Join the Science Cafe for a talk, Q&A, and live animal demonstration with Professor Mason Murphy at Grounds For Thought. This event is open to the public, so anyone is welcome to join! We will have free coffee and cakes (please contact tbmiles@bgsu.edu for any dietary concerns).   Talk summary: Pt. 1. How do amphibians navigate their environment?  Movement is a key aspect of many organisms' life history, and understanding how the environment can influence individual movement behavior can help us learn about larger, broader patterns in species distribution and population connectivity. Here, we will explore the factors that influence movement in a few species of frogs and then talk briefly about the impacts these movements have on genetic diversity.  Pt. 2: We explore the ecology and natural history of a few species of native and exotic reptiles.    Autobiographical statement from Dr. Murphy: I am a molecular ecologist interested in understanding the drivers and consequences of animal movement and how individual behavior scales up to influence landscape-level population genetic structure and gene flow. To do this, I use a combination of experiments and molecular techniques harnessing next generation sequence data to explore movement behavior, genetic diversity, and population connectivity, with a particular focus on amphibians. As the director of the Herpetology lab at BGSU, I am also heavily involved in public outreach, sharing knowledge and providing experiences with a variety of native and exotic herpetofauna. 

Join BGSU’s Science Café and guest speaker Vern Bingman in our next event!    The talk being given is called “The Genius of Animal Navigation” and will cover several interesting topics aimed at students, faculty, staff, and the general BG public- including K-12 students!    Practically all moving animals display a capacity for navigation, but birds are considered by many as the animal kingdom’s supreme navigators. Drawing on behavioral and neurobiological experimental findings, this event will offer often surprising insight into the navigational ability of migratory birds and homing pigeons, and the brain mechanisms that enable their spatial behavior. Complementing our conversation on birds, we will take a detour into the New World tropics to explore the remarkable navigational ability of charismatic, nocturnal predatory whip spiders.   Vern received his BS at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his MS and PhD at SUNY-Albany. His postdoctoral positions have included University of Frankfurt, Germany, University of Pisa, Italy, and the University of Maryland-College Park. Currently he is a professor at Bowling Green State University.   Dr. Bingman has published more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific articles, and he has been awarded numerous extramural research grants and international/national fellowships including a Humboldt Fellowship (Germany) and three Fulbright Fellowships. He is also a “National Geographic Explorer” for his research on tropical whip spider navigation.   There will be refreshments at Grounds, but please no outside food or drink.