Evolution in the Century of Biology: adaptation to societal need

University of St Andrews, United Kingdom

 
The nature of science has changed considerably since Darwin, from an endeavor driven by dedicated but often self-supported private individuals to a highly organised professional system with considerable public support.  I will draw some comparisons between the motivations and support for scientific work in the 19^th century and the present.  For example, Darwin’s work aboard the Beagle, and the empirical observations that led him to the theory of evolution, were largely based on his own private funds.  There was clearly a societal response to his work, but it was not driven by public expenditure.  Today, evolutionary research takes place in an extended scientific community, largely supported on a formal level by various institutions and government funding agencies, usually with indirect or even direct expectations of benefits to society.  Unlike the process of evolution itself, this relationship between science and society has a direction of travel.  As society’s input into the scientific process has grown, so too has the expectation of beneficial contributions to society in terms of human well-being (agriculture, medicine, conservation, sustainability, etc.).  As we are now well into a much heralded ‘Century of Biology’, we should ensure that evolutionary biology will play a role in this larger agenda.

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