Science on Tap

A monthly lecture series at UMD that explores the latest discoveries in science and technology in a relaxed atmosphere with food and drink

"The Other Big Bang: The Story of Sex and Its Human Legacy"

Eric Haag
Professor, Department of Biology
University of Maryland

Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Doors open at 6 p.m.
Lecture begins at 6:30 p.m.

Ledo Pizza
4509 Knox Rd.
College Park, MD 20740

Paid parking is available in the attached city garage, which guests can enter on Yale Avenue. Guests may enter the event venue via the Ledo entrance on the corner of Knox Road and Yale Avenue.

Food and beverages will be available for purchase at the event. 

If you have any questions about attending this event, including disability accommodations, please contact Rena Surana-Nirula at rena@umd.edu or 301-405-6563.

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About the Talk
Sex shapes who we are as individuals and as a species. Where in the mists of time did something so important—and eye-catching—originate, and what does this history tell us about ourselves? Why do we have sex, and sexes, at all?

In The Other Big Bang, the evolutionary and developmental biologist Eric S. Haag explores the two-billion-year history of sex, from the first organisms on Earth to contemporary humans. He delves into the deep history of sexual reproduction, from its origins as a fix for a mutational crisis to an essential feature of all complex life. Haag traces sexual differentiation from its earliest forms in microbes to its elaboration in animals, showing why sex differences in cells and organisms help species adapt, persist, and evolve. Humanity’s clear sexual kinship with yeast and clams exists even as we evolved differences that distinguish us from other mammals, and even other apes.

Bringing the story up to the present, Haag argues that the evolutionary history of human sexuality helps us better understand contemporary society. Our ancient male-female sexual system remains an important fact of life, even as we see increasingly diverse sexual orientations, gender expressions, and parenthood choices. Witty and inviting, The Other Big Bang offers a clear view of the evolutionary roots of human sexuality and their significance today.

About the Speaker
Eric Haag is an evolutionary developmental biologist who has been based at the University of Maryland, College Park since 2002. He currently serves as professor of biology and director of UMD's Biological Sciences Graduate Program. Over his career he has conducted research on the evolution of sex and reproduction in diverse animals such as sea urchins, roundworms, and hermaphroditic fish. After many years in the formal instruction of undergraduate and graduate students at UMD, he ventured into a more public form of science eduction by authoring The Other Big Bang: The Story of Sex and Its Human Legacy (Nov. 2024, Columbia). Before arriving in College Park, Eric earned a B.A. in biology and music from Oberlin College, a Ph.D in Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology from Indiana University, Bloomington, and did postdoctoral research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.