LET'S Seminars

The Swedish Museum of Natural History is running a seminar series on issues of wide interest for natural history - on Life, Earth, Time and Space.

Upcoming presentations

Kindred: A 21st Century Renaissance in Understanding of Neanderthals

Presenter: archaeologist and author Dr. Rebecca Wragg Sykes.

Bio: Dr. Wragg Sykes is an archaeologist, author and Honorary Fellow at the University of Liverpool. She has a broad interest in the ancient world of the Paleolithic and especially in Neanderthal Archaeology. Her first book “Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art” (also available in Swedish from Daedalos as “Släktskap: liv, kärlek och kultur hos neandertalarna”) is a critically acclaimed and award-winning bestseller, where she explores how 21st century science and archaeology have revolutionized how we view our ancient relatives.

Time: Thursday the 19th of May, 16.00–17.00.
Place: Stora hörsalen (next to the museum restaurant), Swedish Museum of Natural History, Frescativägen 40, Stockholm.

About the seminars

Topics may range from cosmology to conservation biology, with an emphasis on recent scientific advances and cross-discipline interactions.

Our aim is to present lectures that will communicate the excitement of modern science to a varied but scientifically informed audience of scientists, students and laymen.

There are a number of top-notch scientists giving lectures. The seminars are open to everyone interested. Entrance is free. The language is English (occasionally Swedish, as advertised).

We hope for lots of questions and discussions during and after the lectures, and there will be opportunity for an informal get-together after each lecture.

Follow us:

www.twitter.com/LETSseminars

www.facebook.com/LifeEarthTimeSpace/

Previous seminars

2019-11-21 Dr. Katerina Douka, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. The daughter of a Neanderthal and a Denisovan - How new fossil discoveries reshape palaeoanthropology.

2018-10-11 Professor Mark Thomas, University College London. Genetic Astrology: Debunking commercial genetic ancestry claim

2015-12-18 Professor Andrew H. Knoll, Harvard University. Earth and Life: A Dance through Time.

2015-11-17 Chris Stringer, Natural History Museum UK, and Mattias Jacobsson, Uppsala universitet.
The human journey: A palaeontological and genetic view on human evolution

2014-11-18 Sigurdur Gislason, Iceland University
Icelandic volcanoes and their environmental impact

2013-12-10 Greger Larson, Durham University
Domestication – where, when and how many times?

2012-05-22 Ronny Rößler The Museum of Natural History in Chemnitz Snapshot of an Early Permian Forest Ecosystem - The Petrified Forest of Chemnitz

2010-10-04 Tom McCarthy PANTHERA´s Snow Leopard Program
Snow Leopards – Saving a treasure of Central Asia´s Mountains

2008-11-04 David Catling University of Bristol
The rise of oxygen in Earth’s early atmosphere

2008-10-28 Peter Holland University of Oxford
The origin of vertebrates: A tale of genes, genomes and amphioxus

2008-10-21 John W.K. Harris Rutgers University
What chimpanzee and capuchin studies tell us about the behavior of the earliest hominids

2007-12-04 Lars Werdelin Swedish Museum of Natural History
The evolution of cats

2007-11-04 Erik W. Born Greenland Institute of Natural Resources
The fate of polar bears in a warming world

2007-10-18 Bertil Nordenstam Swedish Museum of Natural History
Linnés apostlar – resor, äventyr, samlingar

2008-10-14 Dan-Eric Nilsson Lunds universitet
Hur ser djur?  

2007-10-09 Jonathan Shaw Duke University
Polyploidization and hybridization as evolutionary forces in Sphagnum (peat mosses)  

2007-09-25 Michael J. Donoghue Yale University
Innovation and geographic movement as drivers of diversification: A case study from plants  

2007-09-12 Jenny Beckman Uppsala University
Namn och natur – Linné, nomenklatur och historia

2007-05-15 Venki Ramakrishnan University of Cambridge
The Ribosome: The cell’s protein factory and how antibiotics inhibit it

2007-05-08 Eva Nyström Uppsala Universitet
Linnékorrespondensen – ett vetenskapligt nätverk från 1700-talet

2006-12-11 Per J. Palsbøll University of California, Berkeley
Speciation of minke whales during global warming

2006-09-27 Kevin J. Peterson Dartmouth College
MicroRNAs and metazoan evolution: insights into animal complexity and constraint

2006-06-09 Karl Kjer Rutgers University
The influence of methods and philosophy

2006-05-19 Peter & Rosemary Grant Princeton University
Evolution of Darwin’s finches

2006-04-24 Brian Rosen Natural History Museum, London
Corals and climate change: what can the fossil record tell us?

