The Story of Cosmic Evolution - February 16, 2020

Darwin Day Lecture - February 16, 2020
Humanists & Non-Theists Luncheon Event

Guest Speaker Dr. Andrew Fraknoi
Introduced by David Heilbron
Jim Barnett, Humanists & Non-Theists Chair

"What Were the Atoms in Your Body Doing 8 Billion Years Ago:
The Story of Cosmic Evolution"

Although few people ever think about it, the atoms that make up your body are “on loan” to you from the Earth’s “atom collection.”

Thanks to modern astronomy, we now know the history of these atoms even before they were part of the Earth. In this talk, Dr. Andrew Fraknoi examines the history of the cosmos, and how it evolved from the heat of the Big Bang to conditions that make astronomy fans possible. We focus on the role of exploding stars, which create new elements and recycle them so that to be available to future generations of stars, planets, and life-forms.

Andrew Fraknoi retired in 2017 as the Chair of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College, and now teaches astronomy courses for retired people at the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco and the OLLI Program at San Francisco State. He served as the Executive Director of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for 14 years.

Fraknoi was the California Professor of the Year in 2007. He is the lead author on a free, college astronomy textbook published by the non-profit OpenStax project at Rice University, as part of a national project to reduce the costs of college. He has also written two children's books on astronomy. The International Astronomical Union has named Asteroid 4859 Asteroid Fraknoi to honor his contributions to the public understanding of science.