Sean B. Carroll, author of “Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species” and Professor of molecular biology and genetics at the University of Wisconsin came to SMU on Thursday night as a part of the year-long celebration of Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday.
Carroll was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2007 and in 1994 was named one of America’s most promising leaders under 40 by TIME magazine.
Carroll began the lecture in McCord Auditorium in Dallas Hall by showing a video about the explorers who search for the origin of species and said that he “had a great time chronicling adventures, and these explorers themselves are remarkable creatures.”
The lecture focused on a trio of young Englishmen, rather than just Darwin, prominent in the shaping of the theory of natural selection. Alfred Wallace and Henry Bates were researchers around the same time as Charles Darwin, and Carroll led the audience in a “walk in the footsteps of three pioneers.”
Wallace and Bates journeyed to the Amazon; Wallace’s trip ended before Bates, who remained in the Amazon alone for more than 10 years. Carroll showed pictures and letters from Wallace’s eventful return journey. On the way back from Wallace’s first attempt at collecting specimens, his ship caught fire and sunk leaving his research for another day in the islands between Asia and Australia.
Charles Darwin, the centerpiece of the lecture, explored the world collecting thousands of research and specimens and disproving the theory of special creation.
He chose to withhold this information, fearing other scientists would reject him. However, when Wallace returned from his second, more fruitful expedition, he published his findings and new belief in natural selection.
This publication matched Darwin’s private notes almost word for word.
Encouraged by Alfred Wallace’s research, Darwin started communicating with Wallace directly. Together, the two men presented the theory of natural selection based on their findings to the Linnean Society. However, at the time, this theory was disregarded as speculation and of no importance.
Henry Bates, back in the Amazon, finally returned to England after documenting and collecting numerous samples of insects and smaller creatures. Carroll describes all of the men as having “Obsessive Collecting Disorder,” and Bates having a “particular passion for butterflies and a rather romantic description of his findings.”
After following each scientist, Carroll brought all the men together and presented the question of today, now that the theory of natural selection is generally accepted. Researchers like Carroll are asking “how” these species evolved and use DNA to answer this question of how the “fittest” are made.
Carroll ended the lecture with a quote from Alfred Wallace describing Darwin, “his book possesses an overwhelming argument and admirable tone and spirit.”
He emphasized that the respect that other scientists felt toward Darwin is why we celebrate his achievements.
As Carroll closed the lecture he showed another video as a “birthday card” in which he expressed his opinion that “more people will appreciate Darwin leaving the comforts of home to venture into the unknown and feel as I do about Darwin’s adventures.”
