Download v2 Description Chancellor`s Colloquium on Evolution

Chancellor’s Colloquium on Evolution: Biology and Beyond
Just over 30 years ago, here at the
University of Illinois, Carl Woese and
colleagues
set
out
to
chart
the
evolutionary relationships or family
tree, if you will, of living organisms.
They
made
the
groundbreaking
discovery that there are three domains
of life, not two as had been previously
thought. This discovery, and the way
in which it was made, has transformed
evolution into a quantitative, empirical
science, and impacted biology in ways which are still unfolding. Part of the
legacy of this pioneering work is the dramatic visualization of evolution in
action through the so-called “Tree of Life”, first constructed by Woese’s
team. As you view, perhaps for the first time, this remarkable construct of
evolution in action, ask yourself: what does it really mean? Is this the record
of a collection of unrelated historical accidents, a mere progression of
forms? Or is there a dynamical process at work, which somehow reflects the
complex interplay between organisms and their environment, between the
genome and organismal characteristics, .and between the flows of energy
and information?
And is the evolutionary process one that is unique to
organic life, or a reflection of deeper physical principles that might extend to
other realms of knowledge?
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The unprecedented public interest in evolution during 2009 is being driven
by numerous special anniversaries: 150 years since the publication of the
Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species; 200 years since the publication of Jean
Baptiste de Lamarck’s Philosophie Zoologique, and 151 years since the first
publication in a learned scientific journal of what has come to be known as
the theory of natural selection, by Alfred Russel Wallace. But despite all
that we have learned during the 19th and 20th centuries, what do we really
understand about evolution today? Are the foundations of the subject now
so well-understood that only incremental work remains to be done? And is
evolution only a small, but highly controversial, arcane corner of biology,
disconnected from the rest of scientific thought, and of primary interest only
to theologians, school education boards, and philosophers of science?
The Chancellor’s Colloquium on “Evolution: Biology and Beyond” is our
way of bringing such fundamental and cross-cutting questions to the campus
community during the forthcoming academic year. We have resisted the
temptation to create a celebration that is backwards-looking, historical, and
personality-focused, primarily because we believe that the most important
evolutionary discoveries life ahead of us, not behind us.
Evolutionary
concepts are poised to encompass social and technological change,
medicine, and even our basic understanding of the origins of life. Moreover,
as new genomic tools illuminate the molecular mechanisms of evolution and
inter-cellular communication, we are learning that our fundamental
preconceptions about the evolutionary process need to be revised. At a time
when society itself is challenged by such diverse threats as global climate
change, pandemics, financial upheaval, and the shocking failure of trusted
medicines such as antibiotics, it is more important than ever to try to
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understand the unifying framework behind these phenomena. We believe
that in its broadest sense, the science of evolution has a pivotal role to play
in elucidating such complex phenomena as these and in providing a basis for
their understanding.
We have called this series “Biology and Beyond”, because it is becoming
increasingly clear that in the future, evolution studies will impact
communications and computer technology, sociology, medicine, and even
the physical sciences. It is our express hope to involve the entire campus
community, on both sides of Green Street, in these events. To this end, we
have invited a small group of outstanding and unconventional thinkers to
share with us their insights and perspectives on these and other questions.
They represent an eclectic array of disciplines---indeed, one characteristic
they all share in common is that their work eludes simple classification and
traditional disciplinary boundaries---and together they consolidate what we
already know and paint a picture of the future of evolution.
We are grateful to the Offices of the Chancellor and Provost for giving us
the chance to give this gift to the campus. Without their appreciation of our
vision and their support, this series would not exist. We are equally grateful
to Harris Lewin and the Institute for Genomic Biology for its logistical
support, with special thanks due to Debbie Piper and Melissa Edwards.
We hope you will join us during the coming year in what we are sure will be
an exciting, stimulating, and energizing series of talks and discussions.
Carl Woese, Nigel Goldenfeld, Les Gasser, Zan Luthey-Schulten
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