Athens, Ga. – World-renowned paleontologist Jack Horner, author of How to Build a Dinosaur, will discuss how he and his colleagues are developing the technology to create a real dinosaur at a lecture that is part of the annual Darwin Days celebration at the University of Georgia.
Horner, who advised Steven Spielberg on Jurassic Park and is Regents Professor of Paleontology at Montana State University, will speak Feb. 6 at 4 p.m. in room 102 of the Miller Learning Center. His lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by a reception in which copies of How to Build a Dinosaur will be available for signing.
Other Darwin Days events, also free and open to the public, include lectures on how to build a cell, how scientists find fossils and a look at human evolution from the perspective of body lice.
The first Darwin Day celebration at UGA was held February 12, 1909 to mark the centennial of the birth of Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution through natural selection is the foundation of modern biology. The event at UGA became an annual tradition spanning several days in 2009, and other Darwin Day events are held annually on or around Feb. 12 across the globe.
“What we try to achieve during Darwin Days is not just to have scientists talking to other scientists, but to have scientists who study evolution share the importance of that work with the public,” said Mark Farmer, professor and chair of biological sciences in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. “Evolution does affect each and every one of us-from antibiotic resistant bacteria to understanding how our genes influence who we are-whether we’re scientists studying it or not.”
Other UGA Darwin Days events are listed below. For a complete listing, see http://darwinday.uga.edu/.
· Pattern Formation and Regeneration in a Single Cell; Wallace Marshall, University of California, San Francisco; Feb. 7, 11 a.m., room S175, Coverdell Center
· How to Build a Cell; Wallace Marshall, University of California, San Francisco; Feb. 8, 12:15 p.m., room 404A, biosciences building
· Of Lice and Men: New Insights into Human Evolution from a Lousy Perspective; David Reed, Florida Museum of Natural History and the University of Florida; Feb. 8, 4 p.m., room C127, Davison Life Sciences Building
· From Shells to Bones: How We Find Fossils; Steve Holland, department of geology, UGA; Feb 8, 4 p.m., room 248, Miller Learning Center
· From Darwin to Biomechanics: New Perspectives on the Origin of Avian Flight; Michael Habib, Chatham University; Feb. 9, 4 p.m., ecology auditorium
The events are co-sponsored by the division of biological sciences in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and the Willson Center for the Humanities and Arts, along with the Odum School of Ecology; the Georgia Museum of Natural History; the Franklin College departments of anthropology, cellular biology, genetics and geology, and the faculty of developmental biology; and, within the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the departments of entomology and poultry science.
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