Book Chat: It’s just skin, silly! Nina Jablonski and Holly McGee on the evolution of skin color
February 28, 2024, Dhara Parekh, Club SciWri
In this captivating conversation, Dr. Nina Jablonski and Dr. Holly McGee, the brilliant minds behind the children’s book “It’s Just Skin, Silly!” share insights into tackling the topics of colorism and racism through science and storytelling. Join us as they delve into the genesis of their collaboration, the challenges of communicating science to young minds, and the delightful creation of the book’s playful character, “Epi Dermis.”California Academy of Sciences Bestows Fellows Medal to Nina Jablonski
Fellow Nina Jablonski, PhD, will be bestowed with the Academy’s highest honor: the Fellows Medal, which is given to especially prominent scientists who have made outstanding contributions to their specific scientific fields. Medalists are nominated each year by the Academy Fellows and confirmed by the Board of Trustees. A world-renowned anthropologist studying primate and human evolution, Jablonski serves as the Atherton Professor and Evan Pugh University Professor of Anthropology, Emerita at Pennsylvania State University.
New children’s book about skin to be released July 2023
Meet Epi Dermis, your guide to the origin of skin color! Using simpl
e science and interactive activities, Epi takes readers on an adventure through human history to find out why skin is the hardest working organ in the body business. Whether it’s how migration and climate changed our skin’s need for melanin, to why sweat is your body’s secret superpower, Epi’s got all the facts—and uses them to challenge false narratives about race and give kids the information they need to do the same.
It’s Just Skin, Silly! is a clever, quirky illustrated children’s book on the evolution of skin color, based on research from expert anthropologist Dr. Nina Jablonski and historian Dr. Holly McGee. Illustrations by Karen Vermeulen. Foreword by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
September 6, 2022 Nina Jablonski, The Conversation
Human beings have a conflicted relationship with the sun. People love sunshine, but then get hot. Sweat gets in your eyes. Then there are all the protective rituals: the sunscreen, the hats, the sunglasses. If you stay out too long or haven’t taken sufficient precautions, your skin lets us you know with an angry sunburn. First the heat, then the pain, then the remorse.
Were people always this obsessed with what the sun would do to their bodies? As a biological anthropologist who has studied primates’ adaptations to the environment, I can tell you the short answer is “no,” and they didn’t need to be. For eons, skin stood up to the sun.
Pandas evolved their most perplexing feature at least 6 million years ago
Reconstruction by Mauricio Anton
June 30, 2022 Katie Hunt, CNN
Giant pandas are notoriously fussy eaters. They only munch on bamboo and each day spend 15 hours eating up to 99 pounds (45 kilograms) of the stuff.
But their ancestors, like most bears, ate a much wider diet that included meat, and it was thought that modern pandas’ exclusive diet evolved relatively recently. However, a new study finds that pandas’ particular passion for bamboo may have originated at least 6 million years ago — possibly due to the plant’s wide, year-round availability.
For full publication, see Wang, X., Su, D. F., Jablonski, N. G., Ji, X., Kelley, J., Flynn, L. J., & Deng, T. (2022). Earliest giant panda false thumb suggests conflicting demands for locomotion and feeding. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 10538. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-13402-y
The story of an African children’s book that explains the science of skin colour
Nina Jablonski elected to National Academy of Sciences
Three Penn State faculty elected to National Academy of Sciences
TED Ed Video – Why Do We Have Hair in Such Random Places?
We have lots in common with our closest primate relatives. But comparatively, humans seem a bit… underdressed. Instead of thick fur covering our bodies, many of us mainly have hair on top of our heads— and a few other places. So, how did we get so naked? And why do we have hair where we do? Nina G. Jablonski explores the evolution of human hair. [Directed by Igor Coric, Artrake Studio, narrated by Alexandra Panzer, music by Nikola Radivojevic].