mark your calendar.
The Institute for the Science of Origins and its partners produce and host a number of origins-related workshops through the year. Stay tuned to the Origins events listings (or sync with our calendar) for upcoming events and opportunities to explore the beginnings of life.
Upcoming Events
Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics (CERCA)
CERCA sponsors a variety of talks on an ongoing basis
For more information about CERCA events, visit the CERCA Web site and the CERCA seminar web page.
Year of Darwin Celebration
Through December 2009
For more information about the Year of Darwin Celebration and its events, visit the Year of Darwin Web site.
"Origin of Species Birthday Party!"
With a talk by paleoanthropologist Bruce Latimer, Case Western Reserve University Department of Anthropology
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. Clapp 108 (Goodyear Auditorium)
This November 24th marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's classic, On the Origin of Species. Join us for a birthday celebration and talk on human evolution by ISO Fellow Bruce Latimer!
Sponsored by the Evolutionary Biology Program, the Institute for the Science of Origins, and EvoClub!
Fellows Lunches
Wednesdays
This weekly lunch brings together the fellows of the institute for conversation about the institute and its scientific activities.
Recent Events
"Human Evolution: The New Fossil Ardipithecus, a Foot on the Ground & a Hand in the Trees!"
An evening with the scientists who discovered and analyzed this exciting new fossil hominid
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
7 p.m. Cleveland Museum of Natural History Auditorium
The Institute for the Science of Origins is fortunate to have among its fellows, the scientists involved in the discovery and analysis of the most exciting new human ancestor since Lucy. Come hear about "Ardi" first hand!
Sponsored by the Institute for the Science of Origins
Free and Open to the Public!
"Who says Neandertals are so different?"
By David Frayer , University of Kansas Department of Anthropology
Thursday, November 12, 2009
4:30 p.m. 312 DeGrace Hall
David Frayer is a paleoanthropologist and CWRU alum.
Hosted by Sigma Xi,the Evolutionary Biology program, and the Departments of Biology and Anthropology.
Neandertals lived successfully in Europe and Western Asia for several hundred thousand years, disappearing about 30,000 years ago. Since their discovery in 1856, they have generally been considered a different species or offshoots from the subsequent European line with little or no contribution to the people who followed them. While few want to claim any relationship to later Europeans, a variety of morphological and behavioral traits link them with their European successors. This new (and old) information about Neandertal biology and culture makes them more like us in intriguing ways.
"The Structure and Kinematics of Galactic Disks"
By Robin Ciardullo, Penn State.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
11:30 a.m., Sears 552
Robin Ciardullo is a Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University.
Hosted by the Department of Astronomy
"Evolutionary Ecology"
By Andrew McCall, Denison University.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
4:15 p.m., 312 DeGrace Hall
Andrew McCall is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Denison University.
Hosted by the Department of Biology
Inherit the Wind
Cleveland Playhouse
October 24, 2009
The Institute for the Science of Origins, and its partner organizations invite you to an evening of science and theater.
The ISO and the Case/Cleveland Play House MFA Program will come together for the opening weekend production of Inherit the Wind.
Join us for a pre-performance reception and talk featuring Dr. Bruce Latimer, former executive director of The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 24 at the Cleveland Play House.
Then watch our theater MFA students take the stage in the classic courtroom drama about evolution, creationism, and an American society struggling to balance science and scripture.
Tickets for the show may be purchased by calling (216) 795-7000 or by visiting www.clevelandplayhouse.com.
Mention or enter the code "Origins" for a ticket discount. For more information, please email contact-cas@cwru.edu or call (216) 368-0097
"Weighing the Universe"
By Neta Bahcall, Princeton University.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
4:15 p.m., Rockefeller 301
Neta Bahcall is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Astrophysics in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University.
Hosted by the Departments of Physics and Astronomy
Dr Bahcall will discuss data that suggest that the mass in the Universe, including the dark-matter, follows light on large scales, and most of the mass resides in huge dark halos around galaxies.
"Genetics of Speciation"
By Daniel Barbash, Cornell University.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
4:15 p.m., 312 DeGrace Hall
Daniel Barbash is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Cornell University.
Hosted by the Department of Biology
"Star formation in extreme locales revealed by GALEX"
By David Thilker, Johns Hopkins University.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
2:30 p.m., Sears 552
David Thilker is a research scientist in the Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University.
Hosted by the Department of Astronomy
Dr Thilker discussed the implications of recent GALEX UV imaging, which reveals massive star formation in atypical environments including outer spiral disks, intergalactic gas clouds, and early-type galaxies.
"Genetics of Susceptibility to Parasitic Disease"
By Sarah Williams-Blangero, Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research.
Monday, September 28, 2009
11 a.m., Biomedical Research Building Auditorium (BRB 105)
Sarah Williams-Blangero chairs the Department of Genetics at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research.
