Space is limited; $10 cover (cash only) includes one drink
First Come, First Served
No Reservations, No Saving Seats

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Fall 2009 Series on the Upper West Side:

The Day Before Yesterday: An Evolutionary Guide to Preserving Species
Evolutionary Geneticist Don Melnick
September 14, 6–7 p.m.

Contrary to popular belief, the principal goal of conservation should not be to conserve a species as it is today, but rather its evolutionary potential to become whatever it will become in the future. The decline of populations, their genetic diversity, and their habitats has seriously constrained the potential for species to adapt to environmental changes at the very time that those changes seem to be increasing their pace. What can we do? Molecular genetic analyses have proven useful in addressing relevant questions related to the population biology of species, the evolutionary relationships among closely related species, and the conservation of genetic and species diversity. I will use a series of case studies from my research around the world to illustrate each of these uses. In addition, I will draw connections between understanding population and evolutionary biology and implementing conservation strategies.
Click here to read about Don Melnick and his work in the New York Times.

Click here to read a New York Times OP-ED article written by Don Melnick and
Mary Pearl.

From Antisocial to Social: Infanticide Through a Darwinian Lens
Behavioral Ecologist Marina Cords
October 12, 6–7 p.m.

For Darwin himself and well into the next century, the deliberate killing of infants was generally viewed as aberrant and maladaptive behavior. Today, however, biologists have documented not only that such behavior is widespread in certain parts of the animal kingdom, including our close primate relatives, but also that its occurrence jives well with Darwins theory of adaptation. We will focus on infanticide by males, and explore how this evidently macabre behavior can be viewed as a result of evolution through sexual selection, an evolutionary process first articulated by Darwin. We will also consider how female counter-strategies to infanticidal attacks may be at the evolutionary heart of social living in the closest living relatives of humans.

Darwin and the End of Evolution
Ecologist Shahid Naeem
November 9, 6–7 p.m.

For three and a half billion years, species have originated and subsequently suffered extinction, yielding as many as one hundred-million different kinds of plants, animals, and microorganisms. With every origination, each species, no matter how small or short lived, contributed to the transformation of Earth’s sterile surface to the life-sustaining Biosphere we live in today. While Darwin’s evolutionary theory provided tremendous insight into origination and extinction, it saw no direction or end to the process, suggesting that although every species influences the environment, the habitability of Biosphere is just an accident and not shaped by evolution. The evolution of our species and the mass extinction we are causing, however, suggests to some that perhaps humans were the direction and end of evolution–the production of a single species that would come to dominate the Earth. If this is true, what happens to the habitability of the biosphere? We will consider Darwin, the end of evolution, and the future of humanity over drinks at the café.

The Birds and the Underwater Bees: Sex Education in Animal Societies
Evolutionary and Behavioral Ecologist Dustin Rubenstein
December 14, 6–7 p.m.

Darwin was fascinated by the cooperative behaviors of social insects. Today we know complex social behavior, or family living, is also common in birds, mammals, and even amoebas and shrimp. As we all know, living with relatives fosters cooperation, but it can also generate conflict. This conflict can have important evolutionary consequences not only for the structure of the family, but also on various behaviors and traits like elaborate ornaments. Although best known for his theory of evolution by natural selection, Darwin also developed a theory of sexual selection to explain why male birds typically have brighter plumage or sing more than females, or why male deer have antlers but most females do not. A renewed interest in ornamentation in females, especially in the context of family-living, is shedding new light on some of Darwin’s greatest ideas. Do the same processes that explain elaborate traits like the peacock’s tail affect female ornaments in other species? Does living with relatives result in more elaborately decorated females? We will explore Darwin’s ideas of natural and sexual selection by relating them to the more modern idea of kin selection to explore the causes and consequences of family-living in animals.