NHMLA Talks | Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

Taking a night off from his USC lab, Dr. Steven Finkel will talk about roles of microbes in three ways: how microbes set the stage for life on Earth; the current roles of microbes in our ecosystem; and their practical applications now and in the future.

Dr. Janet Kübler, from the Biomimicry Guild's Speakers Bureau, will show us how life is helping humans build a more beautiful, efficient and connected place in the biosphere. The presentation will cover what biomimicry is and isn't, giving examples of current, developing and dream technology based on living systems including learning about communications systems from bees and fungi, safe transport from locusts and about holding things together from mollusks in the sea.

Learn through this astonishing scientific adventure whether the long-sought secret of eternal youth has at last been found. From Berkeley to the Bronx, from Cambridge University to Dante's tomb in Ravenna, Jonathan Weiner meets the leading intellectuals in the field and delves into the mind-blowing science behind the latest research.

Why do we have our best ideas in the shower? Which drugs make us more creative? Why are certain cities so much innovative than others? Does brainstorming work? These are a few of the questions that will be addressed in Lehrer's talk, which features material from his forthcoming book, "Imagine."

More than a quarter century ago, it was suggested that galaxies such as our own Milky Way may harbor massive, though possibly dormant, central black holes. Definitive proof, for or against, the existence of a massive central black hole lies in the assessment of the distribution of matter in the center of the Galaxy. The motion of the stars in the vicinity of a black hole offers a way to determine this distribution. Based on 10 years of high resolution imaging, Dr. Ghez's team has moved the case for a supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center from a possibility to a certainty.

With photos, maps, and computer animations, Atwater will describe the peculiar patterns of Southern California's mountains, valleys, and coastlines. Then she'll show how these were formed-one earthquake at a time-by the grinding between the huge North American and Pacific plates.

David Anderson is using molecular genetic techniques to map and probe neural circuits that underlie innate behaviors in both mice and fruit flies. These behavioral responses, and associated internal states (such as arousal), form the evolutionary underpinnings of emotional behavior in higher organisms.

What would it take for the world to get away from fossil fuels and convert to renewable energy? The dirty secret is: It'll take more than a Prius in the garage and solar panels on the roof. If we want to use wind, solar thermal and electric, biomass, hydroelectric and geothermal energy, it will take planning and willingness on the part of governments and industry.

Their medium is silk; their mission is to spin. Spiders are the unparalleled architects and engineers of the natural world, and in this talk, Hayashi introduces the basic biology of spider silk, and shares recent research on its genetics and biomechanics.

Evolution happened, and the theory describing it is one of the most well-founded in all of science. Then why do half of all Americans reject it? In his book Why Darwin Matters, and in this same-titled talk, historian of science and bestselling author Dr. Michael Shermer - a former evangelical Christian - examines what evolution really is, how we know it happened, and how to test it. Shermer looks at science through a brief history of the evolution-creation trials and debates from the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 to the intelligent design controversies of the 1990s and 2000s, and demonstrates how and why creationism and intelligent design are not part of science

Paleoanthropologist Dr. Donald C. Johanson - founder of human-evolution think tank, the Institute of Human Origins - highlights some of his discoveries, including the most widely known fossil find of last century, the Lucy skeleton. Although the 20th century has been peppered with important fossil hominid finds from both eastern and southern Africa, it was Dr. Johanson's 1974 discovery of a 3.2-million-year-old hominid fossil in Ethiopia that added a crucial link. Lucy prompted ongoing debate and major revisions in our understanding of the human evolutionary past - because the skeleton possessed an intriguing mixture of ape-like features, but also characters we consider human.

Darwin's is best known for his theory of natural selection which explains how organisms evolve adaptations for survival. His second theory, sexual selection, attempts to describe why males and females of the same species can differ so markedly, and why the sexes can have traits that decrease their ability to survive. Dr. Michael Ryan, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and zoology professor at the University of Texas, Austin, reviews our understanding of sexual behavior in animals, including humans.

Why do we look the way we do? The answers to this question come from seemingly strange places: from the bodies, fossils and DNA of everything from microbes to worms and fish. Dr. Neil H. Shubin is a paleontologist and Associate Dean of Organismal and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago. He'll guide guests through the discovery of a key link between fish and amphibians, and how this ancient event informs the basic structure of the human body.

In recent years, the topics of evolution, creationism and "intelligent design" have become more controversial than ever. Creationists make lot of false claims about the fossil record and the evidence from "transitional forms" that demonstrate the evolution of new groups of animals. In this lecture, Dr. Don Prothero, Professor of Geology at Occidental College and Lecturer in Geobiology at Caltech, looks at the evidence for evolution from the fossil record, the documentation of important "transitional fossils" discovered over the past 20 years, and the implications of evolution for science and society

Using little-known letters, diaries, and notebooks, writer Lyanda Lynn Haupt explores Darwin's own evolution - from his beginning as a fumbling neophyte student of the natural world to his emergence as an original, creative naturalist who could draw complex scientific truths from the observation of life around him.