The School of Biological Sciences Fall 2024 Seminar Series presents Dr. David P. Mindell

The conventional narrative for evolution, describing life's diversity as arising from a sprawling series of splitting events, is outdated. Bringing this view into alignment with current knowledge, requires new emphasis on the sharing of genetic materials among different species by means of horizontal evolution, and a greater role for the influence of species on their mutual genetic change. I use the term horizontal evolution to include interbreeding among sexual species, genetic mixing among asexual species, joining of species as with endosymbioses, and horizontal gene transfer. Horizontal evolution also includes coevolution, with interacting species influencing heritable genetic changes in each other. Evolution’s new narrative recognizes horizontal evolution as decentralizing heritability and I will discuss its key relevance for a variety of topics, including the origins and speed of evolutionary innovation across life forms, changes in human health, our dependence on other species, and even aspects of our future evolution. I make the case that we are in a long-term, coevolutionary relationship with technology as our cultural inheritance.

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