WOODS HOLE – Science and history are combining forces at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) this summer.
To kick off its summer lecture series, MBL is welcoming science historian Michael Dietrich to discuss the work of an important biologist who was exiled from Nazi Germany in 1939.
Biologist Johannes Holtfreter fled Nazi Germany in 1939 as a political refugee. Through his research on amphibian embryos, Holtfreter had made many significant discoveries in the field of developmental biology and developed a mechanistic understanding of fundamental embryonic processes. But did his forced migration from Germany have an impact on his work in developmental biology?
Dietrich, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, will argue that Holtfreter’s work significantly changed during the war years, a contrary opinion to some historians, at the MBL Friday Evening Lecture on Friday, June 14 at 8:00 p.m.
The talk, titled “The Politics of Embryology: Johannes Holtfreter’s Flight from Nazi Germany,” is the endowed E.B. Wilson History and Philosophy of Science Lecture and marks the beginning of the 2019 Friday Evening Lecture season.
Michael Dietrich is a Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He has published numerous scholarly articles and chapters, exploring controversial topics in evolutionary genetics and molecular evolution, and controversial figures, such as the émigré geneticist Richard Goldschmidt. He studied Philosophy and Biology at Virginia Tech, and later received a doctorate in Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego.
The event is free and open to the public and will be live-streamed at videocenter.mbl.edu. It will be held in the MBL’s Lillie Auditorium.
Friday Evening Lectures will be offered each Friday through August 9. All lectures are held at 8:00 PM in the Lillie Auditorium. The hour-long talks are geared for a diverse and engaged audience and appeal to scientists and non-scientists alike.
The 2019 schedule is below as follows:
June 21 – Glassman Lecture
“Which World? – Climate Change, Climate Choices” – Jerry Melillo, Marine Biology Laboratory
June 28 – Porter Lecture
“100 Years on from Spemann and Mangold” – Richard Harland, University of California, Berkeley
July 5 – Segal Lecture
“Insights from Emerging Model Organisms: From the Physics of Beauty to the Secret Lives of Lobsters” – Nipam Patel, Marine Biology Laboratory
July 12
“NIH Addresses the Science of Diversity: Looking Through a Genomic Lens” – Hannah Valantine, National Institutes of Health
July 19 – Forbes Lecture
“Cephalopods, Visual Perception, Motor Control and Brain Evolution” – Gilles Laurent, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research
July 26
“The Future of Ocean Conservation” – Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, New York University; Ocean Collectiv
August 2
“Biological Propulsion in (and of?) the Ocean” – John Dabiri, Stanford University
August 9
“The Past and Future of Bioluminescence Research, in Light of the Contributions of Osamu Shimomura” – Steven Haddock, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
By TIM DUNN, CapeCod.com News Center
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