Is There a Mystery in the History of Mathematics?

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There are many more examples of kinds of mathe tical structures that seem so abstract, and we would not have bumped into them in the jungles. And yet we come across them in our mathematical explorations and find that they describe physical reality, really well. Yeandsays thers are sey mysteries there, and also about whether math is real or not. That, again, these are good questions. I wish i had more strong opinions about themwy, i don't think i have strong opinions. It's more i've just, one wants to sort of challenge things, if you like, and just say, we'll hang on a moment. This is an air of received

Evolution by natural selection is one of the rare scientific theories that resonates within the wider culture as much as it does within science. But as much as people know about evolution, we also find the growth of corresponding myths. Simon Conway Morris is a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist who’s new book is From Extraterrestrials to Animal Minds: Six Myths of Evolution. He is known as a defender of evolutionary convergence and adaptationism — even when there is a mass extinction, he argues, the resulting shake-up simply accelerates the developments evolution would have made anyway. We talk about this, and also about the possible role of God in an evolutionary worldview.

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Simon Conway Morris received his Ph.D. in geology from the University of Cambridge. He is currently an emeritus professor of evolutionary paleobiology in the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge. Among his awards are the Walcott Medal of the National Academy of Sciences and the Lyell Medal of the Geological Society of London.

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