evolution

Bill Nye will explore how the latest scientific advancements relate to social policy at 11 a.m. September 13 in Graham Chapel as part of the Assembly Series.

Bill Nye will share his infectious enthusiasm for science and explore how the latest scientific advancements relate to social policy at 11 a.m., September 13, in Graham Chapel as part of the Assembly Series.

Richards has observed the inheritance of epigenetic factors in plants.Eric Richards, Ph.D., professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis, writing in the May issue of Nature Reviews Genetics, analyzes recent and past research in epigenetics and the history of evolution and proposes that epigenetics should be considered a form of soft inheritance, citing examples in both the plant and mammalian kingdoms.

The principal scientific investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, he’ll be introduced by WUSTL’s Ray Arvidson, the mission’s deputy principal investigator.

Steven Squyres shares his passion for space exploration on Feb. 8 at the Assembly Series. He is the scientific principal investigator for NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers Project. The robotic explorers will examine Mars’ rocks and soil for minerals signaling the past presence of water, and help astronomers determine whether or not there was life on the planet.

Richard Burkhardt will examine the scientific, social and political aspects in the development of ethology as a modern science in his Thomas Hall Lecture at 4 p.m. on October 25. He teaches history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and specializes in the history of evolutionary theory and ethology, which is the study of animal behavior by means of comparative zoological methods.

Carinne Blank has a method she uses to date ancient life forms that could be helpful for specimens from Mars.A geologist from Washington University in St. Louis is developing new techniques to render a more coherent story of how primitive life arose and diverged on Earth – with implications for Mars.

In his talk, Murray Gell-Mann will look back to 1905 when Albert Einstein, an unknown scientist, published several papers, each with a revolutionary idea. He will examine Einstein’s creative thinking, how current cosmological discoveries relate to his work, and today’s efforts to find a unified theory of everything. Gell-Mann received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1969 for his discovery of the quark – the basic building block of all atomic nuclei throughout the universe.

Carrine Blank/WUSTL PhotoA WUSTL scientist suggests that Cyanobacteria arose in freshwater environments rather than in the sea.A geomicrobiologist at Washington University in St. Louis has proposed that evolution is the primary driving force in the early Earth’s development rather than physical processes, such as plate tectonics. Carrine Blank, Ph.D., Washington University assistant professor of geomicrobiology in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences, studying Cyanobacteria – bacteria that use light, water, and carbon dioxide to produce oxygen and biomass – has concluded that these species got their start on Earth in freshwater systems on continents and gradually evolved to exist in brackish water environments, then higher salt ones, marine and hyper saline (salt crust) environments.

Chimpanzees don’t need haircuts.Mammals have fur over most of their bodies, but at some point during evolution, we humans lost that fur covering. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis argue that hair on the head is somehow different from fur because fur stops growing when it reaches a certain length, but our head hair continues to grow.