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It’s a simple question, but to answer it properly we need to look back, way back. Back through the fascinating history of our species, back through the entire evolutionary history of life on earth, back to the formation of our planet and the solar system and back still to the dawn of time itself. So join us as we look at the complicated answers to the simple question ‘How did I get here?’
The Origin of the Earth
Mark Turner
(Doctoral researcher, SAGES)
Where did the Earth come from? It wasn’t always there. It came into being along with the rest of the Solar System two-thirds of the way through the life of the universe so far. What was it made of, and how? Why are there such different bodies in the Solar System? What have meteorites got to do with it? How do we know what happened? Prepare for a story of extreme violence long ago in a galaxy not far away.
Evolution
Dr Louise Johnson
(Associate Professor of Evolutionary Genetics)
Living things differ wildly from one another, but all are astonishingly well suited to their lifestyles, and inside, they all work the same way. Why? One deceptively simple idea explains all of these – it’s called evolution by natural selection, and we can watch it at work in the lab. We’ll explore this idea and go on a whistle-stop tour of evolutionary history.
Why are we the way we are? A 7 million year perspective
Dr Robert Hosfield
(Associate Professor in Palaeolithic Archaeology)
Big brains, long lives, bipedal locomotion, and habitual tool-makers and language users: why are humans the way we are? In this talk I will briefly explore some of the evidence for, and reasons behind, our shared physical and cognitive changes over the last 7 million years since the split with our great ape cousins: environmental change, the pressures of social living, shifting diets, and humanity’s ‘journey’ from Africa to the length and breadth of the globe.
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