The Darwin 2009 Festival

The importance of trees: recent progress with understanding the history of plant life. Professor Sir Peter Crane (University of Chicago, Illinois, USA) Summary: Much was learnt about plant evolution in the first 100 years following On the Origin of Species, but progress in recent decades has been equally rapid, especially with new approaches to develop and test different kinds of evolutionary trees that model the specific pathways of plant evolution. Such trees provide a basis for understanding how the major groups of living and fossil plants are interrelated, and in turn, this has opened up possibilities for research in many new areas. In this lecture, I will review our current understanding of the origin and early diversification of land plants, vascular plants, seed plants and flowering plants. In all four cases, many questions remain to be answered, but improved insights have come, most reliably, by integrating information from living and fossil plants towards the development of increasingly robust phylogenetic and stratigraphic patterns. Among living plants, the widespread application of phylogenetic techniques based on molecular sequence data, together with new studies of plant structure, function and development, have been especially influential. Among fossil plants, new perspectives continue to come from studies of recently discovered and classic localities, as well as from information obtained through the application of new techniques.

Towards the unification of the behavioural sciences. Professor Herbert Gintis (New Mexico, USA / Budapest, Hungary). Summary: Despite their distinct objects of study, the human behavioural sciences all include models of individual human behaviour. Unity in the behavioural sciences requires that there be a common underlying model of individual human behaviour, specialized and enriched to meet the particular needs of each discipline. Such unity does not exist, and cannot be easily attained, because the various disciplines have incompatible models and disparate research methodologies. Yet, recent theoretical and empirical developments have created the conditions for unity in the behavioural sciences, incorporating core principles from all fields, and based upon theoretical tools that transcend disciplinary boundaries. This presentation sketches a set of principles aimed at fostering such a unity. They include: (1) culture co-evolution as a unifying dynamical tool (2) evolutionary and behavioural game theory as transdisciplinary lexicons for communication and model-building (3) the rational actor model, rooted in evolutionary biology but developed in economic theory, applied to all the human behavioural disciplines and (4) the treatment of strategic dynamical systems as complex adaptive systems with emergent properties.

Genomes: the books of life Professor Chris Ponting (University of Oxford, UK)Summary: DNA from across the tree of life presents a fascinating record of the impact of natural selection on animal evolution. Differences in anatomy and behaviour between species are reflected by changes both within genes and within DNA dark matter whose biology remains largely unknown.

Darwinian ideas about cancer. Professor Harold Varmus (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, New York, USA) Summary: Charles Darwin's ideas about natural selection were developed through meticulous observations about species variation, based on the appearance and behaviour of intact organisms and their visible components. Advances during the past century in cell biology, molecular biology, genetics and pathology have produced new ways to apply Darwinian principles to diseases, especially infectious diseases and cancers. Mutations (genetic variations) are the underlying events in cancers; some of these are inherited, but most are somatic (occurring after birth). Selection for cells that bear such cancer-predisposing or cancer-causing mutations is based on a growth advantage. This favours the cells at the expense of the organism (which commonly dies from the cancer), raising interesting questions about why certain cancer-predisposing versions of genes (alleles) persist in human populations. In addition, because cancer cells are usually found to have multiple mutations, additional Darwinian questions arise: Is the rate of variation (mutation) higher in cancer cells than in normal cells? If so, is the higher rate due to defects in mechanisms, such as DNA repair, that normally protect our chromosomes from damage during life? Do cells that undergo sequential mutations also undergo selection in the context of a tumour, producing an evolutionary process that favours the dominance of the most aggressively growing cells? And what are the biological (phenotypic) consequences of the mutations that favour selection? These problems are further compounded by the use of modern therapies, including radiotherapy, chemotherapy and so-called targeted therapy. In each case, cells that undergo further mutations may gain an additional selective advantage if they become resistant to the therapy yet another form of Darwinian evolution in the context of a major disease and one that demands the immediate attention of the research community to find new treatment strategies.

Voice of Darwin (in morning sessions). Terry Molloy is an actor, director, producer, trainer and corporate presenter. He is the voice of 'Mike Tucker' (the milkman from hell) in The Archers (BBC Radio 4), and has appeared on TV in Dr Who as the Doctor's nemesis 'Davros', creator of the Daleks, from 1983 to 1989, continuing through to today on audio CDs. He is currently appearing as Charles Darwin in 'Re: Design' by Craig Baxter.