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Dangerous ideas: Evolution. Jeremy Pritchard School of Biosciences. Cratægus oxycantha. —A dark pink hawthorn has been known to throw out a single tuft of pure white blossoms; 18
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Dangerous ideas: Evolution Jeremy Pritchard School of Biosciences
Cratægus oxycantha.—A dark pink hawthorn has been known to throw out a single tuft of pure white blossoms;18 Mr. A. Clapham, nurseryman, ofBradford, informs me that his father had a deep crimson thorn grafted on a white thorn, which, during several years, always bore, high above the graft, bunches of white, pink, and deep crimson flowers.
Hillside Court, Ilkley White Wells Bath House, Ilkley Moor Darwin was staying in Ilkley and taking water cure treatments when ‘On the Origin of Species…’ was published in November 1859
http://www.biosciences.bham.ac.uk/links/teachers/teachers.htmhttp://www.biosciences.bham.ac.uk/links/teachers/teachers.htm
Darwin’s theory of evolution • Many are born • Individuals vary • Not all survive • ‘Useful’ variations increase • Variations are inherited
Diversity is the consequence of the non-random survival of randomlyvaryingreplicators • Random = Mutation • Non random = Natural selection • Replicators = Inheritance
Evolution was one of the first Darwin beers produced. • The strange thing was that a mistake was made on the original recipe • yet the resulting beer was (and still is) better than we could have imagined.. • hence the beer evolved into one of our best sellers.
# students Support evolution Don’t support Evolution Subject specific views of evolution: 2nd year students University of Birmingham, Autumn 2007
Young Earth Creationism is the idea that God created the world sometime in the last 10,000 years. In your opinion is Young Earth Creationism…
“The diversity of organisms, similarities and differences between kinds of organisms, patterns of distribution and behaviour, adaptation and interaction, all this was merely a bewildering chaos of facts until given meaning by the evolutionary theory.” Mayr
“Science simply cannot … adjudicate the issue of God’s possible superintendence of nature. We neither affirm nor deny it; we simply can’t comment on it as scientists.” Gould
The issues • Organising diversity - trees • Evolution as ‘dangerous’ • Design and complexity from chance • Science and intelligent design
There is a lot of diversity out there… Where does it come from?
Organising diversity: Taxonomy and trees
So….. What’s the reason some things are more similar than others? Descent with modification from a common ancestor What’s the mechanism? Natural selection
The issues • Organising diversity - trees • Evolution as ‘dangerous’ • Design and complexity from chance • Science and intelligent design
Change… • Fact ? • Mechanism ?
The Great Chain of Being • Ideas of organisation and direction in evolution • Complex is better
The middle ages • Change is dangerous…
AL-BIRUNI 973 - 1048 • Gradual changes • But change is dangerous…
Classification - Linneaus • Species descriptions • But some things are more similar than others...
Intelligent design • Explaining complexity