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Center forHuman Evolution and Diversity

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Melina Porro

I have experienced a rich tapestry of cultural practices, social norms, and economic realities that inherently underscored the impact of ecological contexts, social dynamics, and power structures on human well-being, and have presented questions about the ways in which biology and culture interact to shape human experience and adaptation. The beauty of human evolutionary science lies in its potential to weave together a transdisciplinary understanding of the remarkable biocultural variation we see in human societies today. To understand human evolution through a broader lens, innovative and interdisciplinary research that actively seeks out and values diverse perspectives will produce a richer and more accurate understanding of what it truly means to be human.

Melina Porro, Department of Anthropology Ph.D. Graduate Student

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Historically studies in neuroscience have presented their findings regarding how the brain works as universal to all humans, whereas studies in anthropology have focused on the great cross-cultural diversity in behavior and thought. Furthermore, studies of the human brain and mind are typically conducted with samples that are highly unrepresentative of the global population. Therefore, in order to truly understand the functions of the brain and mind across the spectrum of human diversity, it is necessary to integrate theory and methods from anthropology, psychology and neuroscience.

Elizabeth Losin, Associate Professor of Biobehavioral Health

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There is an urgent imperative to unbias human microbiome studies across the diversity of all of us to solve the major challenges relating to health disparities and inequities. More precise and personalized approaches must take into account microbial influences on and responders to our lived experiences. Without a sense of urgency and mission, the generalizability of microbiome findings across populations will be limited and likely generate new cascading health disparities.

Seth Bordenstein, Director of the Microbiome Center, Professor of Biology and Entomology

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Reconstructing human ecosystems of the past and their evolution provides not only a window into the past but helps us better plan for the future. We can use information from our ancestors to improve our lives tomorrow.

Laura Weyrich, Associate Professor of Anthropology

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Quite simply, the only way we will make meaningful progress in solving “wicked problems” of today and tomorrow is to take a holistic approach, drawing upon both depth and breadth of expertise from multiple disciplines and recognizing the importance of diverse perspectives and experiences.

Jennifer Wagner – Assistant Professor of Law, Policy, and Engineering

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One of the strongest evolutionary influences on humans has been largely invisible: microbes. Interdisciplinary approaches that incorporate evolution, microbiology, genetics, physiology, and more are necessary to reveal how we interact with microbes and how these trans-kingdom interactions affect both evolution and health.

Emily Davenport – Assistant Professor of Biology

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Our history of conquest, colonization, and massive forced migration has created a profound and long-lasting social and cultural legacy, and these actions also left a genomic legacy. Transdisciplinary research is necessary to fully appreciate human diversity, to combat health inequity, and to advance wellbeing for everyone.

Zachary Szpiech – Assistant Professor of Biology

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"Our Center is important for two reasons: 1) There are many interesting questions yet to answer about human evolution and physical, behavioral, and genetic variation, and 2) There seems to be a continuing divide between what anthropologists know and how they think about human evolution and diversity and how the general public and academic colleagues in other fields think about these topics."

Mark Shriver – Director, Professor of Biological Anthropology

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"Human beings are products of rich and complex interactions between biology and culture that have developed over millions of years. Human evolutionary history informs our understanding of human behavior and culture, and vice versa. Examining only one side of this set of reciprocal interactions risks missing the plot entirely."

Nina Jablonski – Atherton Professor, Evan Pugh University Professor Emerita of Anthropology

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“Bringing together multiple disciplines to understand how people learn and reason about complex topics such as human evolution is important for today’s schools, museums, and other educational settings. The Center offers multiple perspectives of how research in this area is conducted, which will enhance young people’s views of how scientific knowledge is developed and of human diversity.”

Heather Toomey Zimmerman – Associate Professor of Education

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"If we are to make any headway in fighting diseases, reducing inequalities and the internecine fighting that appears to emerge so endemically when resources are scarce, values differ, and political approaches conflict, we must utilize multiple approaches, methods, be transdisciplinary and take into account the nature of human diversity, at every level, from our genes to our social identifications."

Peter Hatemi – Professor of Political Science

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"For problems ranging from infectious disease to racial tensions in American cities, understanding that evolution matters but that genes are not deterministic and differ in their effects depending on social behavior and environment is a powerful way to better understand and solve many human challenges. Interdisciplinary research holds great promise for using our knowledge of evolution effectively to improve the human condition."

Eric Plutzer – Professor of Political Science

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"A transdisciplinary study of human evolution and diversity not only helps us understand how and why we became who we are, it is necessary for determining how we function day-to-day. My research examines the effects of biological and self-reported indicators of daily stress on health. How we experience and respond to daily life challenges is intricately tied to the evolution of human diversity."

