1. Dangerous ideas: Evolution Jeremy Pritchard School of Biosciences

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

14. The issues oOrganising diversity - trees oEvolution as ‘dangerous’ oDesign and complexity from chance oScience and intelligent design

15. The issues oOrganising diversity: Taxonomy and trees oThe Evolution of Evolution where do the ideas come from? oComplexity vs chance oScience and intelligent design

16. Organising diversity: Taxonomy and trees

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

18. oMany are born oIndividuals vary oNot all survive o‘Useful’ variations increase oVariations are inherited Darwin’s theory of evolution

19. Diversity is the consequence of the non-random survival of randomly varying replicators 1.Random = Mutation 2.Non random = Natural selection 3.Replicators = Inheritance

32. 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

33. The issues oOrganising diversity - trees oEvolution as ‘dangerous’ oDesign and complexity from chance oScience and intelligent design

34. oFact ? oMechanism ? Change……………

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

36. The middle ages Change is dangerous…..

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

38. Change……..? Stasis!!

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

40. Explaining complexity

41. Intelligent design Explaining complexity

42. Irreducible Complexity = Intelligent design Michael J. Behe

43. The emergence of change Stasis ?……...….Change

44. Voyages of discovery

45. Wedgwood Small changes improve things Experiments are needed

46. But change is dangerous….. Erasmus Darwin

47. Stasis ?.... Change! Mechanism?

48. Inheritance of acquired characteristics Desire to improve Lamark

49. Charles Darwin

50. Noted 1. Overproduction of young 2. Rising population outstrips resources 3. Lower classes are irresponsible. Solution Family size of the lower class regulated so that they do not produce more children than they can support Malthus: An Essay on the Principle of Population

51. In January 1844 Darwin wrote to Joseph Hooker on Transmutation, describing this as being like confessing "a murder" Change is dangerous…..

53. Replacement of religion ? ‘So careful of the type?’ but no. From scarped cliff and quarried stone She cries, ‘A thousand types are gone: I care for nothing, all shall go. ‘Thou makest thine appeal to me: I bring to life, I bring to death: The spirit does but mean the breath: I know no more.’ And he, shall he, Who trusted God was love indeed And love Creation’s final law– Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw With ravine, shriek’d against his creed– Who loved, who suffer’d countless ills, Who battled for the True, the Just, Be blown about the desert dust, Or seal’d within the iron hills?

54. o Evolution explains mechanism o It does not explain purpose o Ask What? and How? o Be careful with Why? Replacement of religion?

56. How do complex structures evolve by small chance events? 1802 2008

57. Example of misunderstanding….. Suppose I have a 10-letter word in mind and I want you to guess the word by randomly guessing the letters. The probability that you will guess the first letter correctly is 1 out of 26 since there are 26 letters with equal probability of being chosen. Likewise, the probability of your guessing the remaining letters is 1 out of 26 for each one. The chance that you will correctly guess all the letters simultaneously is 1 out of 26 x 26 x 26 x 26 x 26 x 26 x 26 x 26 x 26 x 26 or 141 trillion. If you guessed a combination of the 10 letters once every second, it would take 4.5 million years to try all combinations.

58. Diversity is the consequence of the non-random survival of randomly varying replicators 1.Random = Mutation 2.Non random = Natural selection 3.Replicators = Inheritance = Differential Survival

60. E V O L U T I O N H O P A L CREDOSCREDOS EXPERIMENTEXPERIMENT

61. E V O L U T I O N H O P A L CREDOSCREDOS EXPERIMENTEXPERIMENT

62. E V O L U T I O N H O P A L CREDOSCREDOS EXPERIMENTEXPERIMENT

63. H CREDOSCREDOS E V O L U T I O N EXPERIMENTEXPERIMENT

64. H O P A L CREDOSCREDOS E V O L U T I O N EXPERIMENTEXPERIMENT

66. Lens - focus Hairs - protection Cornea - protection Indentation – focus and protection Light sensitive cells - detection A functional eye………………….

68. Transparent cover IndentationLensHairsLight sensitive cells Wild type Functional eye Assume 5 mutations

69. Mutant 1 For 5 mutations there are 2 5 or 32 possible genotypes

72. Complexity = random mutation + Non-random differential survival

73. The issues oOrganising diversity: Taxonomy and trees oThe Evolution of Evolution where do the ideas come from? oComplexity vs chance oScience and intelligent design

75. What is Science? SCIENCE Provides natural explanations FalsifiableParsimonious Experimentally testable Based on multiple observations

76. Natural Explanations Science should use natural explanations to justify observations. oIntelligent design introduces a supernatural entity.

77. Is Intelligent Design a Science?

78. Creationists….. 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...'

79. Science (The Royal Society) a belief that all species on earth have always existed in their present form is “…not consistent with the evidence ….".

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