Aoife McLysaght - 'The Descent of Man, 150 Years On'. (The HAI's Darwin Day Lecture 2021)

2021 is the 150th Anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s Descent of Man. The Humanist Association of Ireland’s 2021 Darwin Day lecture examined how the work holds up in the light of today’s knowledge of genetics and human evolution.

Our guest speaker was Professor Aoife McLysaght. Aoife is Head of the Genetics Department at Trinity College Dublin, where she has led a research group focusing on Molecular Evolution since 2003.

She was a member of the international consortium that published the first draft of the Human Genome sequence in 2001; was the first to discover novel human-specific genes, in 2000; identified links between gene duplication patterns and human disease; and has made significant contributions to our understanding of the human genome, as well as the genomes of other animals, plants and viruses.

In 2018 Aoife was awarded a European Research Council Consolidator Grant. She is on the editorial board of Molecular Biology and Evolution, Genome Biology and Evolution, and Cell Reports, and is a member of the Genetics Society, and the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, of which she was elected President in 2017.

HAI Darwin Day lectures are a unique opportunity to hear an expert speak in an accessible manner on what can often be a complex and inaccessible scientific topic.

Darwin’s birthday, February 12th, is marked among humanists as a celebration of the rational. Darwin’s theory of Evolution by Natural Selection is, some humanists would argue, the greatest idea ever. It shows that organisms can improve in tiny steps by blind evolution without any higher purpose or higher cause. It changed completely humanity’s view of ourselves and establishes humans firmly as part of nature as a whole.
The Humanist Association of Ireland has, for many years, marked the occasion with a public lecture by a distinguished scientist who will bring information and insights about important developments to a general audience.

Видео Aoife McLysaght - 'The Descent of Man, 150 Years On'. (The HAI's Darwin Day Lecture 2021) канала Humanist Association of Ireland