Darwin, From Birth to Death Carl Zimmer Provost Lecture Series Stony Brook University February 11, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
When the views entertained in this volume on the origin of species, or when analogous views are generally admitted, we can dimly foresee that there will be a considerable revolution in natural history.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
W. Eugene Robinson, http://images.google.com/hosted/life/ Thursday, February 17, 2011
“For over forty years Darwin suffered intermittently from various combinations of symptoms such as malaise, vertigo, dizziness, muscle spasms and tremors, vomiting, cramps and colics, bloating and nocturnal intestinal gas, headaches, alterations of vision, severe tiredness, nervous exhaustion, dyspnea, skin problems such as blisters all over the scalp and eczema, crying, anxiety, sensation of impending death and loss of consciousness, fainting, tachycardia, insomnia, tinnitus, and depression.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin's_health
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Randolph Nesse
Richard Dawkins Thursday, February 17, 2011
“Evolution: The Most Basic Science of Medicine”
George Williams 1926-2010
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Life Branches Like A Tree
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Natural Selection
Based on Gregory, Evo Edu Outreach (2009) 2:156–175 Thursday, February 17, 2011
Natural Selection Generation 1
Based on Gregory, Evo Edu Outreach (2009) 2:156–175 Thursday, February 17, 2011
Non-random survival
X X X X Natural Selection
Generation 1
Based on Gregory, Evo Edu Outreach (2009) 2:156–175 Thursday, February 17, 2011
Reproduction and mutation Non-random survival
X X X X
Generation 2
Natural Selection Generation 1
Based on Gregory, Evo Edu Outreach (2009) 2:156–175 Thursday, February 17, 2011
Reproduction and mutation Non-random survival
X X X X Natural Selection
Generation 2
Non-random survival
X X X X
Generation 1
Based on Gregory, Evo Edu Outreach (2009) 2:156–175 Thursday, February 17, 2011
Reproduction and mutation Non-random survival
Generation 2
X X X X Natural Selection
Non-random survival
X X X X
Generation 1 Reproduction and mutation Generation 3 Based on Gregory, Evo Edu Outreach (2009) 2:156–175 Thursday, February 17, 2011
Reproduction and mutation Non-random survival
Generation 2
X X X X Natural Selection
Generation 1
Generation X
Non-random survival
Many generations of mutation and natural selection
X X X X
Reproduction and mutation Generation 3 Based on Gregory, Evo Edu Outreach (2009) 2:156–175
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Why do animals get old and die?
America Perales http://www.flickr.com/photos/americaperales/3505343905/ Thursday, February 17, 2011
Beneficial death?
Photo by jschinker: flickr.com/photos/63873121@N00/3889483525/ Thursday, February 17, 2011
American Am Nat. Jan;177(1):v-vii. Figure 1: Linda Cranford Lillegraven, now an artist Naturalist in Laramie,2011 Wyoming, was 2011 a graduate student at the University of Utah who drew caricatures of many seminar speakers. She drew this likeness of George (ca. 1976) when he gave a talk on eels at the university. George was fond of this image and used February it in correspondence for much of the last three decades. Thursday, 17, 2011
“My reaction was that if Emerson’s presentation was acceptable biology, I would prefer another calling.”
Figure 1: Linda Cranford Lillegraven, now an artist in Laramie, Wyoming, was a graduate student at the University of Utah who drew caricatures of many seminar speakers. She drew this likeness of George (ca. 1976) when he gave a talk on eels at the university. George was fond of this image and used it in correspondence for much of the last three decades.
century” hit Stony Brook, and the university shut down and sent everyone home at noon. The wind was fierce and snow was falling, but George and Doris insisted on walking home. Doris said she didn’t mind the walk because the conditions were not nearly so bad as they had been when she and George lived in Iceland. For many years, George spent most of the summer at his cabin in Ontario, Canada; Doris’s appointment only allowed her three weeks there each summer. It was set back about two miles off the Toronto-Ottawa highway, about equidistant between the two cities. It was fairly remote and had no phone. George and Doris liked to bathe in a cold stream about 100 yards from the cabin. Colleagues who visited George were treated to long talks, a little boating on the creek, and occasionally catching pike for dinner. George was gentle, quiet, and intensely thoughtful. He was also very approachable. It was not uncommon to sit down with him and toss out an initial idea for discussion. Then, when his ensuing silence grew uncomfortably long, one would toss out another idea, ultimately another, and then another. When he finally spoke, it became clear that he was still thinking deeply about the first or second idea.
