Aristotle and understanding the development of creatures

Posted on Monday 1 March 2010

In a lecture at the University of York, Professor Armand Leroi will argue that Aristotle, unlike Darwin, was deeply interested in the mechanisms that shape 'life histories' – the flows of information and materials that control the lives of animals.

His lecture, "Aristotle and the Worm", will look at what has been discovered about these mechanisms in recent years through the study of model organisms such as the fly and the worm C. elegans and the questions still to be answered.

Professor Leroi is professor of evolutionary developmental biology at Imperial College London.

He has presented several television documentaries including the recent Aristotle’s Lagoon on BBC4 and the Channel 4 series Human Mutants based on his award-winning book Mutants: On the Form, Variety and Errors of the Human Body.

This lecture, on Wednesday 3 March, is the third in this term's York Biology Lecture series which is supported by the University of York Distinguished Visitors Fund and the Department of Biology.

It will start at 12.15pm in room P/X001 in the Department of Physics. Admission to the lecture is free and open to all.