[CANCELLED] CEFISES Seminar: Jan Baedke, “Conceptual challenges for the return of the organism in developmental evolution”

[Last-minute cancellation. The seminar will be postponed to a later date]

Series: MolDevBio

Speaker: Jan Baedke (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)

Title: “Conceptual challenges for the return of the organism in developmental evolution”

Abstract

Organisms are central for biology. However, conceptualizing the unit of the organism is anything but easy. This talk discusses long-standing challenges to base biological reasoning and practice on the concept of organism. Currently, after many decades dominated by the paradigm of the gene, the organism is making a comeback in the bio- and biomedical sciences. It is again recognized as a causally efficacious, autonomous, and active unit that transcends the properties of genes and affects its own development and evolution – especially in fields like epigenetics, niche construction theory, and evolutionary developmental biology (Evo-Devo). This talk focuses on two conceptual challenges of today’s ‘return of the organism’, related to how organisms’ internal organization and reciprocal relations with their environment should be conceptualized to inform new developmental and evolutionary research.