John Shea, professor of anthropology at Stony Brook
University, a world expert in Stone Age hi tech weaponry, and featured with
Alan Alda in the recent PBS mini-series The
Human Spark, will be the guest on the next episode of Science on Tap.
Recorded before a live audience in our new location, the
Stony Brook Yacht Club, on the evening of November 12th, 2013, the show will be posted on the website of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. Hosting the event will be Journalism School professor and 60 Minutes alumnus Steven Reiner.
John Shea is a skilled flintknapper, able to turn a lump of
stone into a lethal weapon in minutes. His favorite weapons are stone age missiles, spears and arrows, whose creation reveals a sophistication of
thinking that is the hallmark of modern humans, yet that date back 100,000
years or more ago. Shea will bring along some of his hand-made weaponry to the
Yacht Club bar, where he will discuss not only their value in hunting –and war
– but also their role in our ancestors’ leaving Africa and taking over Europe
from their stone age cousins, the Neanderthals.
The evening will include video of Alan Alda hurling one of
John’s spears to mortally wound a plastic Bambi!
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In the spirit of Science
on Tap the Stony Brook Yacht Club bar will be open for business, and pub
food will be available for purchase. This even is free and open to the public by reservation are strongly suggested. For reservations, email us at centerforcommunicatingscience@stonybrook.edu
