Darwin Day Lectures
2012 February 8 – Creation: synthetic biology and the origin of life
Congress Centre, London
With the Theory of Evolution being robustly verified over the last 152 years, we have reached a point where it is extremely unlikely to be replaced wholesale. A major outstanding question concerns the origin of the first species, some 4 billion years ago. We are inching towards not only a picture of how genesis occurred, primarily by experiments that try to replicate it. Similarly, the fusion of evolutionary theory with an understanding of genetics has gifted us an unprecedented ability to manipulate and create novel lifeforms. This technology places us at the cusp of an industrial revolution, where the nuts and bolts are cells and DNA. This Darwin Day Lecture concerns the prequel, and the sequel to evolution.
The 2012 Darwin Day lecture focusses on the new sciene of synthetic biology and is presented by renowned author, broadcaster, scientist, and geek Adam Rutherford, and chaired by biologist Steve Jones.
Details can be found here.
2011 February 9 – Mutants, And What To Do About Them
Conway Hall, London
Humans are afflicted by a continual storm of mutations. Individually rare, these mutations are collectively responsible for thousands of genetic disorders. Now that the cost of sequencing a human genome has dropped to less than the price of a new car, we can start to defend ourselves against them. In this lecture, Armand Marie Leroi outlines how.
Our 2011 lecturer Armand Leroi is Professor of Evolutionary Developmental Biology at Imperial College London, author of Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body for which he was awarded the Guardian First Book Award in 2004. He presented the documentaries Human Mutants, Alien Worlds, and What Makes Us Human.
You can listen to the lecture here.
2010 February 11 — Darwin and Human Evolution
Conway Hall, London
When On the Origin of Species was published in 1859 the only recognised human fossils were from Europe, and this was still the case when Darwin completed The Descent of Man in 1871. Nevertheless, he argued by inference that humans had probably originated in Africa. However, it was not until 50 years later that Africa started to produce a fossil record which showed that Darwin’s educated guess was correct. Professor Chris Stringer on the ‘out of Africa’ theory. Chaired by Richard Dawkins.
2009 February 11 – Can British Science Rise to the New Challenges of the Twenty-First Century?
Conway Hall, London
200 years after the birth of Charles Darwin, 150 years after the publication of On the Origion of Species, former Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government, Professor Sir David King, considers the state of British science today. Chaired by Richard Dawkins.
2008 February 12 – Darwin: A Philosophical Naturalist?
Darwin Lecture Theatre, UCL
Dr Tim Lewens asks about the philosophical underpinnings of Charles Darwin’s thought and assesses the evidence about Darwin’s own beliefs. Chaired by Richard Dawkins.
2006 February 13 – Darwin’s meme
Darwin Lecture Theatre, UCL
Dr Susan Blackmore on “Darwin’s meme: or the origin of culture by means of natural selection”. Chaired by Richard Dawkins.
2005 February 11 – Darwin, a “Devil’s Chaplain”?
Dr James Moore. Chaired by Richard Dawkins.
Report and edited transcript of the lecture by James Moore.
2004 February 12 – The Peppered Moth Controversy
A lecture by Dr Michael Majerus. Chaired by Richard Dawkins.
2003 February 12 – Is Creationism Scientific?
Conway Hall, London.
Stephen Law and Robin Dunbar offer philosophical and scientific perspectives respectively on the question “Is Creationism Scientific?”. Chaired by Andrew Brown.
Report and notes for the lecture by Stephen Law.
