Osher Lifelong Learning Institute / CARTA Master Classes

Presented by: Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (UC San Diego Extension) and the UC San Diego/Salk Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA)

Venue: Osher (UC San Diego Extended Studies La Jolla Campus): 8980 Villa La Jolla Drive (site of the former Rock Bottom Brewery)

Coordinators: Jesse Robie (CARTA) and Mavis Porter (Osher)

Format: In this series of talks, five UC San Diego scholars address different topics related to human origins research. The talks are both in person and online. In person participation requires an Osher membership. Each class is a lecture for roughly the first hour followed by participant Q&A.

Upcoming Classes:

Pascal Gagneux	The planet-altering ape Wednesday, October 16, 2024 - 10:00am to 12:00pm This lecture will address how humans became “the planet-altering ape” that is now causing the sixth mass extinction and climate change crises and how we can become “the planet-protecting ape.” The evolutionary lineage leading to humans underwent many defining changes since our last common ancestor with chimpanzees: we became bipedal; exploited diverse ecosystems; evolved into top predators; developed complex tools; tamed fire; and developed our most powerful social tool: language. These traits allowed our species to colonize every ecosystem and produce cumulative culture, which in turn shaped much of our biology. Humans now drive the sixth mass extinction and climate change. Will our capacity for pro-social behavior, empathy, imagination, and behavioral flexibility allow us to find urgently needed solutions for averting these existential crises?
Nicholas Nelson	Anthropogeny Graduate Specialization experience Wednesday, October 30, 2024 - 10:00am to 12:00pm This lecture will share the experience of working towards a Ph.D. in biology at UC San Diego with tales and insights gleaned as a student of human origins in CARTA’s Anthropogeny Graduate Specialization. Nicholas Nelson investigates the neuroscience of chronic pain, yet his most impactful graduate school experience was found outside of the lab. He will share how digging and hunting for food and singing and dancing around the fire with a tribe of hunter-gatherers in Tanzania while on the Anthropogeny Field Course has been an enormous gift that enhanced his studies and shaped him as a biologist and a person trying to do right in the world.
Rachel Mayberry	How language in the environment shapes the child’s brain Wednesday, November 13, 2024 - 10:00am to 12:00pm Why talk to babies? To grow their brains! Babies don’t talk to us, so why should we talk to them? Do they understand us better when we use high pitched and simplified baby talk? Why do we so often use baby talk with babies anyway? Do babies get confused when we use more than one language with them? Does using sign language help or hurt babies’ language development? Recent research provides answers to these questions, showing how babies learn language and what happens to their brains when they do. This talk gives a broad overview of how the language in the environment affects brain development, especially the language system, a hallmark of human evolution.
Federico Rossano	Animal communication Wednesday, November 27, 2024 - 10:00am to 12:00pm This lecture will explore how different animal species communicate and what is similar and different between human communication and other animals' ways of communicating. We will review different types of animal signaling, the informative vs. manipulative functions of communication, when and why non-human animals communicate and discuss how rare are the vocal learning abilities of humans in the animal kingdom. While presenting examples from several animal species (primates, ravens, bees, dolphins, dogs and cats) we will outline how studying animal communication can provide us with a window into their minds and enhance our understanding of our companions on this planet.

Past Classes:

	Media	Class
Tatum Simonson		Human high-altitude adaptation Oct 2, 2024 This lecture focuses on how permanent high-altitude residents have adapted to low oxygen levels in the Himalayan, Andean, and Ethiopian highlands. Important biological factors are key to these adaptations, which vary among continental groups. Recent studies show that different changes lead to... read more
Pascal Gagneux		One Health and Emerging Diseases Dec 7, 2022 This talk will address the latest insights into the origin of humans and how this single species of primate became a planetary force. I will discuss biological aspects ranging from molecules (e.g., DNA, glycoproteins, antibodies, etc.) to societies (e.g., nature deficit syndrome, habitat... read more
Margaret Schoeninger		Evolution of the Human Diet Nov 23, 2022 This lecture will discuss the evolution of the human diet in a comparative setting. It will highlight the importance of cultural inventions from hunting prey much larger than ourselves to processing and cooking food. All indications are that humans are now biologically dependent on the cultural... read more
Carol Marchetto		Stem Cells and Human Evolution Nov 9, 2022 Comparative analyses of brain cells in closely related species can shed light on changes occurring during evolution. The study of post-mortem brains of nonhuman primates (NHPs) has been limited and often does not recapitulate important species- specific developmental hallmarks. This talk will... read more
Adena Schachner		Music, Dance, Evolution: The Origins and Consequences of Human Musicality Oct 26, 2022 Music and dance are cultural universals and begin early in infancy. In this talk, we'll explore the origins of these fundamentally human behaviors, from an evolutionary, cognitive, and developmental perspective. Why can humans move to a beat, while many other species cannot? What can children’s... read more
Charles Kennel		The Coming Crisis of the Anthropocene Oct 12, 2022 This talk will broadly trace connections between past and present human exploitation of the environment, the coming crisis of the Anthropocene and what we humans can do to alleviate the crisis.
Lindsay Hunter		Rising Star Cave’s Chambers of Secrets Dec 2, 2020 The Rising Star Cave near South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site has produced some of the greatest fossil hominin discoveries. Paleoanthropologist and underground astronaut Lindsay Hunter gives a firsthand account of its exploration.
Federico Rossano		The Evolutionary Roots of Human Sociality Nov 25, 2020 Humans are social animals, but so are many other animals. Yet compared to other non-human primates, humans appear to be more cooperative with each other, have greater control of their communicative signals, and appear to spend more time interacting with each other. So what is special about human... read more
Patricia Churchland		The Brains Behind Morality Nov 4, 2020 This lecture will discuss the concept of morality as it relates to human behavior. What are the social and neurobiological roots of moral behavior?
Pascal Gagneux		Evolution of the Human Diet Oct 7, 2020 This lecture will address the evolution of the human diet in a comparative setting. It will highlight the importance of cultural inventions from hunting prey much larger than ourselves to processing and cooking food. All indications are that humans are now biologically dependent on the cultural... read more
Margaret Schoeninger		Fossil Record of Human Origins Sep 30, 2020 This lecture focuses on the fossil record with an emphasis on ecological changes and associated dietary changes facilitating the appearance of anatomically modern humans (AMHs). We begin by tracing the evolution of the earliest primate-like mammals from more than 50 million years ago (mya), to the... read more