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The Rules that Govern Life on Earth – with Sean B Carroll



The Royal Institution

Evolutionary biologist Sean B Carroll reveals how a few simple rules govern all life on earth, from the cells in our bodies to populations of animals on the Serengeti.
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Watch the Q&A that followed this talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-Oh8_wj8q0

Sean’s book “The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works and Why It Matters” is available to purchase now – https://geni.us/879NZB

From revealing how inheritance works and developing evolutionary biology to manipulating viruses and bacteria to create products humans need, 20th century biology has been a revolution.

In telling the stories of some of the greatest discoveries of 20th century biology, Sean B. Carroll reveals how a few simple rules govern all life on earth, from the cells in our bodies to populations of animals on the Serengeti. A talk to show you why modern biology holds the key to remedying our greatest medical and ecological challenges.

Sean B. Carroll is an internationally-recognized evolutionary biologist whose research has centered on the genes that control animal body patterns and play major roles in the evolution of animal diversity. He’s also an award-winning author, educator, and executive producer as well as the Allan Wilson Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Wisconsin.

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48 thoughts on “The Rules that Govern Life on Earth – with Sean B Carroll
  1. Wow! Mozambique reaped what it sowed given recent eco-disaster there. Man really is the worst predator on earth so no wonder we have so much damage to wildlife – flora and fauna both.

  2. It’s not good to fool with Mother Nature. Stain drugs interfere with the body’s production of cloresterol and cause other side effects in the process.

  3. Hmmm… Humans have no predators, we have controlled most diseases, we won't limit our own reproduction it seems the final answer is starvation.  Serengeti rules!

  4. We are living in a donald trump world where we accept
    mediocrity over quality, do not accept truth if it interferes with our wealth, pleasures
    or entertainment. We consume and discard as if this was the norm. We accept the
    commercial chemically laden garbage food because our government says it is
    safe, when in fact it is causing serious degenerative diseases…………….Our world
    is in climate crisis and yet no one is willing to make personal sacrifices to
    lessen their foot print. We are according to many environmental scientists on
    the road to total extinction in less than 100 years if we continue on our
    present path. If we absolutely stopped all pollution today it would take at
    least 20 years to reach its peak effects. This does not scare people at all,
    why are people so complacent? ……………….What solutions can you offer? I will start
    this by stating that the governments in the world put an immediate moratorium on
    all fossil fuel recreational motors, boats, yachts, snow mobiles, atv’s, motor
    bikes, air planes etc. There should be a time limit on gas powered landscaping tools,
    these should be electric, limit the amount of grass that is cut, ban all
    agricultural chemicals. All new roofs and pavement should be white or off white
    to reflect the sunlight. There should be a limit on the amount of meat animals
    on the earth. We over consume meat by at least 90%. Travel for pleasure should
    be limited. Limit the fossil fuel industry to lessen the carbon pollution. Etc.
    etc. Etc…………. Now you can understand why most people will not comply and you
    can kiss this good earth good bye. ……..THUS IN HIS CONSIDERED VIEW, WHAT DOES
    NOT SUIT CANNOT BE TRUE or how to win friends and influence people.

  5. Someone please help me understand.
    If buffalo and wildebeest are so big that they are regulated by food rather than predation, then how is it that elk — significantly larger than wildebeest — are regulated by predation rather than food.

    Just trying to understand.

  6. They took out the Portuguese species of humans (keystone) then the various other species of humans killed 1,000,000 of their human friends… very informative indeed.

    Keystone Species.
    Cascade Effect.
    Peanut Butter.
    Jelly.

    All things in variable balance.

  7. 8:15 With all due respect to the American Professor, WE give diabetics insulin, YOU sell it to them.
    It's an important distinction and I don't like to see it overlooked.
    (By 'we' I mean every other developed country on Earth.)

  8. So Sean , vary inspiring talk to encourage an understanding of the relationships that keystone species have to the environment. I wonder what does the serengiti rules say about humanity. Does this natural rule imply that the human population should self regulate in the absence of predation and increased medical and scientific advances to prolong  human life. It would also suggest that humans will eventually destroy our environment if populations increase beyond the available food and shelter available….

