Evolution

This symposium addresses the interactive gene-culture co-evolution of the human brain with tool use and technology - ranging from simple stone tools millions of years ago to computers today. Dorothy Fragaszy, University of Georgia, compares tool use in nonhuman primates and humans which leads to ideas about the attributes of humans that have led us to differ so dramatically from other primates in technical prowess and technical traditions. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 34190]

This symposium addresses the interactive gene-culture co-evolution of the human brain with tool use and technology - ranging from simple stone tools millions of years ago to computers today. The simple fact of tool-making no longer provides a sharp dividing line between “Man the Tool-Maker” and the rest of the animal world. Dietrich Stout, Emory University. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 34191]

This symposium addresses the interactive gene-culture co-evolution of the human brain with tool use and technology - ranging from simple stone tools millions of years ago to computers today. The combination of genetic and activity dependent mechanisms that create a given cortical phenotype allows the mammalian neocortex to rapidly and flexibly adjust to different body and environmental contexts, and in humans permits culture to impact brain construction. Leah Krubitzer, UC Davis. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 34192]

This symposium addresses the interactive gene-culture co-evolution of the human brain with tool use and technology - ranging from simple stone tools millions of years ago to computers today. The stone tool record begins to exhibit increasingly complex variability during a period correlated with Homo sapiens origin and dispersal. This complex variability most likely reflects an evolving relationship between technology and spoken language –an uniquely derived human behavior, that intensified as humans became Earth’s only obligatory tool-using primate. John Shea, Stony Brook University, New York. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 34193]

This symposium addresses the interactive gene-culture co-evolution of the human brain with tool use and technology - ranging from simple stone tools millions of years ago to computers today. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 34186]

This symposium addresses the interactive gene-culture co-evolution of the human brain with tool use and technology - ranging from simple stone tools millions of years ago to computers today. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 34185]

Exploring cellular features of human brain development that are not represented in animal models and may reflect human or primate-specific evolutionary adaptations and how they also provide a roadmap for interpreting laboratory models of human brain development and evolution. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 32972]

Myths symbolize ideas, values, history and other issues that are important to a people. They may be true or false, mundane or fantastic; their significance is their meaning, not their narrative content. Science is a way of knowing about the natural world. Its conclusions tentatively may be true or false, but its significance is its explanatory power: one has confidence in the process of science, even though some explanations change over time. Myth and science thus seem very different, but each has been utilized by proponents of both sides of the Christian creationism and evolution controversy. Eugenie Scott, Founding Executive Director, National Center for Science Education Understanding, explores how this role is essential in comprehending (much less mediating) this persistent conflict. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Science] [Show ID: 34011]

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Eugenie C. Scott, Founding Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education, for a discussion of the attack on science especially in the debate on teaching evolution in public schools. Reflecting on the trajectory of her career, she discusses the work of the National Center and its role in supporting the teaching of science through mobilizing supporters in local communities and defending scientific curricula in the courts. She then compares the assumptions of scientists and creationists. The conversation includes her reflections on lessons to be learned from the Scopes trial and its aftermath and the importance of myth and social history in understanding public debates on issues affecting science and implicating religion. Series: "Conversations with History" [Science] [Show ID: 34156]

Most people are part-Neanderthal, the closest extinct human relative. Svante Pääbo explores human genetic evolution by analyzing preserved genetic material from the remains of ancient organisms, including Neanderthals. What can we learn from the genomes of our closest evolutionary relatives? Pääbo is an evolutionary anthropologist and pioneer of paleogenetics and the director of the Max Plank Institute of Evolutionary Genetics. He was awarded the 2018 Nierenberg Award for Science in the Public Interest. Series: "Frontiers of Knowledge" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 34037]