Darwin’s ideas developed in the days of the Victorian British Empire but move far beyond the limitations of colonial thinking. Today, evolution remains the biggest idea in biology, and this presentation explores why. What do Darwin’s ideas tell us about the world’s origins and its future?
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Jane Still
Jane Still
Jane Still grew up on the bayous of the Gulf Coast of Texas, the daughter of a naturalist and a chemical engineer in the oil industry. NASA built facilities for Mission Control and astronaut training while she was still at primary school. Many of her friends' parents were astronauts and space scientists, and she discovered that ordinary people do extraordinary things. The local schools had competitive science and maths research fairs, and for one Jane mapped the death of vegetation along her bayou as the land sank due to oil and water extraction. She had decided to become a marine biologist when as a nine-year-old she met a man on her village beach looking for a rare species of clam.
From that moment on she became actively interested in conservation. Jane used to be a field officer on Long Mynd and used to conduct school field trips in the area. To this day she still organizes ecological events for the local community and for schools and is a member of the British Ecological Society.
After doing a biology degree at the University of Exeter and PGCE at the University of Cambridge, Jane has taught in a variety of schools and is an experienced online tutor, examiner, and author.
Neil Ingram
Neil Ingram
As a child, Neil explored fields and hedgerows in the countryside around the industrial city where he lived. He became curious about ferns, fruits, and fungi, wondering what and why they were. This was the time of lavish colour TV documentaries like 'Life on Earth' that added wonder to his curiosity. Neil's PhD research, carried out at the University of Birmingham, UK, was in the early days of genetic engineering and involved transferring single genes from parents to offspring. He rediscovered Mendel by breaking his laws. Multiple measurements from tens of thousands of tobacco plants were shaped into patterns that he explained in the journal Nature.
Neil wanted a career where he could inspire curiosity in others, so he completed a PGCE at the University of Cambridge, UK. For many years he taught biology, psychology, and ICT in secondary schools, including Clifton College, where he was Head of Science. He is an experienced author and examiner.
More recently, he was Senior Lecturer in the School of Education in the University of Bristol, teaching postgraduate students, especially those on initial teacher training courses. He admires Charles Darwin as a great storyteller and thinks that the living world cannot be reduced to chemistry, physics, and mathematics without destroying its essence.
Jane Still and Neil Ingram are co-authors of Evolution, published by Oxford University Press in November 2021. Written primarily for 16-19 year old students, this concise, stimulating introduction to evolution outlines the key concepts in evolutionary thought, its historical context and wider implications for the scientific world, and aims to extend students' knowledge and inspire them to take their school-level learning further.