Adaptation and Natural Selection, 1996, p. ix Thursday, February 17, 2011
He exhibited a modesty that was several standard deviations from the norm, at least the norm in academia. When Maynard Smith’s Evolution of Sex (1978, Cambridge University Press) appeared just three years after George’s book on the same topic (Sex and Evolution, Princeton University Press), George declared in his review that Maynard Smith’s book had made his own obsolete. In 2000, when George was invited to speak on Darwinian medicine at a symposium on applied evolution (George was the cofounder of the field, after all), he responded that the organizers should get someone who knew something about the topic. He did not hesitate to give credit to others for his inspiration. For example, he attributed his inspiration for Darwinian medicine to Paul Ewald and Margie Profet, and in the preface to the 1996 reprinting of his 1966 book, George gave credit to several people who had influenced his thinking. George also had a sense of humor about himself (fig. 1) and about his mistakes. For example, his prediction in 1966 that sex ratio was “solved” came just a year before the topic started on a meteoric rise in popularity, with Hamilton’s “extraordinary sex ratios” paper and the later
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roblee/102165753/ Thursday, February 17, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Figure 1: Linda Cranford Lillegraven, now an artist in Laramie, Wyoming, was a graduate student at the University of Utah who drew caricatures of many seminar speakers. She drew this likeness of George (ca. 1976) when he gave a talk on eels at the university. George was fond of this image and used it in correspondence for much of the last three decades.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
century” hit Stony Brook, and the university shut down and sent everyone home at noon. The wind was fierce and snow was falling, but George and Doris insisted on walking home. Doris said she didn’t mind the walk because the conditions were not nearly so bad as they had been when she and George lived in Iceland. For many years, George spent most of the summer at his cabin in Ontario, Canada; Doris’s appointment only allowed her three weeks there each summer. It was set back about two miles off the Toronto-Ottawa highway, about equidistant between the two cities. It was fairly remote and had no phone. George and Doris liked to bathe in a cold stream about 100 yards from the cabin. Colleagues who visited George were treated to long talks, a little boating on the creek, and occasionally catching pike for dinner. George was gentle, quiet, and intensely thoughtful. He was also very approachable. It was not uncommon to sit down with him and toss out an initial idea for discussion. Then, when his ensuing silence grew uncomfortably long, one would toss out another idea, ultimately another, and then another. When he finally spoke, it became clear that
He exhibited a modesty that was several standard deviations from the norm, at least the norm in academia. When Maynard Smith’s Evolution of Sex (1978, Cambridge University Press) appeared just three years after George’s book on the same topic (Sex and Evolution, Princeton University Press), George declared in his review that Maynard Smith’s book had made his own obsolete. In 2000, when George was invited to speak on Darwinian medicine at a symposium on applied evolution (George was the cofounder of the field, after all), he responded that the organizers should get someone who knew something about the topic. He did not hesitate to give credit to others for his inspiration. For example, he attributed his inspiration for Darwinian medicine to Paul Ewald and Margie Profet, and in the preface to the 1996 reprinting of his 1966 book, George gave credit to several people who had influenced his thinking. George also had a sense of humor about himself (fig. 1) and about his mistakes. For example, his prediction in 1966 that sex ratio was “solved” came just a year before the topic started on a meteoric rise in popularity, with
America Perales http://www.flickr.com/photos/americaperales/3505343905/ Thursday, February 17, 2011
“Walking home from the lecture with my wife, Doris, I regaled her with my unhappiness about the lecture and proposed the obvious idea...
Adaptation and Natural Selection, 1996, p. ix America Perales http://www.flickr.com/photos/americaperales/3505343905/ Thursday, February 17, 2011
...that selection among indivivuals in any population would be biased in favor of the young, as long as the likelihood of living to age X was greater than to age X+1”
Adaptation and Natural Selection, 1996, p. ix America Perales http://www.flickr.com/photos/americaperales/3505343905/ Thursday, February 17, 2011
The Williams eel, the fish that never gets old Figure 1: Linda Cranford Lillegraven, now an artist in Laramie, Wyoming, was a graduate student at the University of Utah who drew caricatures of many seminar speakers. She drew this likeness of George (ca. 1976) when he gave a talk on eels at the university. George was fond of this image and used it in correspondence for much of the last three decades.
century” hit Stony Brook, and the university shut down and sent everyone home at noon. The wind was fierce and snow was falling, but George and Doris insisted on walking home. Doris said she didn’t mind the walk because the conditions were not nearly so bad as they had been when she and George lived in Iceland. For many years, George spent most of the summer at his cabin in Ontario, Canada; Doris’s appointment only allowed her three weeks there each summer. It was set back about two miles off the Toronto-Ottawa highway, about equidistant between the two cities. It was fairly remote and had no phone. George and Doris liked to bathe in a cold stream about 100 yards from the cabin. Colleagues who visited George were treated to long talks, a little boating on the creek, and occasionally catching pike for dinner. George was gentle, quiet, and intensely thoughtful. He was also very approachable. It was not uncommon to sit down with him and toss out an initial idea for discussion. Then, when his ensuing silence grew uncomfortably long, one would toss out another idea, ultimately another, and then another. When he finally spoke, it became clear that he was still thinking deeply about the first or second idea.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
He exhibited a modesty that was several standard deviations from the norm, at least the norm in academia. When Maynard Smith’s Evolution of Sex (1978, Cambridge University Press) appeared just three years after George’s book on the same topic (Sex and Evolution, Princeton University Press), George declared in his review that Maynard Smith’s book had made his own obsolete. In 2000, when George was invited to speak on Darwinian medicine at a symposium on applied evolution (George was the cofounder of the field, after all), he responded that the organizers should get someone who knew something about the topic. He did not hesitate to give credit to others for his inspiration. For example, he attributed his inspiration for Darwinian medicine to Paul Ewald and Margie Profet, and in the preface to the 1996 reprinting of his 1966 book, George gave credit to several people who had influenced his thinking. George also had a sense of humor about himself (fig. 1) and about his mistakes. For example, his prediction in 1966 that sex ratio was “solved” came just a year before the topic started on a meteoric rise in popularity, with Hamilton’s “extraordinary sex ratios” paper and the later
Most Williams eels will have relatively young parents Figure 1: Linda Cranford Lillegraven, now an artist in Laramie, Wyoming, was a graduate student at the University of Utah who drew caricatures of many seminar speakers. She drew this likeness of George (ca. 1976) when he gave a talk on eels at the university. George was fond of this image and used it in correspondence for much of the last three decades.