2006-03-21 Michael Foote University of Chicago
Origination and extinction in the history of life

2006-02-06 Jere H. Lipps University of California, Berkeley
Megaquakes and tsunamis: destruction, death and the microfossil record

2005-12-12 Susannah Porter University of California, Santa Barbara The early evolution and diversification of eukaryotes

2005-12-05 John Lundberg Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
Modernization of Neotropical freshwater fishes and their habitats

2005-11-21 Antonio Lazcano Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Fifty years (or more?) of prebiotic chemistry: from the Miller experiment to the primitive soup

2005-11-07 Bengt Gustafsson Uppsala universitet
Out of the dark ages of the Universe

2005-10-03 Penelope Boston New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
The Planet Within: Exploring cave habitats on Earth and beyond

2005-09-19 Joseph Scheer Alfred University
‘Mothing’

2005-09-09 James A. Doyle University of California, Davis
Ecology of the first angiosperms: evidence from paleobotany, molecular systematics, and ecophysiology

2005-05-19 John Hayes Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Life’s Cambrian Explosion: What lit the fuse?

2005-04-04 Jan van Dam Utrecht University
European micromammal communities and Neogene climatic change

2005-03-21 James Kasting Pennsylvania State University
Evolution of the Earth’s atmosphere and climate

2005-02-28 Richard A. Fortey Natural History Museum, London
Writing the intimate history of the Earth

2005-02-09 Juan Manuel García-Ruiz University of Granada
Desperately seeking life: Problems in the detection of primitive life remnants

2005-02-14 Peter K. Endress University of Zürich
Archaic living flowers

2005-01-31 Philip C.J. Donoghue University of Bristol
Gene duplication, extinction, and vertebrate evolution

2005-01-17 Per R. Flood Bathybiologica, Bergen
Appendicularia – the vacuum cleaners of the sea

2004-12-13 Darin Croft Case Western Reserve University
Armadillos, chinchillas, and ungulates: fossil mammals in the Chilean Andes

2004-11-29 Frode Ødegaard Norwegian Institute for Nature Research
Insect diversity in the tropics: A view from above ground

2004-09-20 Nicholas J. Butterfield University of Cambridge
Proterozoic plants, animals and fungi: reconciling early origins with delayed radiation

2004-09-16 Richard O. Prum Yale University
The development and evolution of feathers

2004-06-14 Jan Toporski Carnegie Institute of Washington
Astrobiology and the quest for evidence of life on Mars

2004-04-26 Per E. Ahlberg Uppsala University
Fossils, genes and four-legged fishes

2004-04-16 James H. Nebelsick University of Tübingen
What’s for dinner? – The history of predation

2004-03-29 Dolf Seilacher University of Tübingen and Yale University
Ediacara: The dawn of animal life – in the shadow of giant protozoans

2004-03-12 F. James Rohlf State University of New York
The relation between within-population covariance and evolution of shape in a lineage of stickleback fish – a geometric morphometric study

2004-02-27 Mikael Fortelius University of Helsinki
Using fossil mammals to map continental-scale rainfall patterns during 20 million years

2004-02-16 Lindell Bromham University of Sussex
Can we trust the molecular clock?

2003-12-08 Frances Westall Centre de Biophysique Moléculaire, CNRS, Orléans
Life on Earth 3500 million years ago: fact or fiction?

2003-12-01 Bernd R. Schöne J.W. Goethe University
How Bivalved Methuselahs help modeling climate – Long-term, high-resolution analyses on shells of the ocean quahog (Arctica islandica) 

2003-11-24 Peter Crane Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Plant conservation biology at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

2003-11-17 Donald E. Canfield University of Southern Denmark
Life and sulphur through time

2003-10-20 R. Robert Waller Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa
Risk assessment and conservation planning at the Canadian Museum of Nature

2003-10-06 Richard Mayden St Louis University
On individuation in the natural sciences, with emphasis on biological species and species concepts

2003-09-16 Jens Ormö Centro de Astrobiología (INTA/CSIC), Madrid
The Sirente crater field – implications for comparative planetology and human history

2003-05-23 Ján Veizer Ruhr-Universität Bochum and University of Ottawa
What drives the climate? A perspective from four billion years of carbon cycle

2003-05-05 Niels Peder Kristensen University of Copenhagen
‘Gladiator insects’ and their allies: The new order Mantophasmatodea

2003-04-14 Bruce Runnegar NASA Astrobiology Institute
Evolution of life on the early Earth: From obscurity to complexity

2003-03-31 Göran Pershagen Karolinska Institutet
Varför ökar allergierna – Lever vi för onaturligt?

2003-03-03 Paul Hanson Universidad de Costa Rica
Tropical Hymenoptera: The Costa Rican experience

2003-01-20 Detlev Arendt EMBL, Heidelberg
Evolution of gastrulation in the Bilateria

2002-12-09 Minik Rosing University of Copenhagen
The earliest life on Earth – and how it shaped our planet

2002-11-25 Stefan Bengtson Swedish Museum of Natural History
Early animal diversification – false starts, environmental hardships, and final success

2002-11-11 Herrick Baltscheffsky Stockholm University
The Great Anastrophe – the origin of life on Earth

2002-10-07 Anders Bárány The Nobel Museum
How do you get the Nobel Prize?

