Category: Science

Last December CARTA, the UC San Diego / Salk Center for Advanced Research and Training in Anthropogeny, brought together experts to discuss The Evolution of Human Altruism, that uniquely human (or is it?) trait that would compel one, as Donald Pfaff of Rockefeller University related, to throw himself in front of a speeding train to save the life of another human being that he has never met – or with whom he doesn’t even share the same racial phenotype….while leaving his own offspring behind…

Why? Do lions do that? Do chimps? How do we even define altruism? How do we study it? Does it define us, and our humanity?

In the same inimitable manner as all CARTA symposia, the eminent experts from all fields help us grapple with this enduring, very human, mystery.

CARTA’s Evolution of Human Altruism series premieres April 13 at 9pm on UCSD-TV and continues each subsequent Wednesday through April.

At the CARTA Symposium on Early Hominids, held October 1, 2010 at UC San Diego, UC Berkeley’s Tim White, better known for directing the team that brought Ardipithecus Ramidus, or “Ardi” to light, commented on Charles Darwin:

“175 years ago, Charles Darwin visited the Galapagos. He arrived at the Galapagos as a creationist, and he left the Galapagos as a creationist.”

Darwin, of course, was a keen observer. And he not only left the Galapagos as a creationist, he also left with many observations of the natural world–observations he used to help develop his idea of evolution by natural selection. His ideas were based on the physical evidence the natural world presented him. And you’ll get the same opportunity with these new talks from this fascinating CARTA symposium.

OK, you won’t get a trip to the Galapagos, but you will get a journey through time from all over Africa in a dazzling array of evidence presented directly to you by the individuals who are digging, unearthing and bringing to light — in shards, bits of teeth, phalanges, crania and climatic records — the evidence, the record, the hard proof of the very, very early history of Hominids – our Clade, our Family.

It is one of, if not the most, complete and compelling collections of evidence on this subject I have ever seen presented to the public and, as Tim exhorts at the beginning of the symposium, “there has never been a symposium like this, and it is exceedingly unlikely that there will ever be another one.”

Don’t miss the series. Really, don’t. It starts airing every Wednesday night in February, beginning February 2 with Tim White’s fascinating and compelling overview of the search for evidence of our earliest ancestors, and Andrew Hill’s vivid picture of what our earliest ancestors’ world looked like, and how it influenced their evolution.

On another note, a dime a day, just one thin dime….actually, less than one thin dime….two CRV redemptions…”What?” You say?

You may be aware of the dire future facing the University of California and public education as a whole. To gain a little perspective, here are some amazing facts and research about the financial future of public education or, more accurately, what it could be, and how little it would really take. Do the math, it’s all there, more than you need, really…and well, the math doesn’t lie.

A new year will soon be upon us, as will some fascinating new programs for you to enjoy. I just finished prepping Tom Murphy’s presentation “Einstein, The Moon, and the Long-Lost Soviet Reflector,” about his on-going and ever-improving test of general relativity, which will start airing on January 26. If you’ve ever stumbled getting a grasp of the prime tenets of Einsteinian – or the gravity of general relativity – Tom clears it all up and gives a captivating account of a truly remarkable project. I don’t want to give it all away, you’ll have to watch it.

And, of course, don’t miss the singular Ira Flatow as he explains why I like science so much — because, as he shows in his acceptance address for the Nierenberg Award, “Science is Sexy” (debuts January 12).

In the meantime, here are a few things I’ve run across that you might enjoy exploring– a few holiday gifts, if you will.

I recently came across an artist from UCSD who takes an interesting, evocative and different perspective of the seismic test capacities at UCSD. See her videos, recorded at UCSD’s SRMD test facility, at her website here – and don’t overlook her other fine work.

This is just a fun little app to play with, which actually is quite captivating and revealing. Go here.

And finally, on a more reflective note, the videos at Symphony of Science are inventive, sometimes goofy, but do resonate in a certain way.

Enjoy, and best wishes for your holidays.