Wanderlust wizarding fans, geneticists and enthusiasts of the obscure will be in attendance at the “Harry Potter and the Genetics of Wizarding” discussion, held in the back bar of Top of the Hill on Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Eric Spana, associate professor of the practice of biology at Duke University, will be visiting Chapel Hill to speak as part of the Carolina Science Cafe monthly speaker series through the North Carolina Science Festival.
Spana gave a similar talk to a teenage group in December, but popular demand prompted him to address an adult audience.
“The Harry Potter series works as a shadow universe,” Spana said. “It isn’t someplace you make up anything you want. The science is the same as here. Organisms still undergo evolution and it’s interesting to explain.”
Spana said he used a Harry Potter reference to perk students' interest during a class about five years ago and people showed immediate interest.
“Spending eight hours working out how Hermione comes to be a witch, well that is basically a waste of time because it is fiction and doesn’t exist, but reading research is learning for me,” Spana said. “I try to explain how things work, not that they can’t."
Spana said that science and English majors, intense fans or not, can all learn from the new insight he extracts from this popular series. Furthermore, Spana hopes that others will be inspired to pursue their own interests.
“I encourage people to go think of a question, research it then share it," Spana said. "If you can do that the world is a better place, even if your question is silly. There are other people out there who like silly questions.”
UNC junior Janie Oberhauser’s mathematics of life class delved into the magical inheritance of Harry Potter. She is interested in hearing what Spana has to add to the scientific spin on J. K. Rowling’s mystical books.
