JOIN USAncient Indians thought of evolution, says scientist
Delivering the inaugural talk on ‘How we understand evolution’ at the three- day lecture cum demonstration workshop on ‘Evolutionary Biology: Darwin and beyond’, jointly organised by Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences, to commemorate the 200th birth anniversary of Charles Darwin and the 150th year of publication of his ‘Origin of species’, at St Aloysius College here on Thursday, Prof Nanjudiah dwelt upon the idea of ‘Dasavathara’ and ‘rebirth’ propounded by the Indian mythology, and pointed out the chance that people at those ages actually thought about evolution and the origin of different species. However, modern science was not so influenced by Indian, Chinese or Egyptian cultures, as much it was influenced by the Greek culture, he said and explained that it was the Greeks who first decided that there is an objective world outside, which can be explained without actually being part of it. “Aristotle was the one who first asked serious questions about the behavioural patterns and mutations in animals, and hence can be aptly called the father of ‘embryology or developmental biology”, he added.
Speaking of the Darwin- Wallace duo, who made remarkable contributions to the evolution theory, he said that they defined the process of natural selection as a materialist explanation of how evolution took place.
Later in the day, Prof S Mahadevan spoke on the ‘Origin of variations’ while Subhashchandra Verma spoke on ‘Spontaneous mutations and natural selection’. Santhosh Sathe spoke on the ‘Development and social behaviour in cellular slime moulds’. Mahua Ghara, Ratna Ghosal and Jhanvi Joshi are the other resource persons for the three-day workshop.
Around 100 students and faculty of life science from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi are participating.