WHAT: Daytime Darkness: How Total Eclipses Influence Changes in Animals – and Humans
Because a total solar eclipse occurs in any given location only about once every 375 years, experiencing an eclipse is a once-in-a-lifetime event for most of us, and even more so for most other animals. There is surprisingly little published about the effects of eclipses on people and other animals. But the US was lucky enough to experience two transcontinental total solar eclipses in relatively rapid succession in 2017 and in April of 2024. In 2017, my team studied animal reactions to this bizarre event, and we expanded that work for the 2024 eclipse during which we had hundreds of participatory scientists along its path making observations not only of how animals responded to the eclipse but how the eclipse itself, and participating in this research, influenced their own feelings of awe and affinity toward science. Thus, we have an amazing opportunity to discuss a phenomenon that we now know to be literally awesome!
WHO: Adam Hartstone-Rose, Professor of Biological Sciences at North Carolina State University, studies functional morphology and comparative anatomy, mostly of primates and carnivores: how are animals adapted to do what they do? His lab examines the relationship between anatomical form and behavioral functions – especially the relationship between diet and the masticatory apparatus (jaws, teeth and masticatory muscles). They do this through studies of animal behavior (e.g., feeding experiments), soft-tissue muscle dissections and analysis, and examination of the skulls and teeth of both living and extinct species. Beyond morphological research, lab members conduct research on animal responses to eclipses and the psychological effect of participating in that research on participating scientists. The laboratory’s psychology research is part of a larger emphasis focusing on broadening participation in STEM by people from groups that have been historically underrepresented in science.
WHEN: Thursday October 10 at 6:30PM PDT (UTC -7)
HOW: Online. Click HERE
Previous SkepTalks:
10 Oct 2024 How Total Eclipses Influence Changes in Animals – and Humans – Adam Hartstone-Rose 12 Sep 2024 Skepticism or Denial? The Erosion of Trust in Scientific Expertise – Gale Sinatra 8 Aug 2024 Climate Change and Climate Solutions – Peter Sinclair 13 Jun 2024 Are Americans Really Anti-Science? – Jon D. Miller 9 May 2024 From Creationism to QAnon – William & Susan Trollinger 11 Apr 2024 The Birth of the Science Communicator – Dave Farina 14 Mar 2024 Unforced Errors During the COVID Pandemic – Paul Offit 8 Feb 2024 A Child’s Garden of Climate Change Denial – Glenn Branch 11 Jan 2024 You Can’t Beat an Extinct Horse – Carl Feagans 14 Dec 2023 Skepticism’s Time Warp. Are we winning or losing? – Craig Foster 9 Nov 2023 The Science behind Social Media and Political Behavior – Jennifer Pan 12 Oct 2023 PotHoler54 in Discussion with Eugenie Scott – Peter Hadfield 14 Sep 2023 Origins of the COVID-19 Pandemic – Michael Woroby 10 Aug 2023 Is Sports A Breeding Ground For Pseudoscience? – Nicholas B. Tiller 8 Jun 2023 Improbable Research & the Ig Nobel Prizes – Marc Abrahams 11 May 2023 ¿Extraterrestrial Life? – Alex Filippenko 13 Apr 2023 ¿Did paleo people actually eat Paleo? – Briana Pobiner 9 Mar 2023 Netflix’ Ancient Apocalypse: Confronting Mainstream Pseudoarchaeology – John Hoopes 9 Feb 2023 The Cultural Logic of Vaccine Refusal – Jennifer Reich 12 Jan 2023 Racism, Not Race: Answers to Questions Even a Skeptic Might Ask – Joseph Graves 8 Dec 2022 Gods and Robots: Imagining Artificial Life in Antiquity – Adrienne Mayor 10 Nov 2022 Science Education in an Age of Misinformation – Jonathan Osborne 13 Oct 2022 Science vs… History? – Wendy Zuckerman & Sebastion Major 8 Sep 2022 How to Effectively Push Back Against Misinformation – Jonathan Jarry 11 Aug 2022 What Does Evidence Do – Jenny Rice 9 Jun 2022 How to Talk to a Science Denier – Lee McIntyre 12 May 2022 Superstitions, Aliens, and Conspiracies: The Frontlines of Astronomy Outreach – Mike Simmons 14 Apr 2022 Confidence Men: How 2 Prisoners Made History’s Most