Understanding evolution: Michael Gillings at TEDxMacquarieUniversity

Michael Gillings is a Professor of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University. He has research interests that broadly include the mechanisms that generate and maintain genetic diversity, and how such diversity can be used to understand population structure, dispersal and evolution. Current research spans all living things, from bacteria to fungi, to plants, fish and mammals. A major program examines the evolution of mobile DNA in bacteria, with an emphasis on the origins and spread of antibiotic resistance in pathogens. In an offshoot of this research, he is investigating the consequences of DNA pollution and its potential effects on the natural environment. He teaches Human Biology to a class of over 900 undergraduates each year and is consistently voted amongst the top 5 University Lecturers in Australia. Teaching a diverse cohort of students with different backgrounds and interests has led to an abiding enthusiasm for making connections between the Humanities and Sciences, resulting in a fusion of Art, Music, Literature, History and Biology in his teaching material.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[geekgroupie]

one of the reasons for non-acceptance of evolution is individualism. we are taught we can do and understand anything. that everyone's ideas are equal. this is a really good idea in most contexts, but it also leads to people believing that their own ideas, even on subjects such as this, are as valid as those of the collective ideas of the scientific community. people are more likely to believe that something is not true than accept the fact that they don't understand it.

[fortifiedmentality]

There's something about evolution that's oddly beautiful.

[biomanslick]

Believing in a magical, unprovable super-entity puts you on par with a witch doctor dancing around a fire in an insane effort to appease unseen forces. Accepting the fact that no super-entity exists does 2 things: it forever destroys the notion of security which is terrifying to most, and makes one 100% responsible for one's self, which is equally terrifying to most. Smh...

[thelanguageofthebirds]

that moment when you come across your uni lecturers on your you tube endeavours

[JBoyle-jrwb]

Is amazing to me how many educated people don't even truly understand what the evolution debate is even about. This guy proves that in his introduction.

[taylorbarnett]

This would be such a great teaching tool for elementary school kids. Have them make up a sentence and tell it to different kids throughout the day. Then the next day, then at the end of the week see what the sentence turned into.

[BPBlackPearl]

It doesnt matter how much time an event has to occur, if its impossible to have occured, then it can have an infinite amount of time to occur, its still impossible.

[silvioapires]

Brilliant metaphor, perfectly explained!👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[purelythemusic]

I am relatively new to learning about Evolution so I’m not speaking from any authority. I’m trying to reconcile the idea of an evolutionary force with what we see scientifically.
Language as an analogy for evolution is good at showing how a force is required to motivate the natural selection of mutations to language. It requires autonomous individuals to be attracted to the mutation, then select to use it. Who’s to say the selected language is better suited to it’s environment? Human mind has made a relationship with the new terms, given them meaning, like the example of recombination he gives, Human mind has given these abstract elements a meaning. This is unique to human behaviour and can we attribute this capacity to individual cells?

[JewandGreek]

"A complex object has to have a more complex designer, and a complex designer has to have an even more complex designer, and now we're crossing over into philosophy and I don't wanna go there so let's just believe in evolution."

If God is eternal and exists outside of the realm of time, space, matter, and energy then He doesn't need a designer. Aristotle talked about this over 2, 000 years ago in his discussion of the primary cause, or the "prime mover". I think it's much easier to believe in a supreme being that exists outside of the laws of the universe and therefore isn't bound by those laws than it is to believe that the most complicated program ever coded (DNA) was somehow created through an unguided process.

As for the evolution of language analogy, here's the problem. Regardless of which version of English you use, it's still a human language. It's not like you went from croaking like a frog or barking like a dog to English. The problem with evolution is that we're told that we've evolved over a period of billions of years from a microbe, passing through various species along the way. That's macro-evolution. The evolution of language is comparable to micro-evolution, or adaptation within the species. It's not a good argument for Darwinian evolution.

[geekgroupie]

history: it's just one bloody thing after another.
and yeh the history of science / thinking is really interesting. thanks for the comment.

[Enkiaswad]

Ahaha I like his random "the floor is lava" attack in around 09:30 xD 

[cfmpam]

Actually, we are finding new species and the changes don't take that long depending on how much stress is in an organism's environment IE: off the eastern coast of the US 2 new dolphins have been found with their direct evolution from the bottlenose that are common in these water !

[robertmcclintock]

If physics of the universe is social it's certain to produce a God then us.

[jagk]

Thank you for sharing. Insightful, especially on the metaphor of language. =)

[sahb]

@3:16 - Oh look, it's Gwen Stacey thinking: 'Mmm you can bang my head against the pavement anytime'

[musapatr]

Çok zor anlaşılması ölümsüz bir bakteri yada bakteriler?

[dannygjk]

In order to have time to watch all those channels we would have to be unemployed and without kids.

[johnrogan]

Professor is brilliant
..evolution of language translated to living

[jmerlo]

I find a few very dangerous imprecisions in this talk:
1) As it is admitted here, mountains (minerals) do not evolve, they simply change. Therefore, evolution did not begin 13 Billion years ago,  but it began when life (genetics) appeared, which is only 4 Billion years ago.
2) Verbal language is not a living organism but a simple practical tool,  a very simple organization of gutural sounds, which change at the will of its human users, but it continues to serve the same one purpose, communication.
3) Evolution would happen only if language itself suddenly produces a new word, which, for instance,  writes itself in a blackboard, or if you write all the letters in page one, they reproduce and continue to write the whole book all by themselves...
4) I find it very difficult to admit that, for instance, the incredibly complex structure of the hearing mechanism, or the miracle of the eye, etc. could happen just because of sporadic changes in the environment.
5) If evolution began 4 Billon years ago, and primitive animals already had organs like the ear, the eye, etc. it means that such mind blowing evolutionary miracles did not take very long. This fact completely destroys the assumption that time explains everything.