Weldon Memorial Prize Lecture: Endless forms most beautiful: geometry, physics, and biology
Darwin concluded Origin of Species with the phrase “.. endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” How might this happen? I will attempt to show that simple geometrical ideas and physical principles for active growth and flow help to link molecular genetics to multicellular tissue morphogenesis in developing organisms and across evolutionary time, in such instances as laying out elements of the animal body plan, e.g. gastrulation, elongation, and segmentation, and creating functional organs e.g. guts, brains, and beaks.
Date: 25 November 2024, 16:00 (Monday, 7th week, Michaelmas 2024)
Venue: Biology South Parks Road, South Parks Road OX1 3RB
Venue Details: Large Lecture Theatre
Speaker: Professor L. Mahadevan (Harvard University)
Organising department: Department of Biology
Organiser contact email address: trustfunds@biology.ox.ac.uk
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Monica Gujral