Beth Shapiro, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz, is a pioneer in the growing field of paleogenomics: reconstructing the ecology and genetic evolution of past species from tiny samples of ancient preserved DNA. Shapiro's team has applied this approach to understanding the histories of megafauna such as mammoths and polar bears, early humans and archaic hominins, alligators, horses, and the iconic passenger pigeon. Shapiro has been involved in a national effort examining whether and how to restore the passenger pigeon from extinction. She is author of How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of De-Extinction (Princeton University Press, 2015).
At our holiday dinner, Shapiro will bring us up to date on the difficult science--and challenging ethics--of resurrecting extinct species from recovered bits of their DNA. She'll also have tales from the field in the Arctic, where her team searches for the most intact samples of long-dead species, and from the lab, where she has developed new ways of working with the most fragile and fragmented genetic samples from across the eons.
The menu will include a banquet of classic Chinese dishes including Peking duck, vegetarian chow fun, supreme seafood soup, deep fried crispy tofu, and fried rice.
WHERE: Hong Kong Flower Lounge, 51 E. Millbrae Ave., Millbrae, CA 94030 (a 7-minute walk from the Millbrae BART station) MAP
WHEN: Tuesday, December 5, 2017
6 - 7 pm No-host happy hour
7 - 8:30 pm Dinner
8:30 - 10 pm Program & speaker
COST: $28 members/$20 student members/$40 non-members
RSVP: Register by midnight Sunday, December 3, 2017.