Hosted by the Departments of Genetics, Epidemiology, and Biostatistics
"Evolution of Complex Phenotypes"
By Darrin Hulsey, University of Tennessee.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
4:15 p.m., 312 DeGrace Hall
Darrin Hulsey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Hosted by the Department of Biology
"Hepatitis C virus in vivo: Evolution that pushes the envelope"
By Stuart C. Ray, M.D, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Monday, September 21, 2009
Stuart C. Ray is an Associate Professor in the Medical School at Johns Hopkins University. Hosted by Professor Neil Greenspan, Department of Pathology, as part of the Pathology Seminar Series.
"Age/metallicity gradients in the Milky Way's thick disk"
By Heather Morrison, Case Western Reserve University.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
2:30 p.m., Sears 552
Heather Morrison Professor of Astronomy in the Department of Astronomy, Case Western Reserve University. Hosted by the Department of Astronomy
"How the CMB challenges cosmology's standard model"
By Glenn Starkman , Case Western Reserve University Department of Physics
Thursday, September 3, 2009
4:15 p.m. Rockefeller Hall 301
Glenn Starkman is Director of the Institute for the Science of Origins.
Hosted by the Department of Physics, as part of the Physics Colloquium Series.
The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation is our most important source of information about the early universe. Many of its features are in good agreement with the predictions of the so-called standard model of cosmology -- the Lambda Cold Dark Matter Inflationary Big Bang. However, the large-angle correlations of the microwave background exhibit several closely related statistically significant departures from the standard model. The lowest multipoles seem to be correlated with each other, rather than statistically independent as inflationary theory demands. Indeed, they also seem to be correlated with the geometry of the solar system, suggesting that they are not cosmologically produced. Even stranger, when we avoid the part of the sky that is contaminated by the galaxy, we find that there are essentially no large angle correlations. The ripples in the CMB may be the sound of the cosmic symphony, but why are the tuba and the bass very quietly playing the wrong music?
Workshop: Tests of Gravity and Gravitational Physics
Sponsored by the Institute for the Science of Origins, CERCA, and CWRU's Department of Physics.
May 19-21, 2009
Inamori Center, Crawford Hall
Gravitational forces are being tested over a vast array of scales, from microns to Gigaparsecs, and many clever ideas have been proposed to test quantum effects in curved spacetime in laboratory analogs. The purpose of the workshop is to inspire theorists to propose further tests of both classical and quantum gravitational physics, whether in the laboratory or in outer space, experimental or observational, while also paying attention to the experimental and observational implementation. This focused workshop will bring together both theorists and experimentalists working on these topics.
Workshop: "Mathematics as an Emergent Phenomenon"
May 11-12, 2009
Department of Cognitive Science, 6th Floor, Crawford Hall
An eclectic set of participants, including James Alexander , Mark Turner, Rafael Nunez, Gilles Fauconnier, Anthony Jack, Edward Hubbard, Marcel Danesi, Doug Hofsteader, Reuben Hersh, and Arnaud Viarouge, explored the cognitive foundations that underlie the abstract processes called mathematical thinking. For more on this event, see Cog Sci Colloquium.
EvoClub!
Undergraduate Evolution Club meeting
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Goodyear Auditorium (Clapp Hall Rm. 108): 4-8 p.m.
Meeting starts at 4, followed by pizza and a movie (the fictional comedy "Evolution") and a discussion of the movie's scientific errors (and perhaps virtues).
For more information, visit the EvoClub Web site.
RNA-Mediated Epigenetic Inheritance
By Laura F. Landweber, Princeton University
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Goodyear Lecture Hall (Clapp 108): 4:30 p.m.
Laura F. Landweber is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. Hosted by Professor Rajesh Viswanathan, Department of Chemistry, as part of the Sixty-Eighth Frontiers in Chemistry Lecture Series.
Against Medical Utopianism: An Evolutionary Perspective
By Neil Greenspan, CWRU Department of Pathology
Monday, April 20, 2009
Wolstein Research Building, Auditorium (Rm. 1413): noon
Dr. Greenspan is Professor of Pathology at Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine. Hosted by the Department of Pathology.
Research ShowCASE
ISO Fellows, and CWRU Faculty & Students
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Veale Convocation Center 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
On April 16, 2009, ISO Fellows joined hundreds of researchers, scientists and scholars to come together for a day of collaboration, creativity, and innovation. Exhibits of real-world applications, critical insights, and creative and intellectual activities were on view for students, faculty, staff, alumni, business & industry leaders and the community, highlighting the full range of faculty, postdoctoral, and graduate research at Case. Research ShowCASE is a annual free public exhibit. For more information, please visit the Research ShowCASE Web site.
Systems Chemistry
By M. Reza Ghadir, The Scripps Research Institute
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Goodyear Lecture Hall (Clapp 108): 4:30 p.m.
M. Reza Ghadiri is Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, at The Scripps Research Institute. Hosted by Professor Gregory Tochtrop, Department of Chemistry, as part of the Sixty-Eighth Frontiers in Chemistry Lecture Series.
