On Tuesday evening, January 8th, 2019 the Linnaean Society of New York 2018/2019 Speaker Program <https://linnaeannewyork.org/programs-trips/lsny-programs.html> will feature two new presentations:
6:00 pm — Sex, Science, and the Way We Bird Today – Rick Wright Birding in the Anglo-American world is about one thing: identification, the assignment of the right name to the right organism. It doesn’t have to be that way, and it hasn’t always been that way. A bit over a century ago, “we” made the conscious decision to transform birding from a broad natural historical pursuit into a much more narrowly classificatory enterprise. This was part of an effort to re-masculinize birdwatching, which had in some views degenerated into an activity suitable only for women and children. Originally meant to make birding more scientific, the success of this effort in fact drove a wedge between birding and ornithology, which had been largely complementary disciplines for more than a century. Rick Wright, a native of southeast Nebraska, is the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of New Jersey, the American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of Arizona and is a tour leader for VENT (Victor Emanuel Nature Tours). 7:30 pm — How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog) – Lee Dugatkin For the last six decades Lyudmila Trut has directed a dedicated team of researchers in Siberia that has been domesticating silver foxes to replay the evolution of the dog in real time. Inside this tale of path-breaking science in the midst of the often brutal -35° F winters of Siberia is hidden a remarkable collaboration between an older, freethinking scientific genius, the geneticist Dmitri Belyaev, and a trusting but gutsy young woman. Together, Lyudmila Trut and Belyaev (who died of cancer in 1985) risked not just their careers but to an extent their lives to make scientific history. Biologist and science historian Lee Dugatkin tells the inside story of the science, politics, adventure, and love behind it all. Like a set of Russian nesting dolls, How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog) opens to reveal story after story, each embedded within the one that preceded it. Dr. Dugatkin is a Professor and University Scholar in the Department of Biology at The University of Louisville. His main areas of research interest are the evolution of social behavior, and the history of science. Both presentations are free and will be held in the Linder Theater on the first floor of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Enter at West 77th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. All welcome! Complete details of these exciting presentations and the rest of the 2018/2019 program can be found here: https://linnaeannewyork.org/programs-trips/lsny-programs.html <http://linnaeannewyork.org/calendar-programs-trips/programs2016-2017.html> Richard Fried The Linnaean Society of New York -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
