19:00 The Café at The Showroom
No Tickets Required.
Frank Ryan will present two Cafés. This, the first, will be linked to the 150th anniversary of the presentation of Darwin's theory at the Linnean Society in 1858, a year before publication of 'The Origin of Species'. Indeed, Frank Ryan will be co-hosting an international meeting at the Linnean Society in July to mark the occasion - click here for the abstracts.
At Café Scientifique Frank will discuss the concept of genomic creativity, explaining how viruses are a vital part of this, referring to symbiosis as a creative force. Frank has written on this subject . His latest book, 'Darwin's Blind Spot' is available, with free postage, from http://www.swiftpublishers.com/.
A second book, that is entertaining as well as informative, is his recently published eco-thriller. The 'Doomsday Genie', available from www.fprbooks.com.
Frank will have copies of these books available at his presentation. As an audience, be prepared to contribute to this session in order to shape the direction of Frank's follow-on presentation to be given on 1st September. What areas of this fascinating field do you want to explore?
You might even be able to get your copy of his book signed by the author!
http://www.sciencecafesheffield.org/200805.htm
7 comments:
Very much looking forward to this talk. The construction of virus is something very close to my heart!
Frank, very interesting talk yesterday, although for me, it was all quite a lot to take in.
I would really like to hear you speak on the Gaia hypothesis in September.
I thought Frank was stimulating speaker though I did have difficulty following the detail, and hence the 'revolutionary' implications of what he was saying. But it certainly sparked an interesting discussion with a colleague about a worrying virus experiment in Australia when we were walking back to the bus stop. I'm now immersing myself in 'Darwin's Blind Spot' with some vigour and hope to understand more of what passed me by.
Gaia and artificial life forms are areas that would interest me for September - but if the latter has to be very technical out of necessity, Gaia is probably the most attractive topic for a Cafe event.
I would also be interested in exploring issues around Gaia. I believe that some aspects of Gaia theory are ingrained in the public consciousness - even if not named as Gaia. Example: When the earthquake hit Lincolnshire earlier this year, many people asked the BBC if this was related to Climate change. There is no obvious causal link, but it seemed intuitive to some people that there is an interlinkedness about the planet.
I've heard others suggest that the planet won't let us destroy it, that there will be major volcanic eruptions that will cause climate cooling.
My Grandmother used to say that if there were lots of berries on a rowan tree we were in for a heavy winter. Her reason: This was a way of allowing birds to feed extra well to cope with the coming harshness. in other words "nature" was being proactive.
Non-scientists are free to make random associations like this. Is Gaia just a way of accommodating the loose ends?
K
Interesting point Kenneth. Only that there are too many loose ends and we are sort of stumbling upon them every now and then. Perhaps Gaia will lead us to a more structured approach to these loose ends.
John has invited me to participate in the discussion following my talk on viruses as symbionts.
I note that some found the May talk a lot to take in so I'll keep my second talk briefer and simpler.
It's certainly looking as if Gaia is the topic most people want me to talk about. Those who have copies of Darwin's Blind Spot will find that I have written extensively about Gaia in this (I interviewed James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis in depth to do so). I also examined the evolution of life from the beginning to the present diversity in relation to Gaia theory in the book. James Lovelock seemed to like it and gave it a cover quote, which was reassuring on the Gaia aspect. I can see that it has important implications in the present global climate.
I also considered both Gaia and the fragility of biodiversity in my science-based novel, The Doomsday Genie. As I see it, the construction of the first true artificial life form has to take Gaia into account.
Okay -- I'll wait to see what the consensus is -- and present accordingly.
Frank Ryan
From a member of the audience who is attending the Linnean Society meetings on 3rd & 4th July)
Dear Frank,
Have been looking through the abstracts for the Linnean event, and the following represent terms which I haven't previously come across and for which I therefore require an explanation. In fact, there were actually quite a few more than that, but fortunately I have a couple of quite good biological dictionaries which - with remarkable prescience - I acquired some years ago. I haven't previously found much need to refer to them, but they're obviously going to come in handy now. I must make sure that I bring them with me.
