November 6, 2008
Second lecture in ‘Lucy Talks’ features forensic anthropologist Nov. 13
In the second lecture of the “Lucy Talks” series, Katherine Taylor, a forensic anthropologist with the King County Medical Examiner’s Office, will discuss the basics of her field and the science of reading bones.
Taylor’s lecture will be titled Looking Through Time: How Modern Methods are Shedding New Light on Old Bones. She will speak at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, at the Pacific Science Center’s Eames Auditorium.
Taylor has a doctorate in anthropology from the University of Arizona and has been with the King County Medical Examiner’s Office since 1996. Her work as a forensic anthropologist includes skeletal analysis and identification, skeletal remains recovery, and trauma analysis. “Many of the tools we use to identify modern skeletal remains can help to illuminate the study of early hominids like Lucy,” she says.
The UW’s Burke Museum has partnered with the Pacific Science Center to present the lecture series, which is inspired by the center’s exhibit, Lucy’s Legacy: the Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia.
The series brings five experts in the fields of human evolutionary studies, forensic anthropology and fossil conservation to speak to the public about the latest research in evolutionary anthropology and to discuss how a 3.2 million-year-old hominid fossil named Lucy continues to influence our world today.
This series will offer insights into the way scientists go about the business of collecting and analyzing information and then sharing it with the world. The series will end with a lecture by Donald Johanson, the scientist who discovered Lucy in 1974.
The next lectures in the series are:
- Dec. 11: Nancy Odegaard and Vicki Cassman present Travels with Lucy: Or How to Pack when You’re Over 3 Million Years Old.
- Jan. 8: Patricia Kramer presents Lucy Walks: Functional Morphology and the Evolution of Bipedalism.
- Feb. 5: Donald Johanson presents Lucy’s Legacy.
All talks are at 7 p.m. Thursdays at the Pacific Science Center’s Eames Auditorium, except Johanson’s lecture, which will be in 130 Kane. The Nov. 13, Dec. 11 and Jan. 8 talks are $5 for general admission and free for students and Burke Museum members. Tickets for the concluding talk on Feb. 5 cost $15 for general admission, $10 for Burke members and $5 for students, though fees also apply.
Tickets are available at Pacific Science Center or by phone at 1-888-772-8491. For more information visit the Pacific Science Center’s Web site.
