Thomas E. Kulman, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Monday, May 7, 2018 - 4:00pm to 5:00pm
PAA A-102
Evolution is one of the most important and successful theories in science, allowing us to understand the diversity of life and the development of species and populations over a wide range of size and time scales. Evolution occurs as a result of the differential success of organisms in their environment due to variation in their external characteristics; the variation of external characteristics is, in turn, a result of mutation and plasticity of the information encoded within each organism’s genome. Consequently, to theoretically model and describe evolution, it is fundamentally important to understand the rates, statistics, and effects of mutations. In this talk, I will describe our current understanding of mutations and the molecular basis of evolution, and how this understanding fits within the current state of biology and physics. I will additionally describe the development of experimental techniques by my lab to allow the direct observation, quantification, and modeling of mutations and evolution in real time and in live cells.
Watch a video of the talk here.