Sea turtles, Sentiment and Moral Imagination

On Wednesday April 13th, the California Academy of Sciences and Sea Turtle Restoration Project will host the first (hopefully not the last) Science of Advocacy Session at the International Sea Turtle Society annual meeting.

We look forward to hearing from these promising speakers:

• Dr. Darren Schreiber (UC San Diego) will give us a primer on the intersection of neuroscience, public policy and behavior change.
• Dr. Lekelia Jenkins (University of Washington) will discuss Sea turtles, Sentiment and Moral Imagination.
• Conservation Photographer Neil Osborne will explore why (the right) picture (of a sea turtle) is worth a thousand words. 

Much of the discussion will draw on the findings of this paper:

Biology, Politics, and the Emerging Science of Human Nature
James H. Fowler* and Darren Schreiber
In the past 50 years, biologists have learned a tremendous amount about human brain function and its genetic basis. At the same time, political scientists have been intensively studying the effect of the social and institutional environment on mass political attitudes and behaviors. However, these separate fields of inquiry are subject to inherent limitations that may only be resolved through collaboration across disciplines. We describe recent advances and argue that biologists and political scientists must work together to advance a new science of human nature.  

PDF: http://dmschreiber.ucsd.edu/Publications/FowlerSchreiberScience2008.pdf

 We look forward to learning more at this event next week!