Acclaimed science writer and biologist Matt Ridley kicked off a two-day Evolution of Brain, Mind and Culture conference yesterday with a speech on new research in the fields of evolution and genetics to understand mankind’s dominance on the earth.

His speech, titled “Darwin in Genes and Culture,” was the keynote speech of the conference, which was created by the Emory Center for Mind, Brain and Culture to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth in 1809.

“Genes were the one thing that Darwin didn’t get right,” Ridley said to a crowd of about 250 people sitting and standing along the walls of the reception hall of the Michael C. Carlos Museum.

Ridley went on to explain that Darwin’s blue eyes themselves disproved the notion of “blending inheritance” since two parents with brown eyes can give birth to a child with blue eyes.

Ridley cited the work of Hans Eiberg, a Danish geneticist who studied the origination of blue eyes. Eiberg pinpointed the beginning of blue eyes to the Baltic region around 6,000 years ago.

He determined that the development of agriculture there allowed for settlements to be possible further north than anywhere else in Europe. The sparse sunlight in the winter created a vitamin D deficiency in the people living there. Those with lighter skin were able to absorb more vitamin D, and were healthier.

Because the gene that governs pale skin also governs blue eyes, their pale skin coincidentally was paired with blue eyes.

“It’s gene culture coevolution,” Ridley said, explaining that blue eyes didn’t help them adapt to the environment, but other factors connected to blue eyes did. Recognizing when a trait is selected directly or by association is difficult, Ridley said: “We tend to look for a genetic switch that’s thrown.”

A 500,000-year-old hand axe and a 5-year-old computer mouse were the next examples that Ridley used. He explained that the first was made by one man while the other took millions of people to create, from the people who drill for the oil to make the plastic to the ones who brew the coffee for the designers.

“Human intelligence went from being individual to collective,” he said.
Humanity didn’t hit its stride until goods began to be traded. He dismissed tools, fire and language as the factor that made man what he is today, saying that Neanderthals had all these things as well, but died out while Homo sapiens thrived.

“[With trade], you can tap into comparative advantage,” he said.

Comparative advantage is a situation in which an individual who specializes in a certain task can offer a good or service more efficiently than others, and can trade the products of his specialty for things that he may not be as apt at making.

“This was invented by Africans in the last 300,000 years,” he said, “By 100,000 years ago, [Homo sapiens] were exchanging and specializing between groups.”

Ridley explained that man is the only species to exchange goods. He said that bees and ants do have division of labor but, unlike humans, they do not trade with other groups.

“They are confined within the family, [but] not even in England do we leave breeding to the queen,” Ridley said.

— Contact Jim Liepkalns.