[CS] Svante Pääbo: "Human Origins - A Comparative Approach" Nov. 7 Lecture at 5:30 p.m.

[Paula Harmon]

Svante Pääbo, Director of the Max Planck 
Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, 
Germany
"A Comparative Approach to Human Origins"
TUESDAY, NOV. 7, 5:30 p.m., FPH Main Lecture Hall

Please ANNOUNCE and forward this to others who 
might like to hear the lecture. Thank you.
ABSTRACT: One approach to understanding what 
makes humans unique as a species is to perform 
structural and functional comparisons between the 
genomes of humans and our closest evolutionary 
relatives the great apes. Recently, the draft 
sequence of the chimpanzee genome has opened up 
new possibilities in this area. I will describe 
work that compares the DNA sequences and 
activities of human and chimpanzee genes and 
discuss evidence that suggests that genes 
expressed in the brain may have been particularly 
important during human evolution. I will also 
argue that a genome-wide analysis of the 
Neanderthal genome would substantially enhance 
our ability to identify genes that have been 
recent targets of positive selection during human 
evolution.

More information: http://www.eva.mpg.de/genetics/files/team_paabo.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4986668.stm

BIOGRAPHICAL INFO.: Svante Pääbo is Director of 
The Department of Evolutionary Genetics at The 
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary 
Anthropology. He is a biologist specializing in 
evolutionary genetics. Recently, his research 
team isolated the long segments of genetic 
material from a 45,000-year-old Neanderthal 
fossil from Croatia. Their work should reveal how 
closely related the Neanderthal species was to 
modern humans, Homo sapiens.

This is a Distinguished Lecture of the Foundation 
for Psychocultural Research - Hampshire College 
Program in Culture, Brain, and Development (CBD) 
http://cbd.hampshire.edu


-- 
Paula Harmon, Coordinator
Foundation for Psychocultural Research-Hampshire 
College Program in Culture, Brain, and 
Development (CBD)
Adele Simmons Hall, Room 100
Hampshire College, Amherst, MA 01002
phone: 413-559-5501; fax: 413-559-5438
email: cbd at hampshire.edu
http://cbd.hampshire.edu
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