Vol 456|20 November 2008 COMMENTARY

Left to right: Mustafa Akyol, Mel Greaves, Niles Eldredge, Per-Edvin Persson, Patricia Adair Gowaty, Masatoshi Nei, Michael Lynch, Ulrich Kutschera, Randolph Great expectations Nesse, Ismail Serageldin. A new path for evolution? A truce in the culture wars? Here’s what a selection of readers told Nature they expect from Darwin 200.

Patricia Adair Gowaty understand the reality of where we of fundamentalist believers in verbatim Distinguished professor, live and who we are. creation will have diminished and given way

Department of Ecology & Indeed, in the grand scheme of to an understanding that science and religion N. SPENCER Evolutionary Biology and things, Darwin has given us the may coexist but that they should not be min- Institute of the Environment, remarkable means to redefine the gled. The world would accept that religion is University of California, role of humans. We are the only religion and science is science and let both Los Angeles, USA. species capable of appreciating the live in peace. diversity of life and the fragility of One sign of enhanced public understanding our ecosystems, and the only one to recognize Niles Eldredge of Darwin and the nature of science, will be our responsibility to change our behaviour in Division of Paleontology, the American quicker resolution of continuously re-emerg- order to safeguard life and the world we live in. Museum of Natural History, New York, ing controversies between the scientifically lit- During the Middle Ages, the Muslim world USA. erate and ‘creation scientists’. Other signs will showed remarkable openness to the contrarian include enhancements of public debate about view and an appreciation of evidence-backed Biological phenomena that bear on evolution scientific discovery, about funding for science, science. The Muslim world would gain much occur at such a mind-boggling spectrum of and policies that result from scientific discov- by reclaiming its legacy of open-minded pur- spatio-temporal scales that communication ery. There will be fewer vapid press claims suit of knowledge, and the Darwin celebrations — hence integration — is harder now than it about the implications of scientific studies, could be just the catalyst to help us rediscover was in Darwin’s day. Darwin himself may have and an enhanced awareness of the roles of that tradition. been the last to have had an adequate grasp evidence and the control of bias in decision- of the geology, palaeontology, zoology and making of all kinds. Per-Edvin Persson botany of his day, to be able to frame some- Director, Heureka, the Finnish Science thing of a unifying picture. The rest of us yell at Ismail Serageldin Centre, Vantaa, Finland. each other from increasingly widening chasms Director, New Library of Alexandria, between buildings on campuses. Alexandria, Egypt. I dream that the majority of the world’s No one is at fault here for a lack of commu- population will understand that evolution is nication across disciplines. Do I think some Copernicus knocked out the centrality of the process by which diversity of life is main- of the big meetings planned for 2009 will help Earth in our view of the Universe, and Darwin tained on this planet. bridge this? One can but hope. But I doubt knocked out the special status of humans as We would know this has happened by that Darwin’s 200th birthday anniversary will a species in the diversity of life on this planet. witnessing a diminished number of attacks on manage to spur us collectively on well enough Both were vilified and attacked by bigots. science, and the theory of evolution in partic- to get the job done that hasn’t been success- Both played a central part in allowing us to ular, from non-scientific sources. The number fully addressed for 150 years.

317 OPINION DARWIN 200 NATURE|Vol 456|20 November 2008

Michael Lynch Ulrich Kutschera Randolph Nesse Distinguished professor, Department of Professor of plant physiology and Professor of psychiatry and psychology, Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, evolutionary biology, Institute of Biology, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. University of Kassel, Germany. USA.