Remarkable Escape – Margalit Fox 10 Mar 2022 The Reality of Reality TV – Yau-Man Chan 10 Feb 2022 Who’s Making All Those Scam Calls – Yudhijit Bhattacharjee 13 Jan 2022 Weirdness!: What Fake Science & the Paranormal Tell Us about the Nature of Science – Taner Edis 9 Dec 2021 Dangers of the “Lost Civilization” Trope – A.J. White 11 Nov 2021 Machineries of Doubt: Climate, Cigarettes & Confusion – John Mashey 9 Sep 2021 The Great Australian Psychic Prediction Project – Richard Saunders 12 Aug 2021 What To Do About Misinformation (in Four Dimensions) – John Cook 8 July 2021 Tilting at Strawmen & Other Tricks of Climate Denial Enablers – Mark Boslough 10 Jun 2021 The Truth Behind False Memories – Jill Yamashita 13 May 2021 Vaccine hesitancy in the era of COVID – Tara C. Smith 8 Apr 2021 Why storytelling is vital to science communication – Sara ElShafie 11 Mar 2021 Haunted Humanity: The Fringe Is Not Fringe, and That’s a Big Deal – Daniel Loxton 11 Feb 2021 From Junk to Genes: The birth of new miRNA genes in the human genome – Nathan Lents 14 Jan 2021 The Continuing Relevance of America’s Eugenic Legacy – Paul Lombardo 10 Dec 2020 Deepfakes, GANs and Visual Misinformation – Nick Dufour 12 Nov 2020 The Debate about Dark Matter: Is the Matter Settled? – Don Lincoln 8 Oct 2020 Facilitated Communication: Holding on to (False) Hope – Janyce Boynton 10 Sep 2020 Mad Myths: The Case for Using Persuasion to Promote Critical Thinking – Jay Diamond 13 Feb 2020 Big Data: What it is, how it’s used, where it’s headed – Mike Olson 12 Dec 2019 Are you sure that sippy-cup is safe? – Layla Katiraee 7 Nov 2019 Why Do People Reject Good Science? – Eugenie Scott 10 Oct 2019 Shit Students Say: Chem trails, hollow earths, and other strange ideas – Steven Newton 12 Sep 2019 Successful Skepticism: Creating Lasting Community – Tucker Phelps 9 May 2019 The Bitter M&Ms of Climate Change: Misconceptions and Misinformation – Brad Hoge 11 Apr 2019 The Year in Anti-Science-Education Legislation – Glenn Branch 14 Mar 2019 Australia’s Psychic Detectives and Psychic “Predictions” – Richard Saunders 14 Feb 2019 What Would Darwin Say to Today’s Creationists? – Eugenie Scott 10 Jan 2019 Common Misconceptions About CRISPR Genome Editing – Kevin Doxzen 13 Dec 2018 BAS BAH Fest 8 Nov 2018 A Skeptic’s Guide to Planet Hunting – Josh Lofy 11 Oct 2018 Beyond a Candle in the Dark – Mick West 13 Sep 2018 When a Biology Meets a Biology – David Almandsmith 10 May 2018 Common Misconceptions in Anthropology – Julie Hui 12 Apr 2018 Skepardy! — Bill Patterson 8 Mar 2018 A Quirky Colloquium Quashing Quantum Quackery — Miriam Diamond 8 Feb 2018 The Human Drive to Explain — Tania Lombrozo 14 Jan 2018 Neuroscience and the Great Questions — Ransom Stephens 14 Dec 2017 Top Ten Myths of Homelessness — Carrie Sager 9 Nov 2017 Myths of Mass Extinctions — Kevin Padian 12 Oct 2017 Hurricanes and Heat Waves: Is This Climate Change? — Brad Hoge 11 May 2017 Beyond the Choir – Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia — Susan Gerbic 13 Apr 2017 An Invisible Plague: the Growing Threat of Tuberculosis — Lauren Popov 9 Feb 2017 Are Saturated Fats Bad for You? Separating Fat from Fiction — Kent McDonald 12 Jan 2017 Harry Houdini vs. Psychics & Mediums — Mark Tarses 29 Dec 2016 Too Good to be True? – Richard Saunders 10 Nov 2016 Myths of Astronomy — Thomas Targett 10 Sep 2015 Angle Trisection: A problem many tried to solve — Paul Stepahin 9 Apr 2015 Herding Cats and Teaching Science — Dan Pemberton 12 Feb 2015 Quantum Pseudoscience and the Nature of Mind — Russel Willcox 8 Jan 2015 The Manson Family, Cults, and the Psychology of Commitment – Dr. Patrick O’Reilly 10 Oct 2012 Writing About Vaccines When Evidence Doesn’t Matter — Liza Gross 12 Sep 2012 Gay Conversion Therapy: You Make Me Sick — Sheldon Helms 8 Aug 2012 Documentary & Skype — “In God We Teach” 11 Apr 2012 A Skeptical View of Climate Change Skeptics — Mark McCaffrey 14 Nov 2011 Climate Change: From the Biotic to the Exotic — Minda Berbeco 12 Oct 2011 A Unicorn in Your Tank: Magic Tablets That Won’t Improve Gas Mileage — Yau-Man Chan 14 Sep 2011 Catastrophes! — Don Prothero