Darwin Bicentennial Lectures April 2 and 6

Story by Anna Oakes

Indiana University professor Elisabeth Lloyd presents a lecture titled “Darwinian Evolution and the Female Orgasm: Explanations and Puzzles” in the Blue Ridge Ballroom of the Plemmons Student Union on Thursday, April 2.

The final two lectures in the Darwin Bicentennial Series at Appalachian State University will take place Thursday, April 2, and Monday, April 6, with talks by Indiana University professor Elisabeth Lloyd and paleontologist Niles Eldredge, respectively.

The Darwin Bicentennial Series is a yearlong celebration of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution held to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. Sponsored by the University Forum Committee at ASU, the series features free public lectures, films and other events.

For more information about these events, call 828-262-7660 or click to www.UniversityForum.appstate.edu.

Elisabeth Lloyd: Darwinian Evolution and the Female Orgasm April 2

On Thursday, April 2, at 8:00 p.m., Elisabeth Lloyd will present a lecture titled “Darwinian Evolution and the Female Orgasm: Explanations and Puzzles” in the Blue Ridge Ballroom of the Plemmons Student Union. Lloyd is chair of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University.

Lloyd received her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Colorado in 1980 and her Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1984, where she worked with Bas van Fraassen. She has received numerous awards and grants, including several from the National Science Foundation.

Her research interests are primarily in the philosophy of biology, general philosophy of science, the role of models in science and gender issues in science.

Her books include The Structure and Confirmation of Evolutionary Theory (1988 and 1994) and The Case of the Female Orgasm: Bias in Evolutionary Science (2005). In this latest book, Lloyd examines and analyzes what is known about the female orgasm and questions and criticizes the various evolutionary explanations for the female orgasm.

Her work takes on the effect of sexist and male-centered approaches to science as well as a bias toward adaptationism—the assumption, without sufficient evidence, that female orgasms must exist because they helped females reproduce in the past.

Niles Eldredge: The Origin of Modern Evolutionary Biology April 6

Niles Eldredge, a paleontologist on the curatorial staff of the American Museum of Natural History since 1969, will speak at ASU on Monday, April 6.

A lecture by paleontologist Niles Eldredge titled “Darwin, The Beagle, and the Origin of Modern Evolutionary Biology” is scheduled for Monday, April 6, at 8:00 p.m. in Farthing Auditorium. Eldredge has served as a paleontologist on the curatorial staff of the American Museum of Natural History since 1969. His specialty is the evolution of trilobites, a group of extinct arthropods that lived between 535 and 245 million years ago.

Eldredge’s main professional passion is evolution. Throughout his career, he has used repeated patterns in the history of life to refine ideas on how the evolutionary process actually works. The theory of “punctuated equilibria,” developed with Stephen Jay Gould in 1972, was an early milestone. Eldredge went on to develop a hierarchical vision of evolutionary and ecological systems, and in his book The Pattern of Evolution (1999), he has developed a comprehensive theory (the “sloshing bucket”) that specifies in detail how environmental change governs the evolutionary process.

Concerned with the rapid destruction of many of the world’s habitats and species, Eldredge was Curator-in-Chief of the American Museum's Hall of Biodiversity (May, 1998), and has written several books on the subject—most recently Life in the Balance (1998). He has also combated the creationist movement through lectures, articles and books—including The Triumph of Evolution...And The Failure of Creationism (2000).

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