David Almeida – Professor of Human Development and Family Studies

Education Products

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Education Products

The Biology of Skin Color

The Biology of Skin ColorA short film from The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s BioInteractive program.

Penn State University anthropologist Dr. Nina Jablonski walks us through the evidence that the different shades of skin color among human populations arose as adaptations to the intensity of ultraviolet radiation in different parts of the world.                   

Our human ancestors in Africa likely had dark skin, which is produced by an abundance of the pigment eumelanin in skin cells. (See the related animation.) In the high ultraviolet (UV) environment of sub-Saharan (or equatorial) Africa, darker skin offers protection from the damaging effects of UV radiation. Dr. Jablonski explains that the variation in skin color that evolved since our human ancestors migrated out of Africa can be explained by the tradeoff between protection from UV and the need for some UV absorption for the production of vitamin D.

This film is appropriate for science classes from middle school to college. The content connects to key concepts in biology, human biogeography, genetics, and anatomy and physiology. Chemistry and biochemistry classes will appreciate the focus on the effects of UV radiation on DNA, folate degradation, and vitamin D synthesis.

Finding Your Roots Curriculum

Finding Your Roots logo showing hands, DNA, and a treeA customizable, research-based curriculum, these lessons introduce middle-school aged kids to concepts of human evolution, genealogy, DNA ancestry, and genetics. Content has also been organized to accompany Finding Your Roots – The Seedlings video episodes, and adjusted into modules for at-home learning.

Publications

Bethancourt, H. J., Ulrich, M. A., Almeida, D. M., & Rosinger, A. Y. (2021). Household food insecurity, hair cortisol, and adiposity amoung Tsimane’ hunter-forager-horticulturalists in Bolivia. Obesity, 29(6), 1046-1057. doi:10.1002/oby.23137

Branch, G., Reid, A., & Plutzer, E. (2021). Teaching evolution in U.S. public middle schools: Results of the first national survey. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 14(1), 8. doi:10.1186/s12052-021-00145-z

Hong, J., Kapoor, A., DaWalt, L. S., Maltman, N., Kim, B., Berry-Kravis, E. M., Almeida, D. M., Coe, C., & Mailick, M. (2021). Stress and genetics influence hair cortisol in FMR 1 premutation carrier mothers of children with fragile X syndrome. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 129, 105266. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2021.105266

Cechova, M., Vegesna, R., Tomaszkiewicz, M., Harris, R. S., Chen, D., Rangavittal, S., Medvedev, P., & Makova, K. D. (2020). Dynamic evolution of great ape Y chromosomes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(42), 26273-26280. doi:10.1073/pnas.2001749117

Greaney, J. L., Surachman, A., Saunders, E. F., Alexander, L. M., & Almeida, D. M. (2020) Greater daily psychosocial stress exposure is associated with increased norepinephrine-induced vasoconstriction in young adults. Journal of the American Heart Association, 9(9), e015697. doi:10.1161/JAHA.119.015697

Plutzer, E., Branch, G., & Reid, A. (2020). Teaching evolution in U.S. public schools: A continuing challenge. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 13(1), 14. doi:10.1186/s12052-020-00126-8

Harrison, G. F., Sanz, J., Boulais, J., Mina, M. J., Grenier, J.-C., Leng, Y., . . . Perry, G. H., Barreiro, L. B. (2019). Natural selection contributed to immunological differences between hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 3(8), 1253-1264. doi:10.1038/s41559-019-0947-6

Wright, E. A., Wagner, J. K., Shriver, M. D., Fernandez, J. R., & Jablonski, N. G. (2019). Practical and ethical considerations of using personal DNA tests with middle-school-aged learners. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 104(2), 197-202. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2019.01.001

Zaidi, A. A., & Makova, K. D. (2019). Investigating mitonuclear interactions in human admixed populations. Nature Ecology & Evolution. doi:10.1038/s41559-018-0766-1

Bergey, C. M., Lopez, M., Harrison, G. F., Patin, E., Cohen, J. A., Quintana-Murci, L., . . . Perry, G. H. (2018).Polygenic adaptation and convergent evolution on growth and cardiac genetic pathways in African and Asian rainforest hunter-gatherers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(48), E11256-E11263. doi:10.1073/pnas.1812135115

Zaidi, A. A., Ye, D., Anthony, K., Tomaszkiewicz, M., DeGiorgio, M., Makova, K. D., . . . Shriver, M. D. (2018). High levels of copy number variation of ampliconic genes across major human Y haplogroups. Genome Biology and Evolution, 10(5), 1333-1350. doi:10.1093/gbe/evy086