UCL RESEARCH DEPARTMENT OF GENETICS, EVOLUTION AND ENVIRONMENT

Dr Nick Lane has written a compelling account of his time so far as the inaugural UCL Provost’s Venture Research Fellow, and encourages UCL researchers to consider the Fellowship as “a wonderful opportunity to focus on the driving questions that you always wanted to pursue”. It allows truly exceptional thinkers the opportunity to transcend conventional research constraints and to pursue ideas that have transformational potential yet, in an era of risk-averse and bureaucratic peer-review, are unlikely to be funded by the national Research Councils. The Provost indicated in his recent newsletter that he is willing to make a further appointment should a strong candidate emerge. The application process is deliberately informal: further details here .

Life: is it inevitable or just a fluke?

If life arises wherever conditions are right, why haven't we heard from aliens, asks Dr Nick Lane?

Read: New Scientist

7 June 2012

For 45,000 years, human culture has been playing a numbers game. If there hadn’t been lots of us, we might not have been at all, says Professor Mark Thomas (UCL Genetics, Evolution and Environment).


Eureka pdf (More the merrier...)

Professor Mark Thomas (UCL Genetics, Evolution & Environment) comments on the discovery that North Africans may have been making yoghurt 7,000 years ago, suggesting a way that the region’s inhabitants may have evolved to tolerate milk as adults.

At The Times' Cheltenham Literature Festival, GEE’s Prof Mark Thomas joined Robert Winston and others to explore how we evolved and how these adaptations helped us survive. With Marcus Brigstocke, Mark gave an intriguing conversation about human evolution, genetics and ancient DNA, and whether it was ever possible for Adam to meet Eve.