My primary concern about the Year of Dar- In 1859, when Darwin published his theory Medicine has a blind spot for evolutionary win is that the view that evolution is simply of descent with modification, the emerging biology. Most doctors graduate thinking natural selection will be perpetuated further. evolutionary sciences were still mixed up with that selection works mainly for the benefit of This concern is motivated by increasingly fre- the idea of divine creation and William Paley’s groups, that it cannot occur after menopause, quent arguments, being made by people out- argument for design. Most of the nineteenth- that ageing results from parts inevitably wear- side the field of evolutionary biology, that the century books dealing with the origin of life ing out and that most of the body’s vulnerabili- entire enterprise needs overthrowing. In fact, contain this pre-Darwinian biotheology. Dar- ties exist simply because selection is too weak. a lot has happened in the past 150 years, and win was the first to present an entirely natural- Correcting such misconceptions requires the basic theoretical framework of evolution- istic set of interpretations of the empirical data medical curricula reform. ary biology is rock solid. There is not a single that provided evidence for evolution. Moreover, I am just back from a year of work with a observation in cell, molecular or developmen- he discovered, independent of Alfred Russel group at the Berlin Institute of Advanced Study tal biology that has caused a ripple in our basic Wallace, that natural (and sexual) selection in that considered realistic recommendations. understanding of evolutionary principles. This populations of animals and plants is a major Two are achievable in the Year of Darwin. First, is not to say that we don’t need molecular, cell ‘driving force’ for evolutionary adaptations and national scientific organizations, such as the US or developmental biologists to complete our diversifications over thousands of subsequent Institute of Medicine, should convene groups understanding of evolution — we need this generations. I hope that, by the end of 2009, to recommend steps that will bring evolution- more than ever — nor is it to say that there Darwin’s classical theories as well as his philo- ary biology fully to bear on problems of human aren’t a lot of unsolved problems. sophical imperative — the strict separation of health. If they recommend that medical-school Thus, what I would most like to see happen scientific facts from religion — will be accepted certification examinations ask questions about in the field is a true merging by the general public. evolutionary biology, curricula will change of the above-mentioned fields “I would really like to see The clearest signs as to quickly. Second, all schools of medicine, nurs- with evolutionary biology. It the de-ideologization of whether or not this message ing and public health should adopt policies to has long been clear that much has reached the target audi- ensure that their students and researchers are of what we see in biology can- Darwinism.” ence of anti-evolutionists able to use all the tools and concepts evolution- not be explained in terms of — Mustafa Akyol will be the acknowledge- ary biology provides. We have 12 months. natural selection alone, yet we ment that macroevolution continue to witness an unwarranted prolifera- is a documented fact and not ‘only a theory’. Mel Greaves tion of adaptive stories, in some cases extremely Chairman, Section of Haemato- bizarre ones, to explain every aspect of exist- Mustafa Akyol Oncology, the Institute of Cancer ing and extinct biodiversity. What needs to be Columnist for the Turkish Daily News and Research, Sutton, UK. accomplished will take more than 12 months. blogger for The White Path. More realistically, it will require the education I would like to see both clinicians and epide- of a new generation of scientists in the basic One thing I would really like to see is de- miologists recognizing that vulnerability to principles of evolutionary theory that have ideologization of Darwinism. By that, I mean common diseases of affluent societies, such emerged since Darwin. the separation of Darwinism and some of the as diabetes, obesity, cancer and age-linked philosophies, atheism in particular, that are degenerative conditions, is a bequest of our Masatoshi Nei advanced by using this theory. evolutionary history — as mismatched with Director of the Institute of Molecular If Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett our modern life-styles. For epidemiologists, Evolutionary Genetics, Pennsylvania State proclaim that their atheism is a matter of persuasion will not come from continued University, University Park, USA. philosophical choice, not a direct outcome of advocacy or polemics but from irresistible data ‘science’, and particularly Darwinian evolu- — perhaps in the form of further genome-wide We need a new evolutionary theory for tion, that would be a major sign that this is association studies implicating common allelic the evolution of observable characteristics happening. But I am not holding my breath. I variants in susceptibility to common disease. (phenotypes) of organisms. In this theory, would rather expect to see more from scien- Moreover, I hope and expect to see the mutation will play an important part, because tists who think that evolution is compatible ongoing comprehensive, full genomic scru- it is mutation that generates innovative char- with their theistic faith. tiny of cancer providing detailed route maps acters. The role of natural selection is merely A good example would be Simon Conway of the evolutionary trajectories of cancer stem to save beneficial mutations and eliminate Morris, who thinks that evolution follows cells from initial emergence through to meta- deleterious ones. Because a large number of a pattern that points to a meaningful, not a static dissemination and drug resistance. The genes are involved in any phenotypic char- meaningless, Universe. In many countries, power of computational biology will have to acter, and evolution occurs without purpose, including Turkey where I live, such views are be harnessed to manage the rich and dynamic there must be large components of neutral or hardly known. Neither is Darwin’s comment complexity that will emerge. ■ nearly neutral changes in phenotypic evolu- on life on Earth as being “breathed by the tion. I doubt that this paradigm shift will be Creator”. If the Year of Darwin helps in dis- See more responses and join the discussion at accomplished within one year, but the Year of covering this often neglected side of the great http://tinyurl.com/57h7js. See also pages 281, Darwin could prompt the beginning. naturalist, it will be a big achievement. 295 and www.nature.com/darwin.

318