Due to weather concerns, this event has been canceled. It may be rescheduled at a later date.
Alabama lampmussels were considered to be all but extinct when Gerry Dinkins and two other scientists discovered some in the Emory River in Morgan County, Tennessee.
Dinkins is curator of malacology, or the study of mollusks, at the Frank H. McClung Museum. He’ll be talking about this discovery at the Science Forum on January 25.
The Science Forum is a weekly brown bag lunch series that allows professors and area scientists to share their research with the general public through a conversational presentation.
The weekly presentations begin at noon on Fridays in Room C-D of Thompson-Boling Arena. Attendees can bring lunch or purchase it at the arena. Each presentation is forty minutes long and is followed by a question-and-answer session. The Science Forum presentations are free and open to the public.
The Alabama lampmussel is “considered to be the rarest mussel in North America,” Dinkins said. In Alabama, they can be found in only one area, and their population is declining.
None were known to remain in Tennessee until their discovery in the Emory River two years ago.
Dinkins will also talk about the McClung Museum’s mollusk collection, which features 240 species of freshwater mussels.
Future Science Forums will feature:
- February 1: Samuel C. Weaver, president and CEO of Proton Power, Inc., Back to the Future: Biomass to Cheap Hydrogen
- February 8: Thomas C. Namey, former professor of medicine and nutrition and associate director of the UT Nutrition Institute, Low Testosterone (‘Low T‘): Implications for Men’s Health Far Beyond Sex
- February 15: Linda C. Kah, Ken Walker Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curiouser and Curiouser: NASA‘s Curiosity Rover‘s Mission in Gale Crater
- February 22: Robby Nix, critical care paramedic for the Rural Metro Fire Department, Firefighter Paramedics and the Hot Potato Baby—It‘s Not What You Think
- March 1: Juan Carlos Idrobo, research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Exploring the Universe One Atom at a Time
- March 8: Dr. Paul Campbell Erwin, professor and head of the Department of Public Health, John Snow and Cholera: The Foundation for Modern Disease Investigation
- March 15: Kevin Hoyt, director of UT Forest Resources AgResearch and Education Center, The Proposed UT AgResearch Gas and Oil Well Research Project
- March 22, 29: no meetings, Spring Break
- April 5: William T. Bogart, president of Maryville College and professor of economics, Cargo Cult Economic Policy: Urban Development and Green Energy
- April 12: Stephanie K. Drumheller-Horton, instructor of earth and planetary sciences, Crocodylian Bite Marks in the Fossil Record
- April 19: Devon M. Burr, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences, The Moon That Would Be A Planet: Saturn‘s Giant Titan
- April 26: Joan Markel, curator of Civil War exhibits at the McClung Museum, Digging Into Our Civil War Past
—
C O N T A C T :
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)
Holly Gary (865-974-2225, hgary@utk.edu)