I was in Boston this past weekend for AAAS 2013, where I co-organized a symposium with Jere Lipps of the Cooper Center about the evolution of the Great Whales. We had a great line-up of speakers, including paleontologists, a biomechanist (Jeremy Goldbogen), a bioacoustician (Megan McKenna), an ecologist (Daniel Palacios) and a historian of science (D. Graham Burnett). (Note, the list was dominated by scientists who are US federal employees or funded by federal projects). The Sunday talks were then bookended by a lively discussion. It was a truly integrative, intellectual feast, with many narrative loops.
Plus, I got to spot some science celebrities: Steven Pinker, OSTP Director John Holdren, among others. (Doug Erwin, I'm lookin' at you).
My talk recapitulated the story of what our team has accomplished at Cerro Ballena, including an update about the latest advances we've made with the 3D datasets from the site. This video, made by Carla Schaffer at AAAS, shares some more:
More news stories to follow, I'm sure.
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