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Atlanta Skeptics in the Pub

Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose

Atlanta Skeptics in the Pub
Atlanta Skeptics in the Pub

Lee Dugatkin's Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose is a tale of both natural history and American history. What started out in the Revolutionary War era as an international dispute over natural history quickly took on important political overtones. The story revolves around three fascinating individuals. Thomas Jefferson, the French Count and world-renowned naturalist, George-Louis Leclerc Buffon, who claimed that all life in America was "degenerate," weak and feeble, and a very large, dead moose. While Jefferson is known to every schoolchild, the latter two, although lesser known, are equally important to the story. Their interactions lay at the heart of an amazing tale in which Jefferson obsessed over a very large, very dead moose that he believed could help quash early French arrogance toward a fledgling republic in America, and demonstrate that a young America was every bit the equal of a well-established Europe. Our Speaker Lee Alan Dugatkin is a Professor of Biology at the University of Louisville. He has a B.A. in History and a Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology. In addition to Mr. Jefferson, he is the author of nine books on evolution, behavior, and the history of science, including The Altruism Equation and Cheating Monkeys and Citizen Bees. Lee's book The Prince of Evolution is now out in trade paperback. It is a fast moving history-of-science/adventure tale centering on the remarkable life of Prince Peter Kropotkin. Lee has lectured on his work all over the world, including in England, Canada, Japan, Sweden, The Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, and Switzerland. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife and son. You can follow Lee on Twitter @LeeDugatkin and on his Facebook page. --- Released and distributed under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 United States license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ You are free to: Share - to copy, distribute and transmit the work Remix - to adapt the work Under the following conditions: Attribution - You must attribute the work (but not in any that suggests that the Atlanta Science Tavern, Atlanta Skeptics, the Speaker, nor AbruptMedia, LLC endorses you or your use of the work) to the Atlanta Science Tavern (http://www.AtlantaScienceTavern.com), Atlanta Skeptics (http://www.atlantaskeptics.com), the Speaker and AbruptMedia, LLC (http://www.AbruptMedia.com). Noncommercial - You may not use this work for commercial purposes. Share Alike - If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

Atlanta Skeptics in the Pub
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