Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

195 | Richard Dawkins on Flight and Other Evolutionary Achievements

May 2, 2022

Richard Dawkins, an esteemed evolutionary biologist and author, dives into the fascinating evolution of flight. He discusses various adaptations in species, from gliding to jumping, and the evolutionary significance of these traits. With insights from his new book, he compares the origins of flight in birds and explores the interplay of practice and enjoyment in bird behavior. Dawkins also examines the complexities of genetic variation and the extended phenotype, illustrating how evolution shapes not just bodies, but behaviors and environments.

01:18:43

Episode guests

Richard Dawkins

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

The Number of Different Genes

01:27

Evolutionarily Important Mutations

01:50

Is There a Co Evolution Between Genes and Meams?

01:45

Intro

5min

The Evolutionary Journey of Flight

13min

The Evolutionary Significance of Flight

2min

The Flight of Fancy: Bird Behavior and Evolution

15min

Exploring Complexity in Evolution and Genetic Variation

4min

Navigating Evolutionary Pathways

21min

Exploring the Extended Phenotype

21min

Evolution has equipped species with a variety of ways to travel through the air — flapping, gliding, floating, not to mention jumping really high. But it hasn’t invented jet engines. What are the different ways that heavier-than-air objects might be made to fly, and why does natural selection produce some of them but not others? Richard Dawkins has a new book on the subject, Flights of Fancy: Defying Gravity by Design and Evolution. We take the opportunity to talk about other central issues in evolution: levels of selection, the extended phenotype, the role of adaptation, and how genes relate to organisms.

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Richard Dawkins received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Oxford. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, where he was previously the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science. He is an internationally best-selling author, whose books include The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, and The God Delusion. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature.

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