Life and death on a symbiotic planet: sex, Neo-Darwinism, and aging as an inside job

Who should attend this event?

Open lecture as part of the HASS Strategy Science, Technology, and Culture theme for all staff, students, and members of the public to attend.

Lecture abstract

Four billion years of evolution on a crowded planet have made life on Earth richer probably still than dreamed of in the philosophies of modern biologists.

American science writer and theorist Dorion Sagan takes us on a whirlwind tour of the new biology, focusing on aging and the need to re-introduce group selection to explain new and fascinating facts on aging as an internal process.

Looking at older views, including the very popular but factually flawed Free Radical Theory, as well as the more sophisticated and evolutionary theories begun by Sir Peter Medawar, Sagan argues for a rapprochement between mainstream Darwinism and newer biological approaches with their focus on symbiosis, microbiome, and interspecies relationships.

A new theory, better in accord with the facts and called The Black Queen, also the subject of a co-authored book, is introduced to explain senescence.

Registration

Register now for this event by emailing research-events@exeter.ac.uk.