Author Archives: Matt McConnell

About Matt McConnell

Matt McConnell is from Midland, Michigan and received his undergraduate BS in Psychology and Philosophy at Central Michigan University. After graduating he spent several years in North Carolina. Most of this was at UNC working as a medical research lab assistant using mice as model organisms, but some of his work also involved cognitive research with Rhesus Macaques at a Duke University field site in Puerto Rico. Matt currently live in Corvallis, OR where he attends OSU as a graduate student in the History of Science master's program. He is taking Science Education as a related minor, with an emphasis in Free Choice Learning. His interests in History of Science and Science Education meet on the practice of Science Communication. Matt is currently co-host of the weekly radio show 'Inspiration Dissemination', in which graduate students discuss their personal journeys. Inspiration Dissemination is open to all graduate students and airs every Sunday evening at 7pm on 88.7 FM, KBVR Corvallis.

De-Extinction: Rescue or Boondoggle?

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16458601211_d22f15016c_zOn February 5th, 2015 a special conference on de-extinction titled, “De-extinction: Rescue or Boondoggle?” was held at the Memorial Union. Coming a few days after Elizabeth Kolbert’s visit to OSU to present on her recent publication The Sixth Extinction, the question of large-scale species loss was on the minds of those in attendance. Here two graduate students from History of Science discuss some of the talks given at the conference!

We Have Always Been De-Extincting –Elizabeth Nielsen

Or at least, that’s historian Luis Campos’ claim. The Oregon State University School of History, Philosophy, and Religion and the Horning Endowment for the Humanities recently hosted a symposium on the phenomenon of synthetic biology, or de-extinction. Current Horning Professor Anita Guerrini organized the well-attended and fascinating conference. Continue reading →