Is God a Mathematician?
By Mario Livio, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore
Thursday, April 16, 2009, 8 p.m.
Cleveland Museum of Natural History
For centuries, mathematical theories have proven uncannily accurate at describing -- and predicting -- the physical world. Dr. Mario Livio attempts to explain why. His talk spans such fields as cosmology, religion and cognitive science and offers an accessible and lively account of the lives and thoughts of some of the greatest mathematicians in history, from Archimedes to Galileo, Descartes and Newton to Godel, on up to the present day. Along the way, he attempts to answer a question with which mathematicians, philosophers and neuroscientists have struggled for centuries: Is mathematics ultimately invented or discovered?
The Genetic Basis of Human Adaptation in Africa
Sarah Tishkoff, University of Pennsylvania
April 8, 2009
Clapp Hall 108: 4:30 p.m.
Professor Tishkoff is a highly respected geneticist and anthropologist who has made significant contributions to the understanding of human evolution through studies of genetic variation with particular emphasis on the genetic history of East African populations. Hosted by the Departments of Anthropology, Biology, and Evolutionary Biology.
The Image of Modern Medicine: Professional Identity and Visual Culture in America at the Turn of the 20th Century
By John Harley Warner, Yale University School of Medicine
April 3, 2009, 6 p.m.
Allen Memorial Medical Library, Case Western Reserve University
John Harley Warner is Avalon Professor and Chair of History of Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine, and also Professor of History and of American Studies at Yale University. He received his Ph.D. in History of Science from Harvard in 1984, and joined the Yale faculty in 1986 after two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in London. Professor Warner teaches medical and undergraduate students and is a core faculty member of the Yale graduate Program in the History of Science and Medicine. His books include The Therapeutic Perspective: Medical Practice, Knowledge, and Identity in America, 1820-1885 (1986; 1997), Against the Spirit of System: The French Impulse in Nineteenth-Century American Medicine (1998; 2003), and the co-edited volumes Major Problems in the History of American Medicine (2001) and Locating Medical History: The Stories and Their Meanings (2004). Current projects include Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine, 1880-1930, a study of medical student identity and dissection-room photographic portraiture co-authored with James Edmonson (Dittrick Medical History Center, CWRU), and a book on the transformation of the hospital patient chart in America, tentatively titled Bedside Stories: Clinical Narrative and the Grounding of Modern Medicine.
Molecular Self-Assembly
By Julius Rebek, Jr.
April 2, 2009
Goodyear Lecture Hall (Clapp 108): 4:30 p.m.
Director of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology and Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, at The Scripps Research Institute. Hosted by Professor Irene Lee, Department of Chemistry, as part of the Sixty-Eighth Frontiers in Chemistry Lecture Series.
Charles Darwin: The True Story
By John van Wyhe<
April 1, 2009, 12:30 p.m.
Location: O'Neill Reading Room, 2nd Floor, Kelvin Smith Library
Wyhe is professor of history and philosophy of science at the University of Cambridge and director of The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. More information about 'The True Story.'
Sponsored by the Kelvin Smith Library and the Institute for the Science of Origins./p>
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hunter
By Simon Chaplin, Royal College of Surgeons of England
March 26, 2009, 6 p.m.
Allen Memorial Medical Library, Case Western Reserve University
Who — or what — was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's classic gothic thriller 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'? Was it the 18th-century surgeon and anatomist John Hunter? In the Handerson lecture for 2009, Simon Chaplin, Director of Museums & Special Collections at The Royal College of Surgeons of England, will explore the role of anatomical museums in managing the social tension between private dissection and public life in 18th-century London. By reconstructing the relationship between anatomy, art and architecture in John Hunter's home, the lecture will show how the 'doctor's cabinet' transformed the noisome business of anatomy into a subject of polite interest, and will ask whether modern anatomists can learn lessons in public communication from John Hunter and his contemporaries.
Genetically Templated Magnetic and Optical Nanowires for Targeted Imaging
By Angela Belcher, MIT
Van Horn Lecture Series
March 19, 2009, 4 p.m.
White 411
Genetically Engineered Materials for Energy Applications
By Angela Belcher, MIT
Van Horn Lecture Series
March 18, 2009, 4 p.m.
White 411
Dark Matter in the Milky Way
March 12-14, 2009
Location: Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence
Case Western Reserve University
This intensive workshop focuses on bringing together astronomers and experimental and theoretical physicists on the question of how to test our theories about the nature of dark matter. More information about Dark Matter in the Milky Way.
Sponsored by ISO, CERCA and the departments of Physics and Astronomy.
Evolutionary Medicine Workshop
March 4, 2009
Location: ideastream in Cleveland
This one-day planning workshop on the intersection of evolution and medicine will bring together outstanding researchers from Cleveland institutions around the topics of cancer and genetics, anatomy and physiology, oxygen delivery, and infectious and chronic diseases.
Sponsored by the ISO and hosted by ISO partner ideastream.