  9. Maybe the increase in vegetation is at least in part due to higher CO2 now in the atmosphere as the years go by. While everyone is worried about increases in CO2 levels, all the plant life and forests benefits from it and can't do without a certain amount.

  10. The wildlife wasn't vaccinated so, they probably built a natural immunity to the virus. Which could also be cellular to it's off spring.  You would need to know the population growth of the wildlife years before the cows moved in to know if the virus was the cause.  Lions aren't stupid. Of course they're going to take on the smaller animals. Predators usually go after the slower, weak, and/or unhealthy.  Old farmers added good bugs that ate the bad bugs but not the plant.  Man is just really good at screwing up the natural process by unnecessary injection. Quake an Aspens grow their own forests through their root system. All trees (like people) will attract their own diseases and aphids if they are over populated.  A combination of different species of trees can prevent this. Just like the good bug bad bug with the rice.  In the 80's  Dec 12, 1981 · MUD LAKE, Idaho  400 IDAHO FARMERS CLUB JACKRABBITS TO DEATH TO RESCUE CROPS  https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/12/12/Farmers-spread-out-in-a-two-mile-line-and-carrying/7767376981200/  The reason Idaho became over run with rabbits was because  farmers had also shot the coyotes. This has been going on since the 1870's

  11. In a forest say hunters harvest the wildlife. The animals will come back . You build a golf course course, They never come back. Hunters get the bad rap and the golfers feel good about the fact they don't kill animals. What group are the most destructive of the two?

  12. nothing to with this talk in general but one hears this keystone metaphor so often in so many contexts and it never makes any kind of sense.
    he talks about "keystone" species that are more important for certain ecosystems than others. if you want to express that some parts of a system are more important than others, the keystone in a roman arch metaphor is pretty much the opposite of what you want to say. in a roman arch EVERY stone is a keystone and therefor of equal importance. you could equally say none of them are keystones. it doesn´t matter which one you remove. without the scaffolding the arch will collapse if ANY stone is removed.
    the important thing about a roman arch is the scaffolding. you need have ALL stones eqally in place before removing the scaffold.

  13. If you look at life objectively, through the lenses of compassion and honesty, any sane rational being, absent an evil nature will inevitably conclude that life is cruel and evil. Earth life is tame comparatively the life elsewhere. Miserable, taunted, starving consciousnesses meandering the murky depths of time. Extinction and global eradication of life is welcome. To live is not a blessing or an adventure, it's to be a surrogate, a pawn for some sick evil creator that purposefully creates life only to toy with it. Evil existence.

  14. Every ecosystem has a key species but the problem is that we humans have a duplicate key to break into the delicate ecosystem and destroy it

  15. Re: Yellowstone… the aspen tree, like the poplar, is essentially a legume. It is a secondary growth species that fixes nitrogen in the soil, because of a symbiotic bacteria in the root system. So, over time, if aspen growth is curtailed, overall soil fertility drops, which has a long term effect on the rest of the ecosystem. We need to be worried about the use of herbicide to suppress aspen and poplar trees after clearcut logging. Turning these areas into new plantations of "commercially valuable" species could backfire on the whole ecosystem. Imagine what this does to the mountain caribou, for example.

  16. neo-Darwinism runs on lucky accidents.
    Some argue that spontaneous genetic mutations conferring adaptive advantage have yet to be observed. That is disputable, but even the most ardent neo-Darwinist concedes that beneficially adaptive mutations are very, very rare and the vast majority of such mutations do not help in any way.
    So proof of evolution by natural selection of spontaneous mutations ought to be a profusion of wholly aberrant fossils. But those necessary, crazy fossils the theory demands are not there.
    This is the last pattern to result from a mechanism where the only supervision comes after the accidents. Thus neo-Darwinism falls at the first hurdle..
    It is falsified.
    (Not that it matters all that much; it´s just a harmless creation myth!)

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