Evolution Tomorrow and Beyond

Evolution Tomorrow and Beyond - Robin May

Рет қаралды 13,333

Күн бұрын

Evolution has led from amoebae to blue whales and from algae to giant redwoods.
So what might it do in the future? What species might evolve in the next ten million years? How will evolutionary processes change as a result of human innovation and what are the risks of us getting it disastrously wrong? What might evolution look like if we ever set up home on another planet, or if inhabitants of other planets arrive here?
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
02:02 - How Evolution Works
05:27 - Climate Change
08:05 - How we've accidentally impacted animal evolution
13:05 - How Pandemics shaped human evolution
19:06 - Bacterial resistance to antibiotics
21:24 - Future pandemics
23:39 - Survival through better immune systems
26:18 - Survival through being antisocial
28:35 - Survival through being violent
32:23 - Gene editing to prevent disease
39:17 - Cosmetic gene editing in utero
41:20 - Does musical genius come from genes?
43:52 - Human evolution beyond Earth
46:41 - Conclusion
47:28 - Q&A Session
This lecture was recorded by Robin May on 8th May 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Robin is Gresham Professor of Physic.
He is also Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/e...
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Пікірлер: 36

@noahwinberry2475 26 күн бұрын

This man makes me wish I'd been certified as a middle/high school science teacher instead of a social studies one. But you can bet that I'm stealing as much of this as possible.

@alexandraetush1099 26 күн бұрын

I loved the Evolution series. Robin May is just brilliant. I'm looking forward to hearing more from him

@fullnewsky Ай бұрын

My favorite lecturer!❤

@DianaStevens42 27 күн бұрын

he’s sooo hot

@katarinavidakovic4718 23 күн бұрын

Always make my day enjoy every minute of it❤

@userwl2850 28 күн бұрын

This was great

@rejipaul433 26 күн бұрын

Would like to refute a point. UK gets much lower UV exposure. Therefore paler skin is an evolutionary advantage and that’s why people living in higher latitudes have relatively lighter pigmentation, primarily to do with Vitamin D utilisation N.B - eskimos is an exception because of reflected UV from snow

@jeffbguarino 26 күн бұрын

No , Eskimos have not had time to adapt. They have not been around that long. Also thet get vitamin D from fish. Only the European farmers had vitamin D deficiency.

@rejipaul433 26 күн бұрын

Eskimos still hasn’t acquired lighter pigmentation since they have a ready source of vitamin D in the fish. It’s also likely acquiring lighter pigmentation would put them at an evolutionary disadvantage in view of the reflective UV from the snow. However perhaps if fish was not a ready source of vitamin D , natural selection would have determined whether they should have lighter pigmentation to get more vitamin D from the reflective UV. My initial point was Mr. May gave wrong information saying UK has high UV exposure.

@michaels4255 4 күн бұрын

This is the most popular theory, but there are arguments against it, and alternative theories exist. This is still an unsettled question.

@terenzo50 Ай бұрын

Que sera, sera.

@expatexpat6531 Ай бұрын

I read somewhere that due to the availability of caesarian operations (mainly in the west), there is a creeping Lara-Croft-isation of women's physiques, i.e. slim-hipped women who may have died in childbirth in earlier generations are now surviving and passing on their slim-hipped genes. May be absolute nonsense, but comments from slim-hipped women and otherwise are appreciated :-)

@entropy5431 Ай бұрын

Lara Croft has an hour glass figure but usual hips.

@molochi Ай бұрын

You might as well add children that had rather large heads at birth to that equation. And of course the actual reason for most cesarean sections being children trying to come out feet first or with entangled umblical chords.

@expatexpat6531 Ай бұрын

@@molochi I had a slim-hipped colleague who chose to have all of her three children delivered by c-section. Apparently further pregnancies after a c-section birth can be risky.

@SirAntoniousBlock Ай бұрын

Where did you read that, in The Sun?

@expatexpat6531 Ай бұрын

@@SirAntoniousBlock No, I checked. It was a BBC article from 2016. Search for "Caesarean births 'affecting human evolution".

@gk-qf9hv 24 күн бұрын

With 8 billion people on earth now, shouldn't their be more mutations than before?

@rovert1284 25 күн бұрын

Pretty depressing picture for human evolution. Our medical care keeps most alive through the breeding ages. The more successful (in a technology age) are not breeding to any extent. Firstly due to education demands and then career aspirations. I suspect those without education/careers are breeding at a higher rate. I read that IQ is in a downward trend which does not bode well for the long term. Perhaps intelligence is no longer a requirement for the species......

@hmq9052 Ай бұрын

We may get two types of human. Rich and poor. The rich will be tall and magnificent and highly intelligent (because they can afford 'perfect' children thanks genetic planning) and an underclass of short, brutish, slaves.

@molochi Ай бұрын

I guess that might be the dream of some.

@bazsnell3178 Ай бұрын

Excellent point. Maybe like the two races described in the H.G. Wells's novel ''The Time Machine''. Regardless, there is already an 'underclass' who cannot afford private dental treatment because the National Health Service has next-to-none NHS dentists on their books. The rich, however, don't need an appointment to see their ''orthodontist'' (just a fancy term to describe a 'cosmetic' dentist). Bottom line here. You're poor, your teeth fall out. You're rich, you can buy a perfect set of pearly-whites.

@hmq9052 Ай бұрын

@@bazsnell3178 🎯

@noahwinberry2475 26 күн бұрын

If we only consider the expertise in the genetics field as it is now, the tools and ability to deploy the knowledge will slowly become cheaper and more accessible (think cars, flat screen TVs, different kinds of medical procedures). The way middle-class folks live in the Western world today would look unimaginably lavish to those living 50-75 years ago, what with all the electronics and appliances, but it's because the tech became more efficient and cheaper to make and the knowledge easier to deploy. Assuming these patterns continue, the lower classes aren't going to be left here in the first half of the 21st century, while the rich exponentially accelerate in tools and medicine over the next few centuries. The "less new" new techs and procedures will diffuse down while the elites keep advancing. The elites always take 2 steps forward for every 1 of the lower class, but I think it would take a dedicated eugenics program to really keep the lower classes down in the way this comment suggests

@hmq9052 26 күн бұрын

@@noahwinberry2475 It'll happen more organically. The rich will not breed with the poor, and worse, will be able to produce exponentially more exceptional children. Perhaps with expensive electronic chips that perfectly balance their diets, help choose their romantic partners and screen for the early signs of disease. No eugenics programmes required. It'll be the haves and the have nots - like we have now - except the haves will have access to an awful lot more. At a price only they can afford. Two types of humans emerge