2002-09-23 Martin Brasier Oxford University
The origins of life: Turning up the heat

2002-06-03 David Cantrill Swedish Museum of Natural History
Antarctica’s fossil forests: What do they tell us about Southern Hemisphere biogeography?

2002-05-06 Bernt Walther University of Bergen
The enigma of sex: Do life’s dual roots reflect cellular evolution by primordial sex?

2002-04-29 Björn Sohlenius Naturhistoriska riksmuseet
Ordning eller slump? Vad bestämmer individrikedom och artantal hos smådjur i skogsmark?

2002-04-15 Mark Chase & Michael Fay Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
New perspective on orchids: genetic studies alter our ideas about orchid evolution

2002-03-18 Mark D. Sutton University of Oxford
The worm that turned: liberating stone-locked animals with the use of digital wax

2002-03-04 Arne Öhman Karolinska institutet
Evolution and emotion: The case of phobias

2001-12-03 Paul F. Hoffman Harvard University
Snowball Earth: Testing the limits of global change

2001-11-19 Kåre Bremer Uppsala University
Dating flowering plant phylogenies

2001-11-13 René Liseau Stockholms observatorium
Darwin letar efter liv i rymden

2001-10-15 Graham Budd Uppsala University
Evolution’s missing link

2001-10-01 Claus Nielsen University of Copenhagen
The Articulata/Ecdysozoa controversy

2001-09-10 Olle Israelsson University of California, Berkeley
Xenoturbella (phylum uncertain): The appearance and disappearance of everything

2001-05-28 Philip J. Currie Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Alberta
New dinosaur discoveries 

2001-05-21 Derek E.G. Briggs University of Bristol
Exceptional fossils – how soft-tissues are preserved

2001-05-14 Joseph L. Kirschvink California Institute of Technology
Martian magnetofossils and Panspermia

2001-04-09 16.00 Karl O. Stetter University of Regensburg
(Hyper) thermophiles in the history of life

2001-03-05 Martin Whitehouse Swedish Museum of Natural History
When was life established on Earth? – a review of evidence and current controversies

2001-02-19 Mark A. Purnell University of Leicester
Toothless hags and chinless wonders: Early vertebrate evolution and the importance of fish food

2000-12-04 Daniel R. Brooks
Evolution in the Information Age: Life has a life of its own

2000-10-16 Gerard Willemsen
Uttrar genom tiderna

2000-10-09 Nobuyuki Yamaguchi
The Barbary lion, its phylogeny and conservation

2000-09-13 James Lake
The evolution of the multicellular animals

2000-05-15 J. William Schopf
Solution to Darwin’s dilemma: Discovery of the missing Precambrian record of life

2000-04-10 Jens Böcher
Insects on top of the World - present and past

2000-03-20 Peter Westbroek
Let’s reclaim Gaia for science

2000-03-13 Frans Witte
Lessons on speciation and extinction from man’s impact on Lake Victoria

2000-02-28 Sherry L. Cady
Life in hot springs as a guide to fossil hunting on Mars

2000-02-07 Rachel Wood
Reefs through time

2000-01-24 Michael G. Bassett
Earth evolution seen through a museum exhibition

1999-12-06 André Adoutte
Reconstructing animal evolution: combined evidence from molecular phylogeny and HOX gene analysis

1999-11-22 Godfrey M. Hewitt
The colonization of Europe after the Ice Age

1999-11-08 Anders Tehler
Ribosomala sekvenser och svamparnas fylogeni

1999-10-16 John W. Daly
Thirty years of discovering arthropod alkaloids in amphibian skin

1999-10-11 Svante Pääbo
Molecular coproscopy - a window into the genetics and diet of Pleistocene mammals

1999-09-27 Stephen Williams
The role and future of natural history collections in modern society

1999-09-20 Olivier Rieppel
The aquatic origin of turtles

1999-05-31 Allen Joel Anderson
Gaia Theory and the Quantum Universe

1999-05-10 Ulf Jondelius
Searching for basal bilaterian clades

1999-04-19 Ann-Sofie Rasmussen
Vertebrate evolution - the story molecules tell 

1999-03-15 Lars Falk
Patologisk vetenskap

1999-03-08 Andrew H. Knol
Life on a young planet: A geological perspective on early evolution 

1999-02-22 Simon Conway Morris
The Cambrian explosion: Megatonnage or damp squib? 

1999-02-15 Jared Diamond
Biological conservation in New Guinea, a treasurehouse of biodiversity

1999-02-08 Robert Ricklefs
Historical aspects of biodiversity

1999-01-25 Henry Gee
Origin of vertebrates - controversy and consensus