The Darwin Lecture - U.K.C.

Date: Friday 27 February 2009

The series of Open Lectures, staged by the University of Kent, has proved more than attractive to our senior scientists, and so it was that on Wednesday evening a group of science teachers, plus a dozen senior pupils, chose to attend the Darwin Lecture given this year by Professor Steve Jones of the University of London under the provocative title, 'Is Human Evolution Over?'

The lecture took place in the spanking brand new lecture theatre in the Woolf Building, and while Professor and Mrs Mander enjoyed - rightly - privileged seats, the SES contingent took their places among the 450 visitors to the evening.

Physicist Rose Hummerstone feared that the technicalities of the subject might be beyond her - surely not? - but the presentation proved so engaging that the lecture was 'highly enjoyable'. The biologists would certainly have found the material academically very useful, and Upper Fifth formers like Laura Globig and Jonathan Vickers were encouraged to return for future events.

The conclusion seemed to be that 'human evolution' is over, as result of a variety of factors, not least the ease of international travel and the disappearance of isolated, 'evolving' communities. Miss Hummerstone's own conclusion was that the lecture theatre was so comfortable that she may be going back this week for a presentation on Victorian Railways, and the Crab'n'Winkle Line!