Anthropology
Event
Anthropology
Event
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Cheer up,
Charles, we're
going to celebrate your birthday The IUN
Anthropology Club
presents: THE TWELFTH
ANNUAL IUN Wednesday February 10, 2010 12 noon to
2:30 pm Free admission, open to the
public,
refreshments served
Featuring talks by Xiaoqing
Diana Chen Lin, PhD, IUN Associate Professor of History 12:30 "Mysterious Traces of Life on the Deep Sea Floor"
1:00
Cutting of Darwin's Birthday Cake
1:15 pm "How Evolutionary Medicine Helps Us Understand Our Common Diseases" Jack Bloom, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology and IUN Adjunct Associate Professor of Minority Studies and of History 1:45 pm “Modern Social Darwinism” |
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information on the speakers and talks 12:30 Zoran Kilibarda "Mysterious Traces of Life on the Deep Sea Floor" Abstract Fossils are remnants of ancient life preserved in rocks or sediments. Trace fossils are traces of ancient life activity but without remnants of an organism. Geologists doing field work find many dinosaur tracks (trace fossils) but few dinosaur bones (fossils). Likewise, archeologists doing field fork find many flint points, pottery, ruins (traces of human activity - equivalent to trace fossil) but few human bones (fossils). Being much more common than body fossils trace fossils are very valuable tool in studying life of the past and reconstructing the environment in which those ancient organisms lived. Paleodictyon is a hexagonal, beehive-like, trace fossil found in turbidites, sedimentary rocks that form in deep sea environment . It's perfect hexagonal form made Paleodictyon intriguing to early explorers who speculated that it represents a trace of an animal that touched deep sea soft sediment. There are fifteen species of Paleodictyon found in rocks of Cambrian (550 million years ago) to Eocene (50 million years ago) age. But in all the instances of Paleodictyon occurrence there was never a hint of an organism (fossil) that built it. Geologists hold the view that Paleodictyon represents a hexagonal tunnel system constructed by an unknown worm-like invertebrate for the purpose of faming bacteria in an oxygen deficient deep sea environment. For many years geologists thought that Paleodictyon is an extinct trace fossil whose origin would remain a mystery. Recent advances in deep sea exploration changed our views about origin of life on Earth, abundance of life at the ocean bottom, and among other things, led to discovery of modern Paleodictyon. Despite of our much better understanding of Paleodictyon hexagonal tunnel pattern, except for bacteria, scientist failed to find any organism associated with this trace fossil. Thus, the maker of Paleodictyon still remains a mystery. My brief biography Born in Montenegro, former Yugoslavia. Earned B.A. and M.A. in Geography at the University of Belgrade. Worked as TA/Instructor at Faculty of Philosophy, University of Montenegro from 1983 to 1989. Came to the United States in 1989 and earned Ph.D. degree in Geology at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln in 1994. Worked as an Adjunct and Visiting Assistant Professor at IU Northwest 1999-2001, Visiting Assistant Professor at Winona State University 2001-02, Visiting Assistant Professor at Central Michigan University 2002-03, and back at IU Northwest as a tenure track faculty in 2003. Promoted to Associate Professor of Geology in 2008. Research interests: eolian and carbonate sediments and sedimentary rocks. Wife Vesna, children Ivana and Nikola. Like outdoors, travel, reading, playing and watching many sports. 1:30 Jack Bloom “Modern Social Darwinism” Dr. Bloom will discuss what Social Darwinism was when it was originally articulated, why it fell into disuse, and the modern forms it took when it reemerged. He will discuss and critique the theories of functionalism,The Bell Curve and the new field of sociobiology.
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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 20 to 25
minutes, with a few minutes for questions between talks. So come
whenever you can, and stay as long as you want.
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/
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 At right is Charles Darwin's tomb in Westminster Abbey |
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For more information on this event,
call Bob Mucci at 219-980-6607
Or you can Email Bob
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
