UPCOMING EVENTS

Why are there so many bird species in the Himalayas?

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:30:22 -0700

One can find more than 500 breeding bird species in the eastern Himalayan state of Sikkim, but only half that number in the western Himalayan state of Kashmir. In fact, the eastern Himalayas probably have the second highest number of species in the world, after the northern Andes. Where did all these species come from, and why are there so many more in the east than the west? A major advance in this area is our ability to reconstruct the history of speciation using gene sequences. Dr. Price will recount the history of the birds of the Himalayas, as far as we understand it at present. He will show how ecological and historical factors have combined to generate diversity, as illustrated by his own studies on a group of warblers.

Having Your Land & Sharing It, Too: A World of Reconciliation Ecology

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:54:17 -0700

Life is in peril. A mass extinction threatens to take more than 90% of the world's species. Evolution will not be able to replace these species, neither in kind nor in number. Our religious and ethical responsibilty to protect our world is challenged as never before. But there is good news: we can prevent this mass extinction with a method called Reconciliation Ecology. Reconciliation Ecology means working out ways for us to have our land and share it too.
Reconciliation Ecology is not a pipe dream. It is widely practiced all over the world. And it is successful. Reconciliation ecology puts nature back into the everyday lives of people, surrounding us with living wonders we usually associate with a vacation in a National Park. It is not expensive and it redesigns our own habitats so that we can keep them, keep living in them, keep using them for our needs, keep earning profits in them... while at the very same time making them havens for wild species of plants and animals.
The new habitats we engineer to satisfy both our desires and the needs of nature will not resemble those of a thousand years ago. This will surely put new evolutionary pressures on the species we harbor. They will change in ways we are only beginning to study. But surely it is better to meet them halfway, better to give them a chance to adapt to us, than to let them vanish utterly and leave our grandchildren with an impoverished world that bears evidence that we did not choose to fulfill our responsibilities.

A FILM FOR DARWIN DAY

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:51:51 -0800

This two-hour scripted drama tells the remarkable story behind the unveiling of the most influential scientific theory of all time, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. The program is a special presentation from NOVA and National Geographic Television, written by acclaimed British screenwriter John Goldsmith and directed by John Bradshaw.

Darwin, portrayed by Henry Ian Cusick (Lost), spent years refining his ideas and penning what he called his "big book." Yet, daunted by looming conflict with the orthodox religious values of his day, he resisted publishing–until a letter from naturalist Alfred Wallace forced his hand. In 1858, Darwin learned that Wallace was ready to publish ideas very similar to his own. In a sickened panic, Darwin grasped his dilemma: To delay publishing any longer would be to condemn his greatest work to obscurity–the brilliant argument he had pieced together with clues from his voyage on the Beagle, his adventures in the Andes, the bizarre fossils of Patagonia, the finches and giant tortoises of the Galapagos, as well as the British countryside. But to come forward with his ideas risked the fury of the Church and perhaps a rift with his own devoted wife, Emma, portrayed by Frances O'Connor (Mansfield Park, The Importance of Being Earnest), who was a devout Christian.

"Darwin's Darkest Hour" is a moving drama about the genesis of a groundbreaking theory seen through the inspiration and personal sufferings of its originator.

Step-by-step Evolution of the Vertebrate Blood Coagulation System

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:52:02 -0800

The availability of whole genome sequences for a variety of vertebrates is making it possible to reconstruct the step-by-step evolution of complex phenomena like blood coagulation, an event that in mammals involves the interplay of more than two dozen genetically encoded factors. Gene inventories for different organisms are revealing when during vertebrate evolution certain factors first made their appearance or, on occasion, disappeared from some lineages. The whole genome sequence databases of two protochordates and seven non-mammalian vertebrates were examined in search of some 20 genes known to be associated with blood clotting in mammals. No genuine orthologs were found in the protochordate genomes (sea squirt and amphioxus). As for vertebrates, although the jawless fish have genes for generating the thrombin-catalyzed conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin, they lack several clotting factors, including two thought to be essential for the activation of thrombin in mammals. Fish in general lack genes for the “contact factor” proteases, the predecessor forms of which make their first appearance in tetrapods. The full complement of factors known to be operating in humans doesn’t occur until pouched marsupials (opossum), at least one key factor still being absent in egg-laying mammals like platypus.

