KANEKO’s Great Minds Series continues on Thursday, March 3rd from 7 to 9 pm with a presentation from Tyrone Hayes.
Hayes is a National Geographic Society Explorer and Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California-Berkeley.
Hayes says most of his lab work focuses on the role of atrazine in both environmental and public health.
He says his own work primarily centers on amphibians and the effects atrazine has on them. Atrazine is a weed killer primarily used on corn.
Hayes says about 20 years ago it was discovered that atrazine is an endocrine disruptor.
"That it causes over production of estrogen and the consequences in frogs are that the male frogs are de-masculinized so they don’t develop the male features and they are feminized producing both hermaphrodites as well as males that behave like females. So the focus is really on the use of this particular pesticide and how it impacts environmental health and public health.”
Hayes says he will also talk about global research on atrazine which has shown similar effects in fish, reptiles, birds and mammals.
He says his broader message is that we should be rethinking how we put chemicals into the environment without properly vetting their safety.
Registration information is available online at thekaneko.org/greatminds.