Topic: evolutionary theory

How can bacterial and viral pathogens rapidly evolve to become more or less harmful? Kayla King examines changes in virulence across the tree of life using evolutionary theory, genome sequencing and laboratory selection experiments. The lecture considers changes occurring within weeks in response to host immunity and warming temperatures, their consequences for pathogen genomes and host health, and what they imply for predicting virulence in a changing world. It connects the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of infection with the growing risk of zoonotic spillover into humans and protected

Eric Beinhocker and Nick Hanauer present Market Humanism as a proposed framework for an economy centred on human flourishing. They interpret the period since the financial crisis as a gap between economic paradigms, with consequences for democracy, climate action and responses to artificial intelligence. Drawing on economics, philosophy, behavioural and social sciences, complex systems, evolutionary theory and computer science, they outline the proposed framework and its implications for policy and business. The discussion considers how it could alter politics and public narratives, and the p