century” hit Stony Brook, and the university shut down and sent everyone home at noon. The wind was fierce and snow was falling, but George and Doris insisted on walking home. Doris said she didn’t mind the walk because the conditions were not nearly so bad as they had been when she and George lived in Iceland. For many years, George spent most of the summer at his cabin in Ontario, Canada; Doris’s appointment only allowed her three weeks there each summer. It was set back about two miles off the Toronto-Ottawa highway, about equidistant between the two cities. It was fairly remote and had no phone. George and Doris liked to bathe in a cold stream about 100 yards from the cabin. Colleagues who visited George were treated to long talks, a little boating on the creek, and occasionally catching pike for dinner. George was gentle, quiet, and intensely thoughtful. He was also very approachable. It was not uncommon to sit down with him and toss out an initial idea for discussion. Then, when his ensuing silence grew uncomfortably long, one would toss out another idea, ultimately another, and then another. When he finally spoke, it became clear that he was still thinking deeply about the first or second idea.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
He exhibited a modesty that was several standard deviations from the norm, at least the norm in academia. When Maynard Smith’s Evolution of Sex (1978, Cambridge University Press) appeared just three years after George’s book on the same topic (Sex and Evolution, Princeton University Press), George declared in his review that Maynard Smith’s book had made his own obsolete. In 2000, when George was invited to speak on Darwinian medicine at a symposium on applied evolution (George was the cofounder of the field, after all), he responded that the organizers should get someone who knew something about the topic. He did not hesitate to give credit to others for his inspiration. For example, he attributed his inspiration for Darwinian medicine to Paul Ewald and Margie Profet, and in the preface to the 1996 reprinting of his 1966 book, George gave credit to several people who had influenced his thinking. George also had a sense of humor about himself (fig. 1) and about his mistakes. For example, his prediction in 1966 that sex ratio was “solved” came just a year before the topic started on a meteoric rise in popularity, with Hamilton’s “extraordinary sex ratios” paper and the later
A beneficial mutation will have a big effect if it helps young eels survive and have more offspring
Figure 1: Linda Cranford Lillegraven, now an artist in Laramie, Wyoming, was a graduate student at the University of Utah who drew caricatures of many seminar speakers. She drew this likeness of George (ca. 1976) when he gave a talk on eels at the university. George was fond of this image and used it in correspondence for much of the last three decades.
century” hit Stony Brook, and the university shut down and sent everyone home at noon. The wind was fierce and snow was falling, but George and Doris insisted on walking home. Doris said she didn’t mind the walk because the conditions were not nearly so bad as they had been when she and George lived in Iceland. For many years, George spent most of the summer at his cabin in Ontario, Canada; Doris’s appointment only allowed her three weeks there each summer. It was set back about two miles off the Toronto-Ottawa highway, about equidistant between the two cities. It was fairly remote and had no phone. George and Doris liked to bathe in a cold stream about 100 yards from the cabin. Colleagues who visited George were treated to long talks, a little boating on the creek, and occasionally catching pike for dinner. George was gentle, quiet, and intensely thoughtful. He was also very approachable. It was not uncommon to sit down with him and toss out an initial idea for discussion. Then, when his ensuing silence grew uncomfortably long, one would toss out another idea, ultimately another, and then another. When he finally spoke, it became clear that he was still thinking deeply about the first or second idea.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
He exhibited a modesty that was several standard deviations from the norm, at least the norm in academia. When Maynard Smith’s Evolution of Sex (1978, Cambridge University Press) appeared just three years after George’s book on the same topic (Sex and Evolution, Princeton University Press), George declared in his review that Maynard Smith’s book had made his own obsolete. In 2000, when George was invited to speak on Darwinian medicine at a symposium on applied evolution (George was the cofounder of the field, after all), he responded that the organizers should get someone who knew something about the topic. He did not hesitate to give credit to others for his inspiration. For example, he attributed his inspiration for Darwinian medicine to Paul Ewald and Margie Profet, and in the preface to the 1996 reprinting of his 1966 book, George gave credit to several people who had influenced his thinking. George also had a sense of humor about himself (fig. 1) and about his mistakes. For example, his prediction in 1966 that sex ratio was “solved” came just a year before the topic started on a meteoric rise in popularity, with Hamilton’s “extraordinary sex ratios” paper and the later
A beneficial mutation that affects older eels will have less effect because most eels are dead by then Figure 1: Linda Cranford Lillegraven, now an artist in Laramie, Wyoming, was a graduate student at the University of Utah who drew caricatures of many seminar speakers. She drew this likeness of George (ca. 1976) when he gave a talk on eels at the university. George was fond of this image and used it in correspondence for much of the last three decades.
