Welcome to the Origin Chapters 4 & 5 Discussion!

Please note that in order to receive your 1 PGP for this discussion, you will need to make one original post and then reply to two other posts (for a total of three posts).  Of course, this is the minimum requirement and more discussion is always encouraged.

Below are some questions to help facilitate discussion, but please feel free to add additional comments/questions as well!

1.      Chapter 4 begins with a caving adventure.  What caves have you explored, and can you relate to the author’s feelings and description?

2.      What is your reaction to learning about the genetic link between the elderly woman buried near Actun Tunichil Muknal and a Clovis individual in Montana?

3.      What can our students learn from reading about the decontamination and DNA extraction processes in Chapter 5?  How does this differ from what our students (and ourselves!) have come to expect from television shows and movies?

4.      On page 150, Dr. Raff speaks to the importance of mindfulness in this work and that these scraps of bone and teeth are cherished ancestors, not “specimens”.  What other examples in scientific history can you think of that at the time did not respect this modern-day mindfulness?

5.      Chapter 5 gives a beautiful picture of how chemistry and biology and mathematical modeling work together in this field.  What other examples can we use to demonstrate to our students that these fields do not exist in “silos” but instead are used together in scientific research?