'Wild Science' is coming to KU / LJWorld.com

Archive for Friday, August 29, 2008

August 29, 2008

Larry Martin's cat could eat your dog.

Martin, the curator of vertebrate paleontology at Kansas University's Natural History Museum, will kick off the museum's "Wild Science" lecture series on Wednesday. And he wants people to know that Kansas had the largest of all the saber-toothed cats.

"A lot of people don't know that there were more than one type of saber tooth," he said. "There were some the size of a house cat. They were literally 'toy' saber tooths."

Martin's 30-minute lecture will be the first in a series looking to get science-minded Lawrence residents involved with KU's scientific process.

Tristan Smith, visitor services director at the museum, said the museum hopes the lectures will bring together researchers and the public for a bit of back-and-forth discussion the first Wednesday every month.

Other lectures include the study of frogs in Thailand, mysteriously vanishing bees and understanding how water affects life on the High Plains.

"It can be difficult to get the word out about our research at the Biodiversity Institute," Smith said. "Doing this at night brings up the number of people who can attend."

Smith said the lectures will be geared toward people 14 years and older, so preteens might get a bit lost. However, he said anyone who was interested could attend.

"We don't want it to be a typical college lecture," he said. "We want it to be more interactive."

Martin's lecture on saber-toothed cats begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the KU Natural History Museum, Dyche Hall, 1345 Jayhawk Blvd.

For more information, call the museum at 864-4450.

Discussion

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29 August 2008
at 7 a.m.

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bondmen (Anonymous) says…

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29 August 2008
at 10:12 a.m.

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cg22165 (Anonymous) says…

BM,There are random distributions of human thought. At one extreme there are people who believe science proves the non-existence of god. At another, there are those who deny the physical sciences in order to maintain the belief that they understand God better than anyone else. The extremes attract each other.We have to each seek our own balancing point.
29 August 2008
at 12:28 p.m.

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bondmen (Anonymous) says…

I'm most pleased with accurate, observational, repeatable, forensic science performed in pursuit of truth - following wherever the truth leads regardless of any desired results. Anything else is philosophy, metaphysics or religion or some combination thereof.I also think it would be helpful to the rest of us trying to determine what is true and what isn't, if all scientists would fully disclose their pre-conceived notions and underlying assumptions prior to promoting their research and viewpoints.