Lucia Jacobs: University of Caliornia, BerkeleyThe chemical senses of vertebrates present some of the most enduring mysteries of brain evolution. First, it is not clear why are there two olfactory systems: the main system (MOS), detecting odorants on the olfactory epithelium and projecting to the olfactory bulb, and the accessory system (AOS), detecting odorants in […]

Rich Connor: University of Massachusetts DartmouthFor over 25 years we have documented a multi-level alliance structure among male bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Males cooperate in pairs and trios, ‘1st-order alliances,’ to form temporary consortships with individual females. First-order alliance partners are drawn from a male’s second-order alliance. Second-order alliances have 4-14 males […]

Nancy Segal: California State University, FullertonAn overview of the origins, methods, findings, implications and controversies from the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart is provided. This study, which took place between 1979 and 1999 at the University of Minnesota, accumulated a wealth of behavioral, physical and medical data on 137 reared apart twin pairs, 81 […]

Paul Heggarty: 4:00 PM Cotsen Institute Room A222From the Tower of Babel to the tales of the Aboriginal Dreamtime, we have long sought to account for our baffling multiplicity of tongues. Linguistic science itself was born out of this curiosity — and by now can look to our language diversity no longer as just an […]

Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook: University of California, Los AngelesPostpartum depression poses an evolutionary puzzle: it is extremely common, yet significantly reduces the reproductive fitness of both mothers and children. Why has natural selection failed to remove this trait? I will consider the hypothesis that postpartum depression represents a “disease of modern civilization” – that is, a byproduct […]