Posted on 06/24/2005 4:07:28 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
USFQ (Universidad San Francisco de Quito) hosted the World Summit on Evolution from June 9-12 at the island of San Cristóbal in the Galapagos Archipelago. This one-of-a-kind conference brought together the world’s most prominent biologists to discuss and debate what is evolution, the different fields of study, and what are the future horizons for evolution biology. This conference was unique because it compromised all subfields of evolution from microbes to humans, plus participants came from all around the world (more than 20 countries represented).
The format was also special because it consisted of a presentation given by a speaker followed by a talk given by a commentator in the same field. Once all speakers and commentators presented their work a discussion was opened to the public. This procedure created a unique mechanism of feedback and interaction among all participants.
During the various sessions speakers, commentators and session chairs debated old and new ideas. In some cases participants called for a radical reorganization of approaches to their subfield, i.e., sexual selection (Roughgarden) and genetic drift (Provine). Others such as developmental biologists (Wagner) talked about how they are able to answer centuries-old questions of morphological evolution using genetic techniques. Other ideas debated were: early evolution (Lazcano, Mexico), lateral gene transfer in microbes, selection in natural populations (Peter and Rosemary Grant, USA), selection at multiple levels (Avilés, Ecuador), and symbiogenesis (Margulis, USA).
Graduate students were also an integral part of the conference. Students from outside Ecuador were chosen from lists submitted by the speakers, among them six Ecuadorean students were included. Funding provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) made it possible for more than two dozen students attend the conference and present their recent research in a poster session.
The success of this conference lies in the broad impacts it will offer the world regarding evolution theory, research and its diffusion. All speakers and commentators agreed the need for a dissemination of all the ideas and research presented at the event. Carlos Montúfar (USFQ) and Antonio Lazcano are leading the group that will edit a volume containing the proceedings of this meeting. As a corollary, many scientists including the NSF made a call for more diffusion of evolution theory in US schools to combat the rise of Intelligent Design Theory. As Michael Shermer, who gave a vivid and controversial talk on the rhetoric that this movement employs, put it, “IDT [Intelligent Design Theory] is nothing more than creationism under the guise of pseudo-science.”
As a summary of the impacts of this conference it is clear the need for future conferences on evolution that will address specific problems in evolution biology, as well as developing strategies to deal with creationism and Intelligent Design Theory in schools and at a public level. Furthermore, several academic institutions, among them the University of Illinois, sealed cooperation agreements with USFQ (GAIAS) to do research in the islands.
A video documentary of this conference is being produced by John Feldman and Hummingbird Films with cooperation of the College of Communication and Contemporary Arts of USFQ. This documentary to be released in the US by the end of this year gathers interviews with scientists such as Will Provine, Richard Michod, Frank Sulloway, Antonio Lazcano, Peter and Rosemary Grant, Geoff McFadden, Joan Roughgarden, Daniel Dennett, and Laura Katz who discuss the major questions of evolution from their subfields.
Rarely have so many experts been gathered to discuss their views and projections within an area of study. It is expected that this documentary will become a long lasting document of the state of evolution at the beginning of the 21st century.
The World Evolution Summit 2005 is a project of Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) and its Galapagos Academic Institute for the Arts and Sciences (GAIAS), established in 2002. This meeting was made possible thanks to the collaboration of private businesses such as OCP Ecuador S. A., Hilton Hotels, Metropolitan Touring, Time Warner Cable, Skeptic Magazine, and public and cultural institutions such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), UNESCO, WQLN, NPR, Ecuadorian Government, Ecuadorean Ministry of Tourism, and the Consul of Ecuador in Turkey.
"This conference was unique because it compromised all subfields of evolution from microbes to humans, ..."
I didn't realize that compromised fields and subfields was anything to brag about. :)
Not only that, but it's going to happen real soon now -RSN.
Or to use another analogy: just as the lack of WMDs proves Saddam wasn't a threat, and that Bush supporters are all Fox News-listening robots, the lack of transitional fossils proves evolution isn't a fact, and that scientists are all Darwin-worshipping acolytes/intergalactic sarcasm off
LOL!
There are no primate fossils that are more than 200 million years old.
There are no human fossils more than 5 million years old.
James Hutton had the idea earlier.
Close enough?
i don't get how that supports the theory of evolution
What is "not how science works". I am simply asking for one assertion that has been made by the theory of evolution that has been verified. Thats not too much to ask.
True, the earth must be old for Evolution to be true, BUT,
the fact that the earth is old does not mean that Evolution is true. I believe this is called a necessary, but not sufficient condition. Nice try.
Let me also add that our children are not clones of us and that there are 200 million year old fossils of sharks and crocodilians.
Are you saying that "Descent with modification...." is the mechanism by which new species are created? Has this been verified scientifically?
You are losing me. Sharks and crocodiles have been around longer than us. So what. How does that support the Theory of Evolution?
"Hi, everybody. I don't really have a dog in this fight, but could someone please explain to me why we shouldn't impeach Bush and throw him in a cell at Gitmo for being the lying, traitorous, cowardly, imperialist pig-dog dog he is? I mean, I'm a moderate, so I don't really care either way, but I'm just curious..."
The promoters and participants in this world summit appear to be in complete agreement with one another concerning one thing in particular: an intelligent agent cannot possibly be causative of anything biological, even though biological entities function with more complexity than many humanly-invented machines. I reckon it is of some comfort to be in the midst of the choir, but it is hardly demonstrative of scientific inquiry to use it for the sake of propping up a philosophy
Sheesh, make a bad joke an see what happens. I actually have seen cerenkov radiation with my own eyes from the core of a Triga-A reactor at U of I. :-)
Wowser! I am glad as well!!!!!!
By that rationale, then a geologist who thinks that earthquakes are caused by stress in the earths crust can't believe that God has anything to do with an earthquake.
I just don't understand why you guys think that the God you believe in is incapable of evolution, but He can do anything else.
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