Science Cafe Columbus presents: Darwin’s Prescient Insights on Human Evolution
January 14th, 2009
Join us for an informal discussion about a scientific topic. Anyone is welcome, although seating may be limited. We will meet the first Wednesday of each month at The South Campus Gateway Landmark Movie Theater.
The Next Cafe:
Date: February 4, 2009 6:30 pm (doors open at 6 pm)
Speaker: Jeffrey K. McKee, Departments of Anthropology and Evolution, Ecology, & Evolutionary Biology
Title: Darwin’s Prescient Insights on Human Evolution
Summary: The year 2009 marks two Darwinian anniversaries. It is the bicentennial of the birth of Charles Darwin (1809), as well as the sesquicentennial of the publication of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859). OSU is marking these milestones with a number of events, including the February Science Cafe Columbus, in the month of Darwin’s birth.
Anthropologist Dr. Jeffrey McKee will present a conversational look at Darwin’s views on human evolution, a topic Darwin largely avoided until 1871 with the publication of The Descent of Man. It turns out that Darwin’s insights, devoid of much of a fossil record at the time, were remarkably predictive of what paleoanthropologists would later discover in Africa and beyond. The science has moved far beyond Darwin … some things he got wrong. But in this anniversary year, we’ll look at what he got right and why his insights were before their time.
About our speaker:
Jeffrey K. McKee is a professor in the Departments of Anthropology and Evolution, Ecology, & Evolutionary Biology. He earned a B.A. from Miami University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Washington University, St.Louis. McKee joined the faculty of OSU in 1996, after having spent a decade as a Senior Lecturer at The University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, Johannesburg, South Africa. He has led excavations at the South African fossil sites of Taung and Makapansgat. McKee is co-author of the textbook, Understanding Human Evolution, and has also published two popular science books, The Riddled Chain and Sparing Nature. He has recently been elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. One of his proudest achievements is being part of the group who created Science Cafe Columbus.
Food and drink are available for purchase at the Theatre.
Parking: Park in the Gateway parking ramp– it’s $1.00 for three hours
For more information on Science Cafe Columbus, and for instructions on joining our announcement list, please visit our website: http://library.osu.edu/sites/sel/sciencecafe.
Have ideas for Cafe topics, or want to volunteer to be a guest speaker? Email us at: scicafe@osu.edu
Entry Filed under: Announcements
