Dangerous ideas: Evolution

1. Dangerous ideas: Evolution Jeremy Pritchard School of Biosciences

3. 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.

4. 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

5. http://www.biosciences.bham.ac.uk/links/teachers/teachers.htmhttp://www.biosciences.bham.ac.uk/links/teachers/teachers.htm

6. Darwin’s theory of evolution • Many are born • Individuals vary • Not all survive • ‘Useful’ variations increase • Variations are inherited

7. Diversity is the consequence of the non-random survival of randomlyvaryingreplicators • Random = Mutation • Non random = Natural selection • Replicators = Inheritance

12. 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.

13. # students Support evolution Don’t support Evolution Subject specific views of evolution: 2nd year students University of Birmingham, Autumn 2007

15. 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…

16. “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

17. “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

18. The issues • Organising diversity - trees • Evolution as ‘dangerous’ • Design and complexity from chance • Science and intelligent design

21. 10s of years

22. 100s of years

23. 1000s of years

24. Millions of years

27. There is a lot of diversity out there… Where does it come from?

28. Organising diversity: Taxonomy and trees

40. 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

41. The issues • Organising diversity - trees • Evolution as ‘dangerous’ • Design and complexity from chance • Science and intelligent design

42. Change… • Fact ? • Mechanism ?

43. The Great Chain of Being • Ideas of organisation and direction in evolution • Complex is better

44. The middle ages • Change is dangerous…

45. AL-BIRUNI 973 - 1048 • Gradual changes • But change is dangerous…

46. Change…? Stasis!!

47. Classification - Linneaus • Species descriptions • But some things are more similar than others...

48. Explaining complexity

49. Intelligent design • Explaining complexity