century” hit Stony Brook, and the university shut down and sent everyone home at noon. The wind was fierce and snow was falling, but George and Doris insisted on walking home. Doris said she didn’t mind the walk because the conditions were not nearly so bad as they had been when she and George lived in Iceland. For many years, George spent most of the summer at his cabin in Ontario, Canada; Doris’s appointment only allowed her three weeks there each summer. It was set back about two miles off the Toronto-Ottawa highway, about equidistant between the two cities. It was fairly remote and had no phone. George and Doris liked to bathe in a cold stream about 100 yards from the cabin. Colleagues who visited George were treated to long talks, a little boating on the creek, and occasionally catching pike for dinner. George was gentle, quiet, and intensely thoughtful. He was also very approachable. It was not uncommon to sit down with him and toss out an initial idea for discussion. Then, when his ensuing silence grew uncomfortably long, one would toss out another idea, ultimately another, and then another. When he finally spoke, it became clear that he was still thinking deeply about the first or second idea.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
He exhibited a modesty that was several standard deviations from the norm, at least the norm in academia. When Maynard Smith’s Evolution of Sex (1978, Cambridge University Press) appeared just three years after George’s book on the same topic (Sex and Evolution, Princeton University Press), George declared in his review that Maynard Smith’s book had made his own obsolete. In 2000, when George was invited to speak on Darwinian medicine at a symposium on applied evolution (George was the cofounder of the field, after all), he responded that the organizers should get someone who knew something about the topic. He did not hesitate to give credit to others for his inspiration. For example, he attributed his inspiration for Darwinian medicine to Paul Ewald and Margie Profet, and in the preface to the 1996 reprinting of his 1966 book, George gave credit to several people who had influenced his thinking. George also had a sense of humor about himself (fig. 1) and about his mistakes. For example, his prediction in 1966 that sex ratio was “solved” came just a year before the topic started on a meteoric rise in popularity, with Hamilton’s “extraordinary sex ratios” paper and the later
The same is true for harmful mutations
Figure 1: Linda Cranford Lillegraven, now an artist in Laramie, Wyoming, was a graduate student at the University of Utah who drew caricatures of many seminar speakers. She drew this likeness of George (ca. 1976) when he gave a talk on eels at the university. George was fond of this image and used it in correspondence for much of the last three decades.
century” hit Stony Brook, and the university shut down and sent everyone home at noon. The wind was fierce and snow was falling, but George and Doris insisted on walking home. Doris said she didn’t mind the walk because the conditions were not nearly so bad as they had been when she and George lived in Iceland. For many years, George spent most of the summer at his cabin in Ontario, Canada; Doris’s appointment only allowed her three weeks there each summer. It was set back about two miles off the Toronto-Ottawa highway, about equidistant between the two cities. It was fairly remote and had no phone. George and Doris liked to bathe in a cold stream about 100 yards from the cabin. Colleagues who visited George were treated to long talks, a little boating on the creek, and occasionally catching pike for dinner. George was gentle, quiet, and intensely thoughtful. He was also very approachable. It was not uncommon to sit down with him and toss out an initial idea for discussion. Then, when his ensuing silence grew uncomfortably long, one would toss out another idea, ultimately another, and then another. When he finally spoke, it became clear that he was still thinking deeply about the first or second idea.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
He exhibited a modesty that was several standard deviations from the norm, at least the norm in academia. When Maynard Smith’s Evolution of Sex (1978, Cambridge University Press) appeared just three years after George’s book on the same topic (Sex and Evolution, Princeton University Press), George declared in his review that Maynard Smith’s book had made his own obsolete. In 2000, when George was invited to speak on Darwinian medicine at a symposium on applied evolution (George was the cofounder of the field, after all), he responded that the organizers should get someone who knew something about the topic. He did not hesitate to give credit to others for his inspiration. For example, he attributed his inspiration for Darwinian medicine to Paul Ewald and Margie Profet, and in the preface to the 1996 reprinting of his 1966 book, George gave credit to several people who had influenced his thinking. George also had a sense of humor about himself (fig. 1) and about his mistakes. For example, his prediction in 1966 that sex ratio was “solved” came just a year before the topic started on a meteoric rise in popularity, with Hamilton’s “extraordinary sex ratios” paper and the later
The same is true for harmful mutations
Figure 1: Linda Cranford Lillegraven, now an artist in Laramie, Wyoming, was a graduate student at the University of Utah who drew caricatures of many seminar speakers. She drew this likeness of George (ca. 1976) when he gave a talk on eels at the university. George was fond of this image and used it in correspondence for much of the last three decades.
century” hit Stony Brook, and the university shut down and sent everyone home at noon. The wind was fierce and snow was falling, but George and Doris insisted on walking home. Doris said she didn’t mind the walk because the conditions were not nearly so bad as they had been when she and George lived in Iceland. For many years, George spent most of the summer at his cabin in Ontario, Canada; Doris’s appointment only allowed her three weeks there each summer. It was set back about two miles off the Toronto-Ottawa highway, about equidistant between the two cities. It was fairly remote and had no phone. George and Doris liked to bathe in a cold stream about 100 yards from the cabin. Colleagues who visited George were treated to long talks, a little boating on the creek, and occasionally catching pike for dinner. George was gentle, quiet, and intensely thoughtful. He was also very approachable. It was not uncommon to sit down with him and toss out an initial idea for discussion. Then, when his ensuing silence grew uncomfortably long, one would toss out another idea, ultimately another, and then another. When he finally spoke, it became clear that he was still thinking deeply about the first or second idea.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
He exhibited a modesty that was several standard deviations from the norm, at least the norm in academia. When Maynard Smith’s Evolution of Sex (1978, Cambridge University Press) appeared just three years after George’s book on the same topic (Sex and Evolution, Princeton University Press), George declared in his review that Maynard Smith’s book had made his own obsolete. In 2000, when George was invited to speak on Darwinian medicine at a symposium on applied evolution (George was the cofounder of the field, after all), he responded that the organizers should get someone who knew something about the topic. He did not hesitate to give credit to others for his inspiration. For example, he attributed his inspiration for Darwinian medicine to Paul Ewald and Margie Profet, and in the preface to the 1996 reprinting of his 1966 book, George gave credit to several people who had influenced his thinking. George also had a sense of humor about himself (fig. 1) and about his mistakes. For example, his prediction in 1966 that sex ratio was “solved” came just a year before the topic started on a meteoric rise in popularity, with Hamilton’s “extraordinary sex ratios” paper and the later
Pleiotropy: two effects from one gene
Figure 1: Linda Cranford Lillegraven, now an artist in Laramie, Wyoming, was a graduate student at the University of Utah who drew caricatures of many seminar speakers. She drew this likeness of George (ca. 1976) when he gave a talk on eels at the university. George was fond of this image and used it in correspondence for much of the last three decades.
