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In the Light of Evolution III:
Two Centuries of Darwin
Organizers: John C. Avise and Francisco J. Ayala
This meeting was held January 15-17, 2009 at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center in Irvine, CA.
Meeting Overview
The year 2009 will mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of his most influential publication, On the Origin of Species, in which he developed the equally revolutionary concept that a natural but non-random process—natural selection—yields biological adaptations that otherwise can give a superficial impression of intelligent conscious design.
This colloquium will bring together leading evolutionary biologists and science historians to reflect upon and commemorate the Darwinian Revolution. One goal of this symposium will be to canvass modern scientific thought and research approaches regarding each of the three main categories of selection (natural, artificial, and sexual) that Darwin addressed during his career. Although Darwin is associated most often with his elucidation of natural selection in The Origin, he also thought and wrote extensively about artificial and sexual selection, as reflected for example in two other books titled, respectively, The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1869) and The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871). Other goals of this colloquium will be to place Darwin’s seminal contributions in historical perspective, and in general to celebrate Darwin’s ongoing scientific legacy.
View speaker list and presentation recordings.
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