Lunch @UCBerkeley with Robert Dudley – Drunken monkeys and human alcoholism

Lunch @UCBerkeley with Robert Dudley – Drunken monkeys and human alcoholism

Can animals tell us something about our thirst for booze? Robert Dudley argues that humanity’s attraction to alcohol goes back some 18 million years, to the origin of the great apes, and perhaps even 45 million years with the origin of fruit-eating primates. His novel evolutionary interpretation of primate’s attraction to alcohol explains both routine low-level consumption of alcohol as well as persistence of alcohol-related problems. In his 2014 book, The Drunken Monkey, Why We Drink and Abuse Alcohol, he traced the link between the fruit-eating behavior of tropical arboreal primates and the evolution of sensory skills required to localize ripe and fermented fruits that contain sugar and low levels of alcohol.

#drunkenmonkey

Registration is required.