century” hit Stony Brook, and the university shut down and sent everyone home at noon. The wind was fierce and snow was falling, but George and Doris insisted on walking home. Doris said she didn’t mind the walk because the conditions were not nearly so bad as they had been when she and George lived in Iceland. For many years, George spent most of the summer at his cabin in Ontario, Canada; Doris’s appointment only allowed her three weeks there each summer. It was set back about two miles off the Toronto-Ottawa highway, about equidistant between the two cities. It was fairly remote and had no phone. George and Doris liked to bathe in a cold stream about 100 yards from the cabin. Colleagues who visited George were treated to long talks, a little boating on the creek, and occasionally catching pike for dinner. George was gentle, quiet, and intensely thoughtful. He was also very approachable. It was not uncommon to sit down with him and toss out an initial idea for discussion. Then, when his ensuing silence grew uncomfortably long, one would toss out another idea, ultimately another, and then another. When he finally spoke, it became clear that he was still thinking deeply about the first or second idea.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
He exhibited a modesty that was several standard deviations from the norm, at least the norm in academia. When Maynard Smith’s Evolution of Sex (1978, Cambridge University Press) appeared just three years after George’s book on the same topic (Sex and Evolution, Princeton University Press), George declared in his review that Maynard Smith’s book had made his own obsolete. In 2000, when George was invited to speak on Darwinian medicine at a symposium on applied evolution (George was the cofounder of the field, after all), he responded that the organizers should get someone who knew something about the topic. He did not hesitate to give credit to others for his inspiration. For example, he attributed his inspiration for Darwinian medicine to Paul Ewald and Margie Profet, and in the preface to the 1996 reprinting of his 1966 book, George gave credit to several people who had influenced his thinking. George also had a sense of humor about himself (fig. 1) and about his mistakes. For example, his prediction in 1966 that sex ratio was “solved” came just a year before the topic started on a meteoric rise in popularity, with Hamilton’s “extraordinary sex ratios” paper and the later
Antagonistic pleiotropy: one effect is positive, and one is negative
Figure 1: Linda Cranford Lillegraven, now an artist in Laramie, Wyoming, was a graduate student at the University of Utah who drew caricatures of many seminar speakers. She drew this likeness of George (ca. 1976) when he gave a talk on eels at the university. George was fond of this image and used it in correspondence for much of the last three decades.
century” hit Stony Brook, and the university shut down and sent everyone home at noon. The wind was fierce and snow was falling, but George and Doris insisted on walking home. Doris said she didn’t mind the walk because the conditions were not nearly so bad as they had been when she and George lived in Iceland. For many years, George spent most of the summer at his cabin in Ontario, Canada; Doris’s appointment only allowed her three weeks there each summer. It was set back about two miles off the Toronto-Ottawa highway, about equidistant between the two cities. It was fairly remote and had no phone. George and Doris liked to bathe in a cold stream about 100 yards from the cabin. Colleagues who visited George were treated to long talks, a little boating on the creek, and occasionally catching pike for dinner. George was gentle, quiet, and intensely thoughtful. He was also very approachable. It was not uncommon to sit down with him and toss out an initial idea for discussion. Then, when his ensuing silence grew uncomfortably long, one would toss out another idea, ultimately another, and then another. When he finally spoke, it became clear that he was still thinking deeply about the first or second idea.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
He exhibited a modesty that was several standard deviations from the norm, at least the norm in academia. When Maynard Smith’s Evolution of Sex (1978, Cambridge University Press) appeared just three years after George’s book on the same topic (Sex and Evolution, Princeton University Press), George declared in his review that Maynard Smith’s book had made his own obsolete. In 2000, when George was invited to speak on Darwinian medicine at a symposium on applied evolution (George was the cofounder of the field, after all), he responded that the organizers should get someone who knew something about the topic. He did not hesitate to give credit to others for his inspiration. For example, he attributed his inspiration for Darwinian medicine to Paul Ewald and Margie Profet, and in the preface to the 1996 reprinting of his 1966 book, George gave credit to several people who had influenced his thinking. George also had a sense of humor about himself (fig. 1) and about his mistakes. For example, his prediction in 1966 that sex ratio was “solved” came just a year before the topic started on a meteoric rise in popularity, with Hamilton’s “extraordinary sex ratios” paper and the later
Figure 1: Linda Cranford Lillegraven, now an artist in Laramie, Wyoming, was a graduate student at the University of Utah who drew caricatures of many seminar speakers. She drew this likeness of George (ca. 1976) when he gave a talk on eels at the university. George was fond of this image and used it in correspondence for much of the last three decades.
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century” hit Stony Brook, and the university shut down and sent everyone home at noon. The wind was fierce and snow was falling, but George and Doris insisted on walking home. Doris said she didn’t mind the walk because the conditions were not nearly so bad as they had been when she and George lived in Iceland. For many years, George spent most of the summer at his cabin in Ontario, Canada; Doris’s appointment only allowed her three weeks there each summer. It was set back about two miles off the Toronto-Ottawa highway, about equidistant between the two cities. It was fairly remote and had no phone. George and Doris liked to bathe in a cold stream about 100 yards from the cabin. Colleagues who visited George were treated to long talks, a little boating on the creek, and occasionally catching pike for dinner. George was gentle, quiet, and intensely thoughtful. He was also very approachable. It was not uncommon to sit down with him and toss out an initial idea for discussion. Then, when his ensuing silence grew uncomfortably long, one would toss out another idea, ultimately another, and then another. When he finally spoke, it became clear that he was still thinking deeply about the first or second idea.
