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Humanity Can Learn a Lot From Mollusks

On June 22, 2006 The University of Montana-Missoula hosted Dr. Geerat Vermeij, a world-class professor of marine ecology and paleoecology from the University of California-Davis. As part of the Science within Society lecture series sponsored by Montana NSF EPSCoR, the lecture, Why we study nature: what shells tell us about our past and about our future, explained how we can learn much about humanity and global economics from studying the evolution and history of mollusks. In both his lecture and an interview aired on Montana Public Radio, Dr. Vermeij touted the importance of science in our society. Blind since early childhood, he also took part in a natural history and ecology camp for blind and low-vision children during his visit to Montana. His primary lesson for them, and for us all: be observant and ask questions.