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VENICE: ALL CHANGE

2007; Royal Irish Academy; Volume: 107B; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/bae.2007.0003

2009-003X

Miguel DeArce, Therese Logan-Phelan,

FORUM PAPER VENICE: ALL CHANGE Miguel DeArce and Therese Logan-Phelan Miguel DeArce (corresponding author e-mail: mdearce@tcd.ie), Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity CollegeDublin; Therese Logan Phelan, Centre for Learning Technology, Trinity CollegeDublin Received20 December 2007. Accepted 12April 2007. Published 30 June 2007. From 20 to 23 September 2006, the secondWorld Conference on Evolution was held at Venice's Fondazione Giorgio Cini. The outstanding panel of speakers, the beauty ofweather and venue and the smooth organisation offered those in attendance an opportunity to enjoy Italy at itsbest. At the timewhen Darwin was thinkingof the origin of species, changes in the understanding of geology from a static conception of the earth's history to a dynamic theoryplayed amajor role in the shaping of the idea of biological evolution. There isno doubt thatparadigm change is taking place now in many other sciences, and this opportunity to consider the emerging landscape is very welcome, especially when one is guided by humorous and articulate frontline experts. This paradigm change was reflected in the overall theme of the conference, which embraced topics rangingfrom theformationof theuniverse to human behaviour, culture and ethics. The idea of evolution has rightlygrown to include thewhole of nature. On thefirstday of the conference, given to the evolution ofmatter, Lisa Randall fromHarvard set thephysicist'suniverse in the evolutionary frame by describing currentknowledge of events leading to the 'hot big bang'. The observed imbalance between gravitational effects and observable mass has led scientists to hypothesise the existence of 'dark matter' and 'dark energy', the nature of which remains mysterious to date. Paolo de Bernardis fromLa Sapienza said that the thermal energy distribution of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) indicates that the universe underwent a hot phase in the distant past, and that it expanded and cooled for 400,000 years some 14 billion years ago when the first atoms began to form and the universe became transpa rent. We can now picture the CMB at that time, demonstrating the oscillations in density and temperature that perturbed the primeval plasma. The complex hierarchy of stars, galaxies and clusters of galaxies that we see in thenearby universe today is the result of such perturbations. Analysis of the statisticalproperties of the CMB will allow the studyof the geometry and composition of the universe as a whole. Further refinements of these observations in the near future should bring us an understanding of eventswithin milliseconds of the big bang. The cosmic session concluded with a review on extra-solarplanets by Willi Benz from the University ofBerne. In theeleven years after Mayor andQueloz (1995) reported thefirstextrasolar planet,we have discovered approximately 200 more, and we have learned a great deal about the evolution of extrasolar systems. Most of these 200 planets form systems with two or three other planets. Many of these are roaming not Jupiters'?very massive gaseous planets orbiting very close to their staron wildly eccentric, changing orbits: theseplanets are unlikely tobe conducive to thedevelopment and survivalof the merest blob of cytoplasm! However, one of the lessons learned is thatthe technology used in the observations introduces an enormous bias into what we can see. The future excitement of life-searching missions, from space and fromEarth, isguaranteed.Whether thefunding will be there is anothermatter, and somewhat dark too. Friday's theme was subtitled 'Darwinism in the light of modern genetics'. Here, too, the change in paradigm is apparent. Denis Duboule, professorof embryology at the University ofGeneva, has investigated the development of the vertebrate limb and, in particular, how mutations in the deve lopmental and regulatory genes known as 'the genetic toolkitfordevelopment' can affect morpho logy.The effectsof these genes, including theHox genes, were already observed by W. Bateson in 1894, and are nearly universally conserved in complex organisms, where they determine embryonic pola rity, segmentation and development of segmental appendages in insects and arthropods and limbs in vertebrates. Curiously, the vast majority of evo lutionary work has been carried out on other genes thathave amuch lessobvious effecton body shape. The complex working relationships of these genes explains the initially puzzling factthatthefruit flyhas nearly as many genes as humans. Thus, it is appears that the emergence of dramatically new forms (biological novelty),which so puzzled Darwin, is...