Natural selection can favor mutations that are harmful in old age
Thursday, February 17, 2011
He exhibited a modesty that was several standard deviations from the norm, at least the norm in academia. When Maynard Smith’s Evolution of Sex (1978, Cambridge University Press) appeared just three years after George’s book on the same topic (Sex and Evolution, Princeton University Press), George declared in his review that Maynard Smith’s book had made his own obsolete. In 2000, when George was invited to speak on Darwinian medicine at a symposium on applied evolution (George was the cofounder of the field, after all), he responded that the organizers should get someone who knew something about the topic. He did not hesitate to give credit to others for his inspiration. For example, he attributed his inspiration for Darwinian medicine to Paul Ewald and Margie Profet, and in the preface to the 1996 reprinting of his 1966 book, George gave credit to several people who had influenced his thinking. George also had a sense of humor about himself (fig. 1) and about his mistakes. For example, his prediction in 1966 that sex ratio was “solved” came just a year before the topic started on a meteoric rise in popularity, with Hamilton’s “extraordinary sex ratios” paper and the later
The vigor of youth.... Figure 1: Linda Cranford Lillegraven, now an artist in Laramie, Wyoming, was a graduate student at the University of Utah who drew caricatures of many seminar speakers. She drew this likeness of George (ca. 1976) when he gave a talk on eels at the university. George was fond of this image and used it in correspondence for much of the last three decades.
century” hit Stony Brook, and the university shut down and sent everyone home at noon. The wind was fierce and snow was falling, but George and Doris insisted on walking home. Doris said she didn’t mind the walk because the conditions were not nearly so bad as they had been when she and George lived in Iceland. For many years, George spent most of the summer at his cabin in Ontario, Canada; Doris’s appointment only allowed her three weeks there each summer. It was set back about two miles off the Toronto-Ottawa highway, about equidistant between the two cities. It was fairly remote and had no phone. George and Doris liked to bathe in a cold stream about 100 yards from the cabin. Colleagues who visited George were treated to long talks, a little boating on the creek, and occasionally catching pike for dinner. George was gentle, quiet, and intensely thoughtful. He was also very approachable. It was not uncommon to sit down with him and toss out an initial idea for discussion. Then, when his ensuing silence grew uncomfortably long, one would toss out another idea, ultimately another, and then another. When he finally spoke, it became clear that he was still thinking deeply about the first or second idea.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
He exhibited a modesty that was several standard deviations from the norm, at least the norm in academia. When Maynard Smith’s Evolution of Sex (1978, Cambridge University Press) appeared just three years after George’s book on the same topic (Sex and Evolution, Princeton University Press), George declared in his review that Maynard Smith’s book had made his own obsolete. In 2000, when George was invited to speak on Darwinian medicine at a symposium on applied evolution (George was the cofounder of the field, after all), he responded that the organizers should get someone who knew something about the topic. He did not hesitate to give credit to others for his inspiration. For example, he attributed his inspiration for Darwinian medicine to Paul Ewald and Margie Profet, and in the preface to the 1996 reprinting of his 1966 book, George gave credit to several people who had influenced his thinking. George also had a sense of humor about himself (fig. 1) and about his mistakes. For example, his prediction in 1966 that sex ratio was “solved” came just a year before the topic started on a meteoric rise in popularity, with Hamilton’s “extraordinary sex ratios” paper and the later
The vigor of youth.... causes old age Figure 1: Linda Cranford Lillegraven, now an artist in Laramie, Wyoming, was a graduate student at the University of Utah who drew caricatures of many seminar speakers. She drew this likeness of George (ca. 1976) when he gave a talk on eels at the university. George was fond of this image and used it in correspondence for much of the last three decades.
century” hit Stony Brook, and the university shut down and sent everyone home at noon. The wind was fierce and snow was falling, but George and Doris insisted on walking home. Doris said she didn’t mind the walk because the conditions were not nearly so bad as they had been when she and George lived in Iceland. For many years, George spent most of the summer at his cabin in Ontario, Canada; Doris’s appointment only allowed her three weeks there each summer. It was set back about two miles off the Toronto-Ottawa highway, about equidistant between the two cities. It was fairly remote and had no phone. George and Doris liked to bathe in a cold stream about 100 yards from the cabin. Colleagues who visited George were treated to long talks, a little boating on the creek, and occasionally catching pike for dinner. George was gentle, quiet, and intensely thoughtful. He was also very approachable. It was not uncommon to sit down with him and toss out an initial idea for discussion. Then, when his ensuing silence grew uncomfortably long, one would toss out another idea, ultimately another, and then another. When he finally spoke, it became clear that he was still thinking deeply about the first or second idea.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
He exhibited a modesty that was several standard deviations from the norm, at least the norm in academia. When Maynard Smith’s Evolution of Sex (1978, Cambridge University Press) appeared just three years after George’s book on the same topic (Sex and Evolution, Princeton University Press), George declared in his review that Maynard Smith’s book had made his own obsolete. In 2000, when George was invited to speak on Darwinian medicine at a symposium on applied evolution (George was the cofounder of the field, after all), he responded that the organizers should get someone who knew something about the topic. He did not hesitate to give credit to others for his inspiration. For example, he attributed his inspiration for Darwinian medicine to Paul Ewald and Margie Profet, and in the preface to the 1996 reprinting of his 1966 book, George gave credit to several people who had influenced his thinking. George also had a sense of humor about himself (fig. 1) and about his mistakes. For example, his prediction in 1966 that sex ratio was “solved” came just a year before the topic started on a meteoric rise in popularity, with Hamilton’s “extraordinary sex ratios” paper and the later
The steeper the curve, the more intense the selection Figure 1: Linda Cranford Lillegraven, now an artist in Laramie, Wyoming, was a graduate student at the University of Utah who drew caricatures of many seminar speakers. She drew this likeness of George (ca. 1976) when he gave a talk on eels at the university. George was fond of this image and used it in correspondence for much of the last three decades.
