DNA from fossils

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Poinar_Hendrik-opt.jpg” caption=”Anthropologist Hendrik Poinar will be speaking at tonight’s (Tuesday’s Sept 14) Science in the City Lecture. Photo credit: Chantall Van Raay”]

Anthropologist Hendrik Poinar wants you to time travel with him. But unlike H.G.Wells' time traveler, Poinar hasn't built a time machine to the future. He's built a million dollar lab that provides a window into the past.

From this lab, Poinar and his research team are in the midst of fascinating research, extracting DNA from fossils to answer questions about ancient humans and extinct megafauna (mammoths, horses, camels, sloths).

Poinar will be sharing an actual 'Kodak moment' of the genetic past when he delivers the first lecture in the next series of Science in the City public lectures, DNA from fossils and the benefit of time travel.

In his talk, Poinar will give us a glimpse of past populations with an eye to answering intriguing questions such as: whether or not Neanderthals and modern humans interbred; what Paleoamerindians were eating several thousand years ago and whether mammoths were the closer relatives of the Indian or African elephants we see today in zoos.

The lecture will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 14 in the Hamilton Spectator Auditorium, 44 Frid Street in Hamilton. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the lecture begins at 7 p.m. This lecture is free and all are welcome. To reserve your seat call extension 24934 or e-mail sciencecity@mcmaster.ca.