Genie Scott at CSU-Fresno

Wed, 2 Dec 2009 19:40:08 -0800

Dr. Eugenie Scott, Executive Director of National Center for Science Education, gave a public lecture on “Why all the fuss about Darwin and Evolution?” on the campus of California State University, Fresno, on December 2, 2009. The event was sponsored by the Consortium for Evolutionary Studies. The above slide+audio podcast contains the entire lecture, which you are welcome to listen to here. Dr. Scott kindly provided us with the powerpoint slides from her talk, which were synchronized with audio recorded by Madhusudan Katti to produce this podcast. This is our first podcast, and we will try to make a habit of this for upcoming talks as well!
Scott Hatfield, a member of the consortium and local schoolteacher, also recorded most of the lecture on video, and has uploaded it to YouTube in the following 6 parts:

The Life and Times of Australopithecus

Mon, 4 May 2009 15:00:30 -0700

There is fossil evidence for the early hominin genus, Australopithecus, from 4.2 to 2.1 million years ago. The most well known of these species are A. afarensis, from East Africa, and A. africanus, found solely in South Africa. Paleoanthropologists know that these species were bipedal, but many aspects of their ecological behavior remain elusive and hypothetical only. Australopithecus afarensis lived in a variety of habitats from Tanzania to Ethiopia, for example, but did the eventual cooling and drying of Africa cause its extinction? In South Africa, A. africanus appears much later in time and exists to a much younger time period than A. afarensis; are there fundamental ecological differences between these species that may account for this? The behavioral ecology and biogeography of the other mammals that were recovered with these hominin species provide interesting patterns that can be compared with ecological patterns and processes in the living world to provide contextual evidence to begin to answer these questions.

The Rap Guide to Evolution

Fri, 6 Mar 2009 15:00:17 -0800

Canadian rap artist, performance poet, and actor Baba Brinkman follows up his hilarious award-winning one-man show “The Rap Canterbury Tales” with a journey to the center of history’s greatest controversy: the Origin of Species. Brinkman’s powerful storytelling has been hailed the world over as an ingenious hybrid of rap and theatre. Fresh from a tour celebrating the 2009 Darwin Bicentennial in England, this week saw the North American premier of “The Rap Guide to Evolution” at the Fresno Rogue festival.
It's a 50-minute show, rated PG-13 ('sexual references, mature subject matter, but NO SWEARING, he says").
Lead single "Natural Selection" featuring Richard Dawkins. Click here to Download.
“The Rap Guide to Evolution” explores the history and current understanding of Darwin’s theory, combining remixes of popular rap songs with storytelling rap/poems that cover Natural Selection, Artificial Selection, Sexual Selection, Group Selection, Unity of Common Descent, and Evolutionary Psychology. Dr. Pallen has vetted the entire script for scientific and historical accuracy, making it a powerful teaching tool as well as a laugh-out-loud entertainment experience. The show also engages directly with challenging questions about cultural evolution, asking the audience to imagine themselves as the environment and the performer as an organism undergoing a form of live adaptation.
“The Rap Guide to Evolution” was developed with the support of the British Council.

God, Darwin, and the Culture Wars

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 12:00:15 -0800

A talk by Leonard Olson in the Spring 2009 Ethics Center Lecture Series @ CSU Fresno.
Most observers would agree that there is something like a cultural war taking place in America today, especially over the question of the origins of life on Earth. Is the choice as simple as one between evolution or creation? Extremists on both sides frame the issue poorly. As a result, a reasonable middle position is ignored. This talk will examine the middle and criticize the extremes.
Leonard Olson is a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at CSU-Fresno, where he has been teaching ethics courses since 1986. A native of the Central Valley, he was educated at San Francisco State and U.C. Davis.
Date: Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Time: 12:00-12:50 PM
Venue: Alice Peters Auditorium

Darwin’s Legacy - a panel discussion

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:00:51 -0800

As we continue celebrating Darwin Day 2009, the Department of Biology hosts a faculty panel which will invite questions from the audience regarding Darwin’s ideas and the societal impact of evolutionary biology. The panel will be composed of faculty from CSU Fresno, including Dr. Paul Crosbie (Biology), Dr. Andrew Fiala (Director of the Ethics Center at CSU Fresno), Dr. Jim Mullooly (Anthropology), Dr. Mike Botwin (Psychology), and primate ecologist and anthropologist Dr. Kaberi Kar Gupta (Biology). All are welcome to attend this event.

Date: Friday, February 13, 2009
Time: 3:00-4:00 PM
Venue: Science II Building, Room 109

Feathered Dinosaurs from Lagerstätten; Examples of Extraordinary Fossil Preservation

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:00:31 -0800

A special Darwin Day Colloquium by. Jeff Anglen, Earth & Environmental Sciences.
Fossils from the Liaoning Province of China provide evolutionary insights due to the extraordinary preservation of Early Cretaceous feathered dinosaurs. A review of fossils and modes of fossil preservation puts these precious fossils into perspective as illuminators of the fossil record, particularly the evolutionary relationship of dinosaurs and birds.

Date: Friday, February 13, 2009
Time: 2:00-3:00 PM
Venue: Science II Building, Room 118