century” hit Stony Brook, and the university shut down and sent everyone home at noon. The wind was fierce and snow was falling, but George and Doris insisted on walking home. Doris said she didn’t mind the walk because the conditions were not nearly so bad as they had been when she and George lived in Iceland. For many years, George spent most of the summer at his cabin in Ontario, Canada; Doris’s appointment only allowed her three weeks there each summer. It was set back about two miles off the Toronto-Ottawa highway, about equidistant between the two cities. It was fairly remote and had no phone. George and Doris liked to bathe in a cold stream about 100 yards from the cabin. Colleagues who visited George were treated to long talks, a little boating on the creek, and occasionally catching pike for dinner. George was gentle, quiet, and intensely thoughtful. He was also very approachable. It was not uncommon to sit down with him and toss out an initial idea for discussion. Then, when his ensuing silence grew uncomfortably long, one would toss out another idea, ultimately another, and then another. When he finally spoke, it became clear that he was still thinking deeply about the first or second idea.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
He exhibited a modesty that was several standard deviations from the norm, at least the norm in academia. When Maynard Smith’s Evolution of Sex (1978, Cambridge University Press) appeared just three years after George’s book on the same topic (Sex and Evolution, Princeton University Press), George declared in his review that Maynard Smith’s book had made his own obsolete. In 2000, when George was invited to speak on Darwinian medicine at a symposium on applied evolution (George was the cofounder of the field, after all), he responded that the organizers should get someone who knew something about the topic. He did not hesitate to give credit to others for his inspiration. For example, he attributed his inspiration for Darwinian medicine to Paul Ewald and Margie Profet, and in the preface to the 1996 reprinting of his 1966 book, George gave credit to several people who had influenced his thinking. George also had a sense of humor about himself (fig. 1) and about his mistakes. For example, his prediction in 1966 that sex ratio was “solved” came just a year before the topic started on a meteoric rise in popularity, with Hamilton’s “extraordinary sex ratios” paper and the later
Williams (1957) Prediction “Low adult death rates [from extrinsic causes] should be associated with low rates of senescence…”
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Steven Austad, University of Texas
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Mainland site
Sapelo Island
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Mainland site ~80% of opossums killed by predators
Sapelo Island
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Mainland site ~80% of opossums killed by predators
• Sapelo Island lacks mammalian opossum predators • Sapelo opossums have evolved in isolation for ~5,000 years Thursday, February 17, 2011
Sapelo Island
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Mainland
Island
Longevity (mo)
20.0
24.5
Max. longevity (mo)
31
45
Age 1st Repro (mo)
10.6
11.6
Litter size (1st yr)
7.6
5.9
Litter size (2nd yr)
7.6
5.4
SN Austad J. Zool. London 1993 229:695-708 Thursday, February 17, 2011
Death rates climb more slowly on the island
SN Austad J. Zool. London 1993 229:695-708 Thursday, February 17, 2011
Tendons get old: old fibers break faster
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Island opossums have slower-aging tendons
SN Austad J. Zool. London 1993 229:695-708 Thursday, February 17, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Charles with son William Anne Darwin Thursday, February 17, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
What’s true for animals... Figure 1: Linda Cranford Lillegraven, now an artist in Laramie, Wyoming, was a graduate student at the University of Utah who drew caricatures of many seminar speakers. She drew this likeness of George (ca. 1976) when he gave a talk on eels at the university. George was fond of this image and used it in correspondence for much of the last three decades.
century” hit Stony Brook, and the university shut down and sent everyone home at noon. The wind was fierce and snow was falling, but George and Doris insisted on walking home. Doris said she didn’t mind the walk because the conditions were not nearly so bad as they had been when she and George lived in Iceland. For many years, George spent most of the summer at his cabin in Ontario, Canada; Doris’s appointment only allowed her three weeks there each summer. It was set back about two miles off the Toronto-Ottawa highway, about equidistant between the two cities. It was fairly remote and had no phone. George and Doris liked to bathe in a cold stream about 100 yards from the cabin. Colleagues who visited George were treated to long talks, a little boating on the creek, and occasionally catching pike for dinner. George was gentle, quiet, and intensely thoughtful. He was also very approachable. It was not uncommon to sit down with him and toss out an initial idea for discussion. Then, when his ensuing silence grew uncomfortably long, one would toss out another idea, ultimately another, and then another. When he finally spoke, it became clear that he was still thinking deeply about the first or second idea.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
He exhibited a modesty that was several standard deviations from the norm, at least the norm in academia. When Maynard Smith’s Evolution of Sex (1978, Cambridge University Press) appeared just three years after George’s book on the same topic (Sex and Evolution, Princeton University Press), George declared in his review that Maynard Smith’s book had made his own obsolete. In 2000, when George was invited to speak on Darwinian medicine at a symposium on applied evolution (George was the cofounder of the field, after all), he responded that the organizers should get someone who knew something about the topic. He did not hesitate to give credit to others for his inspiration. For example, he attributed his inspiration for Darwinian medicine to Paul Ewald and Margie Profet, and in the preface to the 1996 reprinting of his 1966 book, George gave credit to several people who had influenced his thinking. George also had a sense of humor about himself (fig. 1) and about his mistakes. For example, his prediction in 1966 that sex ratio was “solved” came just a year before the topic started on a meteoric rise in popularity, with Hamilton’s “extraordinary sex ratios” paper and the later
...is true for us, too
Human populations living under poor hygiene with little access to medicine compared to wild chimpanzees Caleb Finch, PNAS 2010 Thursday, February 17, 2011
Caleb Finch, PNAS 2010 Thursday, February 17, 2011
Antagonistic pleiotropy?
