hall. This new display opened in 1891 and little has been altered since Leidy’s time, making the Institute an exceptional example of a Victorian science museum.

On view Tuesday through Friday from 9am-4pm. Admission is free; donations are encouraged. Groups of more than six people are asked to phone in advance for reservations.

Evolution-focusd programs to be announced, beginning Fall 2008.