2017 Paul D. Bartlett, Sr. Lecture - What Darwin Didn't Know: Evolution Since the Origin of Species

April 6, 2017, in the Main Reading Room of the Linda Hall Library

15th Annual Paul D. Bartlett, Sr. Lecture presented in association with the Harvard-Radcliffe Club of Kansas City, the Princeton Alumni Association of Greater Kansas City, and the Yale Club of Kansas City.

Andrew Berry, Assistant Head Tutor in Integrative Biology and Lecturer on Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, reviews the essence of Darwin’s ideas while taking excursions into some of the most exciting post-Darwin discoveries. In particular, he focuses on human evolution, an area in which our knowledge has recently expanded massively with fossil discoveries and the application of modern genetics to both ourselves and, remarkably, to our extinct relatives, the Neanderthals.

[kp]

I could listen to this lecture for an entire weekend to give my brain the endorphins that gives me pleasure that I require every week because learning gives more pleasure than anything!

[julias-shed]

Many thanks for making this available on YouTube. Really interesting 😀

[redwatch.]

One of the best lectures I've heard. He's witty and great at formulating understandable jargon free answers.

[online]

This should be 3 hours, he was right. I really enjoyed learning about all of this, even if joy wasnt the purpose of this, it still was.

[philgallagher]

In Manchester, England, you know that it is going to rain if you look out and can see the mountains in the distance. If you can't see the mountains.... It's already raining!!
(From a Scouser who enjoys laughing at Manchester!!)

By the way, a fascinating lecture throwing light on a very complex subject! Thank you for sharing!!

[wvhollargirl]

I NEED MORE of this man and this subject! 3 hours wouldn't be enough. Thank you.

[nathanokun]

FANTASTIC talk!! THIS is how a GREAT teacher teaches his students!. I only had one pro0fessor (of differential equations, of all things) who was of this caliber at UCLA. Others were good, but great is much better than goo0d!

[suzbone]

7:20 "HA! Stupid zebra!"
I guffawed 😂😂😂 Can't wait to watch the rest, and really wish it was three hours long!

[Sebastian-hgxc]

Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed this lecture. Would be great if you could name the speaker in the description so I can look for more. If anyone else is looking for his name: They show in in the very beginning: Andrew Berry, Lecturer on Organismic & Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University.

[jimvj]

Can anyone recommend a source to learn about the shuffling/inheritance he talks about starting at 42:22?

[edwardhamm]

Wonderfully film segment with great ape dancing and holding

[robertdavenport]

Interesting to see cellular automata popping up in a lecture on evolutionary biology.

[panafricandesignsandapparel]

I have to say you explained this so beautifully...thank you for this presentation!!! ( 33:22 Hominid Evolution ct 7 mya ) ( 37:50 what happened when Africans meet Neanderthals ct 70, 000 ya) ( 39:48 Genetic analyses ct 30, 000 ya ) ( 52:00 question and answer period )

[joannad]

29:49 It was largely because his beloved wife was a staunch religious believer

[paulspence]

Very nice. I've been lecturing and talking about this for decades. This micoevolution is OK but no macroevolution thing creationists go on about has been blown away by developmental biology and the genetics that drive it. Also, nice to see that Andrew Berry is an aluminus of my university.

[tnekkc]

Evolution of skin color is fast and adapts to new latitudes. Evolution is slow metabolically, and has not adapted from eating meat to eating grain. We get obesity, high blood pressure, tooth decay, cancer, heart disease, and mental illness.

[johaquila]

Wonderfully entertaining presentation, and I even learned one or two new things.

[nathanokun]

The argument about carbon-based life in a competition with alternatives like silicon on worlds with vaguely similar conditions to earth is probably true. BUT, if a world has no carbon or very little, then any other material that has a chance, such as silicon, has a chance to substitute, however difficult it might be. There are also planets or other places (?) where electromagnetic effects might allow complexity (like the crystals in crystal radios and somewhat similar later solid-state devices). Living solid-state parallel-processing computing machines, in effect, with bodies using electric and/or magnetic machinery. Totally different, but there was nothing to get in the way like our form of life.

[joannad]

Of course, we had to have at least one creationist intervention from the audience

[kakhaval]

I was expecting randomness could have ended up creating internet, easier than an ant...