The Supreme Court and Key Constitutional Quandaries

*Insert intro paragraph October 5

Professor Ajit Varki: Overview of Human Origins and Implications for MedicineDescribing briefly what is known about the origin of humans, this lecture will discuss how this information is relevant to many human diseases, including some that are unique to us as a species.

Presenter: Ajit Varki is Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Cellular & Molecular Medicine at UCSD and Co-Director of CARTA. He received training in physiology, medicine, biology, and biochemistry at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, The University of Nebraska, and Washington University in St. Louis. He also has formal training and board certification in internal medicine, hematology, and oncology. His research interests focus on a family of cell-surface sugars, called the Sialic Acids, and their roles in biology, evolution, and disease –– with a particular emphasis on changes unique to the human lineage. Most recently, he co-authored a popular science book, Denial: Self-Deception, False Beliefs, and the Origins of the Human Mind.

October 19

Professor Pascal Gagneux: Evidence from Primatology and Genetics

This lecture will discuss humans within the context of mammalian and primate evolution. Comparing genetic information of living species provides much insight into human-specific changes and their roles in shaping our unique biology.

Pascal Gagneux is Associate Professor of Pathology at UCSD and Associate Director of CARTA. He received his PhD in Zoology at the University of Basel, Switzerland. His research focuses on the evolution of primate molecular diversity and how it is shaped by reproduction and infection.

November 2

Professor Terrence J. Sejnowski: What Makes the Human Brain Human?

This lecture will discuss the progress that has been made in elucidating the structure, function, and connectivity of cellular circuits in the nervous system and how such large-scale information is revolutionizing our capacity to understand brain function and behavior.

Presenter: Terrence Sejnowski is Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Professor and Director of the Computational Neurobiology Laboratory at The Salk Institute. He is also Professor of Biology and Adjunct Professor of Physics, Neurosciences, Psychology, Cognitive Science, and Computer Science and Engineering at UCSD, where he is Director of the Institute for Neural Computation and Director of Training Programs in Cognitive Neuroscience and Computational Neurobiology. The goal of his research is to build linking principles from brain to behavior using a combination of theoretical and experimental approaches ranging from the biophysical to the systems level.

November 16

Professor Carol Padden: Emergence of Grammar in a New Language

This lecture will discuss how the study of new sign languages, which emerge under certain conditions, can shed light on fundamental properties of human languages.

Presenter:Carol Padden is Dean of the Social Sciences Department, Professor of Communication, and an affiliate member of the Center for Research in Language. Her areas of research include comparative sign-language structure, emergence of language, culture, and communication. An overview of recent work on Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language and what it reveals about properties of human languages, co-authored by Padden and her research colleagues, appears in The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Anthropology.

November 30

Professor Margaret Schoeninger: The Fossil Record of Human Origins

This lecture will focus on the human fossil record from the middle to late Miocene (20-5 million years ago) through the origins of anatomically modern humans around 180,000 years ago, with emphasis on ecological and dietary information.