Caleb Finch, PNAS 2010 Thursday, February 17, 2011
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6SHHGLVPHDVXUHGDVWKHUHFLSURFDORIWKHPHDQUHTXLUHGWLPHLQPLQXWHVIRUDJLYHQ\HDU The Tithonus Error in Modern Gerontology George C. Williams
LQWKHSRS ILWQHVV JHQHUDO TheRWKHU Quarterly ReviewFDXVHLPSDLUV of Biology Vol.XODWLRQRIWHQ 74, No. 4 (Dec., 1999), pp. 405-415 FRXQ HQRXJKWREHHIIHFWLYHO\ Thursday, February 17, 2011
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Breast cancer cells
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Death rate from breast cancer (per 100,00 women) in US
Data: http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2007/ Graph: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Age-Specific_SEER_Incidence_Rates,_2003-2007_Breast_Cancer.svg Thursday, February 17, 2011
DNA damage, abnormal growth
Adapted from Coppe et al, Annu. Rev. Pathol. Mech. Dis. 2010. 5:99–118 Thursday, February 17, 2011
DNA damage, abnormal growth
p53 pathway activated
Adapted from Coppe et al, Annu. Rev. Pathol. Mech. Dis. 2010. 5:99–118 Thursday, February 17, 2011
DNA damage, abnormal growth
p53 pathway activated
Adapted from Coppe et al, Annu. Rev. Pathol. Mech. Dis. 2010. 5:99–118 Thursday, February 17, 2011
Senescence, cell suicide
DNA damage, abnormal growth
p53 pathway activated
Adapted from Coppe et al, Annu. Rev. Pathol. Mech. Dis. 2010. 5:99–118 Thursday, February 17, 2011
Senescence, cell suicide
CANCER STOPPED!
DNA damage, abnormal growth
p53 pathway activated
Senescence, cell suicide
CANCER STOPPED!
Tissue damage
Adapted from Coppe et al, Annu. Rev. Pathol. Mech. Dis. 2010. 5:99–118 Thursday, February 17, 2011
DNA damage, abnormal growth
p53 pathway activated
Adapted from Coppe et al, Annu. Rev. Pathol. Mech. Dis. 2010. 5:99–118 Thursday, February 17, 2011
Senescence, cell suicide
CANCER STOPPED!
Less regeneration in stem cells
Tissue damage
DNA damage, abnormal growth
p53 pathway activated
Inflammation, DNA damage
Adapted from Coppe et al, Annu. Rev. Pathol. Mech. Dis. 2010. 5:99–118 Thursday, February 17, 2011
Senescence, cell suicide
CANCER STOPPED!
Less regeneration in stem cells
Tissue damage
DNA damage, abnormal growth
p53 pathway activated
Inflammation, DNA damage
Senescence, cell suicide
CANCER STOPPED!
Less regeneration in stem cells
Tissue damage
Aging, late-life cancer, and other diseases Adapted from Coppe et al, Annu. Rev. Pathol. Mech. Dis. 2010. 5:99–118 Thursday, February 17, 2011
Delaying cancer in youth..... ...leads to cancer late in life?
Data: http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2007/ Graph: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Age-Specific_SEER_Incidence_Rates,_2003-2007_Breast_Cancer.svg Thursday, February 17, 2011
Antagonistic pleiotropy in the brain
Mo Morgan http://www.flickr.com/photos/momorgan/1483612005/ Thursday, February 17, 2011
The Two Faces of ApoE4
Trotter et al, Functional Ecology 2011, 25, 40–47 Thursday, February 17, 2011
The Two Faces of ApoE4 Benefits early in life Infection resistance Memory recall Enhanced learning
Trotter et al, Functional Ecology 2011, 25, 40–47 Thursday, February 17, 2011
The Two Faces of ApoE4 Benefits early in life
Costs late in life
Infection resistance
Heart disease
Memory recall Enhanced learning
Alzheimer’s disease
Trotter et al, Functional Ecology 2011, 25, 40–47 Thursday, February 17, 2011
Can aging be reversed, or at least slowed?
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Daf-2 mutants: The Methuselah Worms --Live twice as long
Chen et al, J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2007 Feb;62(2):126-35. Image: http://www.nematode.net/Images/c_elegans.jpg Thursday, February 17, 2011
Daf-2 mutants: The Methuselah Worms --Live twice as long
--Have fewer offspring Chen et al, J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2007 Feb;62(2):126-35. Image: http://www.nematode.net/Images/c_elegans.jpg Thursday, February 17, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Thanks to Doris Williams and Steven Austad
For more information, visit carlzimmer.com Thursday, February 17, 2011
