February 12th marks the 212th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution. Over the last couple of decades a movement to establish an international Darwin Day has been growing. A group in Iowa City celebrates Darwin Day every year by highlighting the work of modern evolutionary scientists. This year the celebration is virtual, of course, and will take place Friday, February 12th and Friday February 19th. Both events are free and open to the public, and you can join from anywhere. More information is available on their website.
On this edition of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe speaks with one of Darwin Day's featured speakers, Erich Jarvis.
Jarvis studies song learning birds. Not just birds with recognizable calls and songs, but birds that can learn new patterns and songs. This allows him to study the molecular and genetic mechanisms that correlate with vocal learning, including how humans learned spoken language.
He is a professor and head of the Laboratory and Neurogenetics of Language at Rockefeller University. He also chairs the international Vertebrate Genomes Project and Jarvis will be the Iowa City Darwin Day speaker on Friday, February 12th at 12 PM CST.
GUEST:
· Erich Jarvis, professor, investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University