The terms in question are as follows:
Day 1
Margulis: Line 3: protoctist; line 10: karyomastigont; line 12: amitochondriate
Dickinson and Grant-Downton: Line 4: epiallele
Linares: Line 9: homoploid
Day 2
Larsson et al: Title: homoploid; par. 1, line 9: retransposition; para 3, line 3, LTR; line 11: expression; line 13: proteomics
Truman-Riddiford: Para 1, Line 9: heterochronic; para 2, line 9: anisomorphic
I hope that it won't give you too much trouble to deal with those queries. If possible, I would like to have the answers before I leave for London on Wednesday
Frank Ryan's answers to the Questions
Lynn Margulis talk: Lynn Margulis put forward a highly original concept when a young woman -- the origin of nucleated cells arising from the serial endosymbiosis of bacterial ancestors. The term archae-bacterium and eubacterium may confuse you. In fact archaebacteria are believed to be ancient bacteria-type life-forms which some classify, from a genetic point of view, as an entire domain (Kingdom) to themselves as "Archaea". Those surviving today tend to live in strange and exotic ecologies, such as hot springs or in high concentrations of chlorine, etc. Margulis proposed that serial symbiotic union of each of these, together with a fast-swimming bacterium, rather like the treponema corkscrew-like bacterium that causes syphilis, brought about the first nucleated cell. The bacterial genomes all united to form the nucleus. (I should add that there are alternative, viral theories for the origins of the nucleus). Her particular theory about how they formed the nucleus is the so-called "karyomastigont" theory. The karyomastigont is a complex concept that embraces the nuclear membrane and other items -- I wouldn't worry too much about it except to see it as a theory for the origin of the nucleus. A proctoctist is Lynn's term for what you would call a protozoan. We no longer call single celled nucleated life-forms protozoa because the zoa bit means animal when we now realize they are neither plant nor animal. Amitochodriate simply means an organism that has no mitochondria - in other words it would not be able to breathe oxygen. Karyo means nucleus, hence prokaryotes are non-nucleated life (bacteria and archaea) while eukaryotes are nucleated life forms.
Dickinson and Grant-Downton: Epigenetics is essentially a variety of non-genetic mechanisms of controlling genes. This is becoming very important to medicine, particularly to the causation of cancer. Until recently it was assumed that epigenetic effects could not be inherited and thus could not contribute to evolution. But recent research suggests that, on the contrary, some can be inherited. Phenotypic variation means variation in body shape, features etc. This talk on transmission of epigenetic information to plant evolution is thus highly original. An "allele" is the version of a single gene you get from either parent (you usually get a copy of the same gene from either parent and the copies will not be identical). An epiallelle is a gene the expression of which has been altered by epigenetic mechanisms in such a way that the effect of the gene is altered.
Linares: In the 1930s geneticists believed that hybrid union (sexual union between dissimilar species) could not give rise to a stable offspring genome. The genes and chromosomes would not match during subsequent meiosis (production of the sex cells) because to do so matching chromosomes from the two original parents have to line up against each other and swap bits. They were partially right in that hybridisation can cause a doubling of the entire chromosome content of the offspring -- so-called "tetraploidy" -- whereas in you and me there is a doubling of the germ cell complement of chromosomes, from 23 to 46. But recent research -- and Linares is one of the pioneers -- has shown that hybrid union can give rise to a normal doubling of the germ cell number of chromosomes. This is called "homoploid" -- homo means same or normal. There is evidence for two tetraploid episodes in the history of the human genome, hundreds of millions of years ago, which would have had major effects on all subsequent evolution.
Larsson: Retrotransposition means the ability of viruses and their products to move around in the genome. Once a virus arrives it can make copies of itself within the genome and move these around so its genome, or parts of its genome, end up in many different chromosomes. The retro bit means that it inserts itself into new places using the enzyme reverse transcriptase, a characteristic feature of retroviruses (like HIV-1, the cause of AIDS, and all HERVs). Expression means that a gene is activated to "express" the protein, or whatever, it codes for. In any single cell, or organ, only a minority of genes are expressed in this way. That's how organisms differ from one another. The inappropriate expression, or failure of normal expression, of a gene would be likely to have deleterious consequences. This is believed to be the case with some cancers. Proteomics refers to the study of protein structure and function at a chemical level in the same way that genomics refers to the structure and function of the DNA, genes, etc, in the genome.
Truman and Riddiford: Heterochronic is a term used in relation to embryological (or post-embryological) development. We humans are unique among the primates in going through major post-embryological development during puberty. Insects undergo post-embryonic development during metamorphosis. The changes involve genetic mechanisms normally only seen during embryological development. A change in the timing of the action of a control gene in a part of the embryo, or the post-embryonic developing body of an insect, could have major effects on the body structure. Heterochronic means a change in timing. Heterotopic means expression in the wrong place.
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