Part of Words on Monday
Curated by Nature
Henry Gee, palaeontologist, evolutionary biologist & Senior Editor, Nature
Susan Blackmore, psychologist, writer and Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth
Andrew Pomiankowski, Professor of Genetics, University College London
Chair - Oliver Morton, Chief News and Features Editor, Nature
Is natural selection still shaping humans given that our survival is often more dependent on technology than genes? What are the implications for future generations from sedentary lifestyles, falling birth rates and older parents? What might our species look like 1000 years from now? Join three leading experts in evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology as they debate the latest evidence and its implications. Organized by Nature, the leading international weekly journal of science in association with Kings Place.
PANEL
• Henry Gee, palaeontologist, evolutionary biologist & Senior Editor, Nature: Dr Henry Gee is a Senior Editor of Nature, the international weekly science journal, where he devised and edits FUTURES, Nature's award-winning science fiction column. He has written a number of non-fiction books including The Science of Middle-earth, Jacob's Ladder, Deep Time and (with Luis V Rey) A Field Guide to Dinosaurs; and two novels, By The Sea and Siege of Stars. He lives in Cromer, Norfolk, with his family and numerous pets, whose lives are documented in his blog The End Of The Pier Show.
• Susan Blackmore, psychologist, writer and Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth: Dr Sue Blackmore is a psychologist and writer whose research on consciousness, memes, and anomalous experiences has been published in over sixty academic papers, as well as book chapters, reviews and popular articles. She has a regular blog in the Guardian, and often appears on radio and television. Her book The Meme Machine (1999) has been translated into 12 other languages and more recent books include a textbook Consciousness: An Introduction (2003) and Conversations on Consciousness (2005). Her book Ten Zen Questions is to be published in March.
• Andrew Pomiankowski, Professor of Genetics, University College London: Prof Andrew Pomiankowski's research in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London addresses evolutionary questions primarily in the area of sexual selection. One of the key questions he has been working on is the evolution of female mate preferences for exaggerated male sexual traits used in courtship display. He is the Director of CoMPLEX, UCL's inter-disciplinary research centre for mathematical biology, as well as a co-author of Evolutionary Genomics and Proteomics (2008).
CHAIR
• Oliver Morton, Chief News and Features Editor, Nature: Oliver joined Nature in late 2005 - a bit more than twenty years after he started off as a science writer doing an internship at The Economist. In the years in between he edited The Economist's science and technology pages, worked as editor of the UK/Europe edition of Wired, freelanced for everyone from The New Yorker to the Hollywood Reporter, wrote Mapping Mars, a book which the critics liked quite a lot, won a couple of awards, blogged a bit and found a number of other ways to use up half of his life so far. He has since published Eating the Sun, a book about what photosynthesis means for plants, people and the planet.
Discuss the event in the Nature Network "London forum". Please see the "Nature Opinion Forum" for more on evolution and Darwin 200.
Choose where you would like to sit. Use our seating plan to choose your price and seat.
Date: Monday 9 February
Time: 19:00
Venue: Hall One
Please note that online booking closes 90 minutes prior to the start of the performance.
