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Darwin Day 2012
08.02.2012 / 09.02.2012

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Wednesday 8 February​
Octubre Centre de Cultura Contemporània

19.00h: Science Week: “Are we enslaved of our genetic?”

Are we really free or does biology condition us? What is the genetic basis of language? Is violence cultural or natural? Is there a gene for creativity or religiosity?

On the occasion of the publication of the book L’enigma de la llibertat: ua biologic and evolutionary perspective of the human freedom (Bromera/PUV, 2011)

Spekaers: David Bueno (University of Barcelona) and Ester Desfilis (Complutense University). Moderator: Núria Cadenes (Journalist of El Temps).

Humanistic Genetics - David Bueno

 

Thursday 9 February

In the Charles Darwin Room, Interfaculty Lecture Hall, Burjassot-Paterna Campus

12.30h: Conference “Autocatàlisi, RNA i l’origen de la vida
By Mauro Santos (Professor of Genetics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona).

Autocatàlisi, RNA and l’origen de la vida
The problem of the origin of life is also the problem of the origin of the capacity to evolve by natural selection.. Life cannot be understood without its two essential components: metabolism and information. EMuch of the debate about the origin of life has focused on which of these two components originated first.The answer is to loosen the next Gordian knot: it is improbable that polymers like RNA will originate without the prior evolution of a primitive metabolism, but it also unlikely that a primitive metabolism can evolve without prior genetic control. It is evident that life unties the Gordian knot. The solution consists in understanding how an autocatalytic system can become an evolutionary unit with the following properties: reproduction, heredity and variation.

An initiative of the Canavilles institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, the Faculty of Biological Sciences, the Chair of Dissemination of Science of the Universitat de València and Acció Cultural del País Valencià and sponsored by the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC), the Societat Catalana de Biologia and the CAM.

International Darwin Day Foundation
Darwin's Day 2012