The Public Science Lectures December 09, 2009 Belmont Media Center, Belmont MA

Chris Organ, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor, Brown University; Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University

Recent discoveries of preserved genetic material in ancient fossils are providing a much more accurate and comprehensive biological profile of extinct organisms than was previously possible to obtain. Dr. Chris Organ, a post-doctoral Fellow in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and adjunct professor at Brown University, has been a leader in developing this research and the techniques that make it possible. He explains how scientists are using ancient genomes to reveal the biological and evolutionary facts of extinct creatures, from dinosaurs to Neanderthals. In this presentation, Dr. Organ describes the detective work that has led to an understanding of how birds evolved from one line of dinosaurs. This talk is a real inspiration for anyone interested in how evolution works.

Dr. Organ has written extensively on the evolution of birds from dinosaurs, and he has been a guest on many television programs. We are very honored that he agreed to record this lecture, which he had presented a few months earlier in our 2009 Boston Public Library series.