Quantcast The Current
College Media Network

Zoo science seminars offer gateway to science

Cate Marquis

Issue date: 10/8/07 Section: Opinions
The St. Louis Zoo is one of UM-St. Louis' partners in the Whitney R. Harris World Ecology Center.

On selected Wednesdays, the Zoo partners with another St. Louis science institution, the Academy of Science - St. Louis, for a series of free talks on current science matters and recent discoveries by noted local scientists.

The talks are geared for non-scientist adults and are presented on Wednesday evenings in the auditorium at the Zoo's Living World.

This Wednesday, Oct. 10, Ursula Goodenough will speak on "Emergence: Nature's Mode of Creativity" at 7:30 p.m. Goodenough is professor of Biology at Washington University and is a Fellow of the Academy of Science - St. Louis. She is author of "The Sacred Depths of Nature."

Goodenough explores the implications of how scientists often study natural processes by reducing them to ever-smaller components and ever-simpler laws in an effort to understand the processes, like putting Humpty Dumpty back together again, despite the fact that scientists are moving in the opposite direction of the way the processes evolved.

Goodenough uses plain language to discuss the concept of emergence, how new properties arise in non-living and living systems. She links the concepts to the origin and evolution of life, human consciousness, existential yearnings, and the critical project of sustainability and habitat preservation.

UM-St. Louis's Des Lee Professor of Zoological Studies, Patricia Parker, will speak on "Conservation Medicine in the Galapagos Islands: Disease Threats to Endemic Birds" on Wednesday, Dec. 5 at 7:30 p.m. Parker is also Senior Scientist at the Zoo and a Fellow of the Academy of Science - St. Louis.

Her presentation focuses on how wildlife populations around the world, particularly those on islands, are threatened by the increased spread of diseases. UM - St. Louis' Biology Department, the Zoo, the Charles Darwin Foundation, and the Galapagos National Park are collaborating on the first-ever of survey of Galapagos Islands pathogens.
Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools

Be the first to comment on this story

  • NOTE: Email address will not be published

Type your comment below (html not allowed)

  I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Advertisement

Advertisement