Ep4: The Ultraviolet Garden - Growing Up in the Universe - Richard Dawkins

http://richarddawkins.net/growingupintheuniverse

Oxford professor Richard Dawkins presents a series of lectures on life, the universe, and our place in it. With brilliance and clarity, Dawkins unravels an educational gem that will mesmerize young and old alike. Illuminating demonstrations, wildlife, virtual reality, and special guests (including Douglas Adams) all combine to make this collection a timeless classic.

The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children were founded by Michael Faraday in 1825, with himself as the inaugural lecturer. The 1991 lecturer was Richard Dawkins whose five one-hour lectures, originally televised by the BBC, are now available free online, courtesy of The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. The entire 5-hour program is also available on a 2-DVD set through our online store. http://richarddawkins.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products...

The DVD includes subtitles in English, Spanish, French and Polish.

Read the transcript:
http://richarddawkins.net/GUITUtranscript

If you enjoy these free videos, please consider purchasing the DVD and/or making a donation to The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science to help us continue our work. Donate here: http://richarddawkinsfoundation.org/donate.php

Originally broadcast as The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children, 1991.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Science
• Biology
• Evolution
• Richard Dawkins
• Teaching Science
• Education
• Science Education
• 1991
• Darwin

[heroic33]

all hail the Science! all hail the Science!

[meeynee24]

this guy uses designed things to argue for evolution, irrational.

clearly a moron.

[Guardian9191]

Thats bloody Douglas Adams over there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!

Holy shit, first time I've seen a video of him.

Such a great partnership these two makes

[jodiebug1]

What a sweet little bat!

[huwrj]

Science is the best thing humanity's ever done.

[jbatet1]

@RyanTheChristian ...as an aside: what the selfish gene suggests is that most creatures would actually prefer perfect clones of themselves, rather than evolution, because that would involve passing on a perfect replica of their genes. So the idea that any plant or animal actively wants to evolve is wrong. There are interesting studies on cabbage white moths before, during and after the industrial revolution that illustrate the 'direction' point (white, black, then white again)

[jbatet1]

@RyanTheChristian ...and secondly, there is the difference between 'desire' as a rational thought process that only really happens in higher animals, and 'desire' meaning 'I do this because I'm made be genes that instruct me to do it'. plants are not conscious. But they do reproduce sexually (that's what pollen is for) and they are made by genes. Their offspring will vary, and nature will select. No need for the plants to think about it, and they don't "want" to evolve.

[jbatet1]

@RyanTheChristian Thanks for the thoughtful response. I think there are two areas of confusion here. The first is, there are two types of 'desire'. Animals might desire to have offspring, but they don't necessarily desire that their distant descendents are 7 feet tall or have large thumbs for texting. Sexual desire makes evolution possible, but it doesn't drive it, what drives it is nature killing off the individuals that are not suited to their environment.

[bary1234]

@RyanTheChristian Line in the water means its just arbitruary, pulled from the hat. As if one birthday would suddenly make a human being so different than he was yesterday.

And yeah, its whole another debate and it wont ever destroy this planet so lets rather chew on the superstition :)

[bary1234]

@RyanTheChristian Nonsense. You know Spiderman is not real. Are you now devoid of emotion, gut feeling and intuition? Did you loose your humanity when you understood Spiderman is not real?

Are you now bleak?