Niles Eldredge: NCSE's 2011 "Friend of Darwin"

A video prepared for the 2011 "Friend of Darwin" award dinner honoring Niles Eldredge. His history, the story of punctuated equilibria, his work for NCSE, and more. Where: New York City. When: 3/22/2011

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Niles Eldredge
• punctuated equilibrium
• NCSE
• Darwin
• evolution
• equilibria
• Friend of Darwin

[itsasin1969]

You see, Darwin was wrong, there for by default my invisible bronzes-age super hero did it by magic.

[TuucciZ]

@TheScienceFoundation Haha, a new kind of a circular reasoning. X contradicts Y, therefore X is incorrect, and because X is incorrect Y is correct, and because Y is correct, it's a big dead that X contradicts Y. Makes sense!

[ananiasacts]

4:50 "I growed up ..." Just because fossils appear indistinguishable over long periods of time doesn't necessarily mean that the pace of evolutionary change had slowed down. There are many ways to change that do not involve obvious morphological differences. I think Dan Dennett's discussion of this topic in "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" contains the clearest arguments: 'Punctuated Equilibrium' just another attempt to make a crane into a skyhook. Such outrageous claims demand overwhelming evidence!

[fourtrees44]

How much of the fossil record did Darwin really know? And how much is "punctuated equillibrium" really phyletic gradualism on a big scale. I have always though change is constant and steady, but certain events allow for change to actually take affect. When the environment is more stable then the changes still occur, but can't take hold. Play basketball by yourself and you can flourish, play basketball against Lebron James now and you will get squashed.

[metalsusa1]

Congratulation you bearded bastard! Keep doing what your doing.

[Flyborg]

Rich source of quotes detected! I claim mineral rights! Everyone grab your hard hats, and get cracking! The ore from this quote mine will make us rich. ;)

[Darienbeagle]

Congratulations Niles Eldredge!

[MrEducationFTW]

Well yeah! Even Natural Selection isn't going to fix something that isn't broke. If the environment is stable then there's inevitably going to be less natural selection thus less evolution. If the environment is less stable then there's going to be more natural selection thus more rapid evolution. The fossil record indicates that much of Earth's history has been one of stable environments "punctuated" by Extinction Level Events. So how exactly does Punctuated Equilibrium contradict Darwin?

[ianpennack]

@bdf2718 You're right. "There's nothing in PE that contradicts Darwin". However, the dynamics of genetic mechanisms shrink without use. Old specie lose genetic variability. Extinction appears to occur partly because of this genetic rut that species eventually fall into, Darwin would love today's masses of data. He would be making new theory upon today's genetic cerebral knowledge

[ianpennack]

Punctuated equilibria expresses the overt stasis of species. This should ring alarm bells. Evolution uses genetic mechanisms to alter dna. Without genetic mechanisms there is no evolution. Genetic mechanisms possess a fluctuating dynamics that is astounding if carried forward by variants in a changing environment. Speciation should be the focal point of how Mankind evolved, not specie life. Specie traits are specie life, they are mere modifications of physical fitness and sexual selection.

[dude12nothin]

I love that I actual knew about this guy from YouTube before I saw this video... YouTube is awesome!

[mamolian]

Love your work folks!