Congratulations! You're the end result of billions of years of selective reproduction. For millions upon millions of generations, genetic mutations have been passed from parent to offspring and ruthlessly filtered by the formidable forces of nature. Time after time, species have fallen by the wayside until only the fittest survive. And you're one of them. We think that's cool.
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| This is Louie the orangutan, and is actually a real (and awesome) photo. Jeff Boxer - ©2002 |
Monday, February 7
Theistic creationism is more than just an attack on evolution. It is also an attack on physics and cosmology. Cosmic creationists claim that the universe cannot be eternal, that it had to begin with a singularity, and that the constants of physics and cosmology are fine-tuned for life. These claims will be refuted. Professor Stenger's next book, The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning, will be out in April.
For more information on Dr. Stenger and his research, see his University of Colorado website.
6:00 PM - "Creation" and Carol Cleland in Eaton Humanities, Room 150
After the showing of "Creation," Dr. Carol Cleland--professor in the Department of Philosophy and chair of the Committee on the History and Philosophy of Science--will speak on the difficulty Darwin faced with rejecting the views with which he had been raised.
Carol E. Cleland is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado (Boulder). Cleland arrived at the University of Colorado in 1986 after spending a year on a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University’s Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI). She is the Chair of the Committee on the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Colorado and a founding member of the University of Colorado’s Center for Astrobiology. She has been affiliated with the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) since 1998. She is currently finishing another book (The Quest for a Universal Theory of Life; Searching for Life as We Don’t Know It).
For more information on Dr. Cleland, see her University of Colorado website.
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Tuesday, February 8
1:30 PM - Johannes Rudolph on "The Irreducible Complexity of DNA Building Blocks" in Old Main Chapel, Room 150
Dr. Johannes Rudolph is a faculty member in Chemistry and Biochemistry here at CU Boulder. He will dispel the rumor of "irreducible complexity," using the example of DNA biosynthesis. The idea of irreducible complexity suggests that there must be a supernatural creator because such things like eyes and DNA are too complex to have evolved by "random chance." Rudolph, however, has an alternative hypothesis.
To find some of his research, go here.
5:30 PM - John Stocke on "Science and Spirituality" in Eaton Humanities, Room 150
Dr. John Stocke is an extragalactic observer who uses all manner of space- and ground-based telescopes to study normal and active galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and intergalactic gas. He is also carrying out a project aimed at detecting changes in fundamental constants (e.g., fine-structure-constant and proton-to-electron mass ratio) with cosmic time. Recently, his primary research interest has been in using the Hubble Space Telescope's spectrographs to discover, inventory, and study intergalactic gas clouds and to figure out their relationship to galaxies. This study has led to the first-ever detection of matter in voids. He is a member of the science team for the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) which was successfully installed on the Hubble Space Telescope last May. They are already using COS to observe distant QSOs to map the structure and physical conditions in the Inter- Galactic Medium (IGM), study starburst galaxies, probe High Velocity Clouds in our own Galaxy and detect the atmosphere and aurora of an extra-solar planet (to name a few).
Just for fun, Dr. Stocke also studies the star knowledge of ancient and indigenous cultures and teaches an introductory undergraduate class called "Ancient Astronomies."
To see more on his research and interests, see here.
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Wednesday, February 9
Matt Young is Senior Lecturer in physics at the Colorado School of Mines, a regular contributor to the influential evolution blog The Panda's Thumb, and President of Colorado Citizens for Science. His most recent book, written with Fairview teacher Paul Strode, is Why Evolution Works (and Creationism Fails). Formerly, he was a Physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and held faculty positions at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Waterloo. He has published roughly 100 scientific papers and reports; written three books on optics, technical writing, and science and religion; and coedited the book Why Intelligent Design Fails.
For more information on Dr. Young's interests, books, and research, see here.
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Thursday, February 10
11:00 AM - Mike Klymkowsky on "Why Understanding Evolution is Hard and Hard to Accept" in Old Main Chapel, Room 150
"Evolutionary theory is not accepted by large segments of the American public. Numerous surveys routinely place us at the bottom of the developed countries in this regard. This often provokes something akin, ironically, to a biblical wailing and gnashing of teeth among segments of the science and education communities. Yet, I would argue that the problem is both more serious (globally) and more hopeful (practically) than it appears." —Dr. Michael Klymkowsky in "Why is Understanding Evolution Hard?" in American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Today, 2011Mike Klymkowsky has been a professor in the department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder for over 25 years. He is also co-director of UC Boulder’s Science/Mathematics teacher recruitment and certification program, CU Teach. During that time, he has taught a wide range of courses on subjects ranging from teaching and learning biology, research methods, evolution and creationism, developmental biology, and the biology of disease. In addition to an active research program into the gene networks that regulate early embryonic patterning, he has become increasingly involved in the design, delivery and evaluation of learning. In 2004, together with his collaborator Kathy Garvin-Doxas, he received an NSF grant to develop the Biology Concept Inventory (BCI), an instrument to examine student understanding of key concepts in the biological sciences. Subsequently he has worked with Melanie Cooper (Clemson University) to build a coherent and effective introductory chemistry curriculum, Chemistry, Life, the Universe, and Everything (CLUE). This has led to the development of a revolutionary new web-based system (BeSocratic) to help students learn and to assess their understanding of a wide range of topics.
Mike received a B.S. in Biophysics from the Pennsylvania State University in 1974 and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the California Institute of Technology in 1980. He was a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Martin Raff (University College London) and with Lee Rubin, Ph.D. (Rockefeller University) before joining the faculty at UC Boulder in 1983. He has published over 100 papers and reviews. In 2009, he was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and was honored with a Best Should Teach award from the School of Education.
5:00 PM - Sarah Wise and Andrea Bair on "Reading Darwin's Doodles" in Muenzinger, Room E0046
This interactive workshop will be co-presentated by Dr. Sarah Wise of MCDB and Dr. Andrea Bair of Geology. Both Bair and Wise are Science Teaching Fellows with the Science Education Initiative (SEI). Wise transitioned from CIRES Outreach to the SEI in 2010. Science Teaching Fellows work with science faculty on campus to help them integrate research-based educational practices into their undergraduate courses, and conduct educational research. Wise is currently supporting the Molecular Neurobiology course in MCDB and researching the richness of clicker question discussions in a variety of biology classes.
Wise’s past projects in CIRES Education and Outreach included a survey of Colorado teachers, “Teaching About Publicly Controversial Science”; the coordination of CIRES Outreach efforts for Focus the Nation; the development of the workshop “Making Climate Hot: Effectively Communicating Climate Change”; and consulting with teachers and teacher professional development providers around the topics of evolution and climate change.
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Friday, February 11
5:00 PM - Douglas Duncan on "Why Do People Misunderstand Science? Maybe it's the way we teach them!" in Eaton Humanities, Room 150Dr. Douglas Duncan is a faculty member in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences of the University of Colorado, and Director of Fiske Planetarium, the most active university planetarium in the US and the largest between Chicago and the Pacific coast.
For more information on Dr. Duncan, go here.
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We hope to see you there!
