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Most of us know very little about the organisms in our own backyard, bedroom, roommate or even on our bodies. Rob Dunn, a Professor of Applied Ecology at North Carolina State University, will try to change that when he speaks tomorrow night at UNCW.

Professor Dunns work focuses on ecology and evolution, with a keen interest on the small species that live all around us and the role they play in the world.

One is the extent to which everything about how our bodies work is really contingent on all the species that live in and on our bodies.

In addition, Dunn will discuss how in the age of genetically-modified crops and foods, nature and what lives in the wild still have a large role to play.

And so you might imagine that if you can genetically-engineer all kinds of new crops that you dont need wild nature anymore, but it turns out that most of our tricks for engineering those crops come from new genes that we found somewhere in the wild.

Also on Wednesday Dunn will be unveiling his new book, titled Never Out of Season.

The lecture will be followed by a question and answer session and book-signing.

Professor Dunns talk is at 7 p.m., this Wednesday, in the Warwick Ballroom at UNCW.

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The Role of Small Species in Genetic Modification, at UNCW - WHQR