Botanical Society of Scotland Lecture series - Christmas Dinner with Darwin: Food, Drink and Evolution

• Update - A change to our scheduled December Botanical Society lecture

  Jonathan Silvertown, Hon. Prof. Institute of Ecology and Evolution

  Thursday 19th December, 18:00-19:00

  Lecture Theatre, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh

  All food is the product of evolution and diet has shaped our own evolution, too. Delving beneath these simple facts produces plenty to wonder at. Our closest relatives, the other great apes, are vegans. So were our primate ancestors, yet we are capable of living on just plants or mainly meat. How did evolution cut us such slack? And what is the source of our taste for alcohol? The one choice evolution has not allowed us is cooking: it’s compulsory and you may ask, “Why?” Even more puzzling is the fact that though we are mammals nurtured on milk, 70% of us worldwide cannot digest milk as adults. Evolutionary biology provides the answers to such puzzles.

  Jonathan is President of the BSS, Honorary Professor in the Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Edinburgh and formerly Professor of Evolutionary Ecology there. Jonathan’s book Dinner with Darwin, published by Chicago University Press, is available in paperback through the usual outlets. It has been translated into 8 languages.  He is the author of numerous research publications in the field of plant population biology. Nowadays, he devotes himself to writing popular science and is the author of 8 books, of which the latest is Selfish Genes to Social Beings: A cooperative history of life, published earlier this year.

  Date: Thursday 19 December,  2024, Edinburgh, from 6:00-7:00 pm – (Tea/coffee and biscuits will be available from 5:30 pm)

  Venue: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Science Building, 20a Inverleith Row, EH3 5LR

  Venue Note: To access the lecture please enter via the Science Buildings main reception, 20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh EH3 5LR. Note this is NOT the public entrance to the gardens.

  Use the registration form below to sign up to attend this free exclusive lecture.