AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion

News & Events: Public Lecture

Paradigm Shift?
21 March 2004

 

The recent discovery from DNA sequences that genes are rather promiscuously horizontally transferred among prokaryotes refocuses the already difficult question of what we mean by a "species” within this taxon. This "species” problem may extend to eukaryotic taxa. We are simultaneously discovering that the core of the chart of intermediary metabolism is very old, ubiquitous and extremely robust to change.

This results in a phenotype (the chart of intermediary metabolism) that is stable to a fluctuating noisy genetic background. The stability forces a re-examination of the dogma of molecular biology and asks in which way the information flows. This possible shift of paradigm has implications for evolutionary theory, biogenesis, Lamarckianism, our general philosophic view of biology and religious interpretations of evolution.

Keynote speaker:

• Harold Morowitz, PhD, Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Biology and Natural Philosophy, George Mason University
  

Respondent:

• John F. Haught, PhD, Thomas Healey Distinguished Professor of Theology, Georgetown University

Coverage:

Listen to Dr. Morowitz
Listen to Dr. Haught
Read the Summary