Anthropology Event

IUN Darwin Day features several excellent speakers on science, humanities, evolution, and Darwin, with cake and songs, and just plain fun.  The featured speakers will each talk for 15 to 20 minutes, with a few minutes for questions between talks.  So come whenever you can, and stay as long as you want.

12:00   Michael LaPointe's talk:
"Genetics changes in health and disease - interactions with our environment"
The talk would be in layman's terms. I will explain what genes are, define alleles, mutations and polymorphisms, etc and then give examples on how changes have been shown to affect diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and sickle cell anemia.  I will discuss how environmental conditions, on one hand, can select for certain traits, and how other environmental conditions or lifestyles can then result in disease. The talk would be partially scientific, part philosophy and part opinion.

12:30  Karl Nelson's talk:
"The influences of evolution in relation to mate selection and jealousy"
Darwin's evolutionary theory has strongly influenced research in several areas of psychology.  Sexual behavior has represented a particularly fertile area of research.  This talk will provide a brief overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the predictions based on evolutionary theory.  Topics addressed will include sexual behavior, infidelity, jealousy, and desired characteristics in life-mates.  I will give a general outline, and discuss points where this model appears to break down (e.g., substantial similarities in desired characteristics of spouses).

1:00  Cutting of Charles' birthday cake
 
1:15  Peter Avis' talk:
"How mutations saved my fungus-loving life." 
A central theme in my work is how I distinguish one fungus from the next.  At the core of these differences are mutations, which are at the core of so much biological variation and hence evolution.  Darwin didn't really know so much about the molecular end of this, but I'm sure he'd be keen on how we understand them today.  So, I will briefly discuss what mutations are, how they arise, what happens if they are beneficial, neutral or not, and how I, as a mycophile, utilize mutations to study fungi.

1:45  Jacqueline Lipski's talk:
"Anthropology in the field: Belize"
I will talk about the experience of going to another country and being an archaeologist in the field: having to live without a lot of things that we as Americans take for granted, dealing with the people of the village near the dig site, the conditions we lived in (no electricity, no running water, lots of mud and bugs, etc), getting to experience a whole other culture from my own, dealing with trying not to be a tourist by being respectful, coping with missing home and the constant mud and rain that halted work, and the frustration it all.  Darwin knew a lot about traveling to different places to try and find out more about humanity's past.  In a way, I was doing just that but on a smaller scale.  


Biographical profiles:

Michael S. LaPointe Ph.D.
Dr. LaPointe joined the faculty at Indiana University Northwest as an Assistant Professor of Biology in January 2004.  Concurrently, he is an adjunct Assistant Professor of Cellular and Integrative Physiology at the Northwest Center for Medical Education, Indiana University School of Medicine. 
He received his B.S. from Loyola University, Chicago, with a double major in Biology and Classical Studies.  His Ph.D. is from the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the Illinois University School of Medicine at UIC, in Chicago.  After receiving his doctorate, he completed a four year postdoctoral research fellowship in the Department Medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University.  He then continued at Northwestern University as research faculty at the medical school for about 12 years before joining IUN.
Dr. LaPointe has co-authored 21 scientific manuscripts, 2 book chapters, and 86 abstracts for presentation at local, national, and international conferences.

Karl Nelson Ph.D
Dr. Nelson started in the Fall of 2003.  He brings to IU Northwest expertise in applied statistics and chaos theory.  He is currently faculty advisor to the Psychology Club.  Areas of research currently include student interactions in the classroom, psychological tests and measurements (how do we know what we think we know in psychology?), and addictions-related topics.
Education:
PhD, Psychology, University of Hawaii, 2003
MA, Psychology,  Minnesota State University at Mankato, 1998
BA, Psychology, Concordia College, 1993
Areas of Expertise:  Psychology     Clinical Psychology     Tests and Measurements

Peter Avis Ph.D
Dr. Avis joined the faculty at IUN in the fall of 2007 as Assistant Professor of Biology.
Education:
PhD 2003. University of Minnesota (UMN)
Dissertation Title: The effects of increased nitrogen supply on the
ectomycorrhizal communities of a temperate deciduous ecosystem
M.S. 1998. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC)
Thesis Title: The effects of nitrogen and phosphorus additions on the arbuscular
mycorrhizal inoculum potential of an oak-maple forest in Virginia
Fulbright Fellow 1995-1996. Latvijas Universitate, Riga


Jacqueline Lipski
Jacqueline is a English major, minoring in Psychology, and getting an Associate's in Anthropology.  She is planning on going to Bloomington next year to get her B.A. in Anthropology and then go on to Graduate School for Library Sciences and/or Museum Studies.

Oh, and we will be selling the Darwin fish emblems and Anthro Club and Darwin T-shirts.

Learn more about Darwin Day, an international celebration, at: http://www.darwinday.org/

The video of the 2006 IUN Darwin Day debate on intelligent design is now up and running on the web as a streaming Quicktime video; go to http://www.iun.edu/~anthronc/darwin2006.shtml

At right is Charles Darwin's tomb in Westminster Abbey

A wonderful site on Darwin's life can be found at:  http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/Darwin/DarwinSem-S95.html
A site called "Things Creationists Hate" http://www.skepticreport.com/creationism/thingscreationistshate.htm
And a decidedly anti-evolution site:  http://www.pathlights.com/ce_encyclopedia/20hist10.htm
 
 

 

For more events, visit the IUN Anthropology Home Page