Lecture Series History: 2013
In 2013, the Natural History Museum of Utah's annual Lecture Series presented the theme "The Science of Being Human." Read on to learn more about the theme and speakers.
About the 2013 Lecture Series
In this year's Nature of Things lecture series, we explore The Science of Being Human. Through this topic, we'll investigate the latest scientific research on what is unique to 'human-ness,' how we became human, and what characteristics we share with other living creatures.
To date, we've learned how a member of a paleoanthropology dynasty is piecing together the puzzle of human origins and heard a microbiologist develop a startling new picture of our intimate relationship with microbes. Tonight, we'll hear from a renowned neuroscientist studying how our brains construct reality, and in our final lecture, an evolutionary anthropologist will describe how his work with animals sheds light on how our species is truly unique.
Since our first Nature of Things presentation in 2007, the R. Harold Burton Foundation has provided the critical underwriting support to make this program possible. Sincere thanks to the foundation, to our presenting partner JPMorgan Chase, and all of our generous sponsors, for making this year's series such a tremendous success.
2013 Speakers
Dr. Louise Leakey
Secrets in the Sands: Revelations into How We Became Human
As the youngest member of the Leakey fossil hunters, Louise Leakey continues the family legacy in the field of paleoanthropology through research in the Turkana Basin of northern Kenya. She co-directs the Koobi Fora Research Project with her mother, Dr. Meave Leakey. Dr. Leakey's research focuses on the period between 2 and 1.5 million years ago when the hominid fossil record shows considerable diversity in species and morphology. As adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Stony Brook in New York, Dr. Leakey is helping to develop a major center for human origins research that includes field programs for students. Dr. Leakey is a Ph.D. graduate of London University.
Dr. June Round
Redefining Human: How Microbes Influence Who We Are
Dr. June Round has devoted her research career to the vast consortium of bacteria that live within humans and outnumber our own cells by a factor of ten! As an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology, Division of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Utah, her lab studies how symbiotic bacteria shape the development and responses of the mammalian immune system. Using germ-free mice raised in a completely sterile environment, Dr. Round examines the mechanisms by which a single microorganism prominent in the human microbiome communicates with its host and protects it from disease. Dr. Round's work on this communication pathway was published in Science in May 2011.
Dr. David Eagleman
Knowing Thyself: What it Means to Be a Human with a Brain
David Eagleman holds joint appointments in the Departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and is the founder and director of the Initiative on Neuroscience and Law. Dr. Eagleman's books include the New York Times best-seller Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. He writes regularly for the New York Times, Wired, Discover, Slate, and New Scientist, and is a repeat guest on NPR. He has been profiled in The New Yorker and on Nova. His novel, SUM: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, was named a Best Book of The Year by Barnes and Noble and inspired U2 producer Brian Eno to write twelve new pieces of music, which he performed, with Eagleman, at the Sydney Opera House.
Dr. Brian Hare
A Journey of the Mind: Asking Animals How We Became Human
Dr. Brian Hare is an associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University in North Carolina and a member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, which is a division of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University, founded the Hominoid Psychology Research Group while at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and subsequently founded the Duke Canine Cognition Center when arriving at Duke University. Dr. Hare recently published The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think with his wife Vanessa Woods. Dr. Hare has shared his research in several NOVA episodes on animal intelligence and in the PBS series "The Human Spark."