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Also you likely know the rumors about the nonprofits right now. They are absolutely true. Like other organizations they are under strain to help consider a gif gift at this time they becoming a membebybecomingf with the website or by making a donation. One final Economic Data points before they start, i promise, the other businesses are feeling the squeeze as well and if youre interested iyouare interr understanding and i certainly hope you are, i and along the wy supporting entrepreneurs like the wonderful part is at third place books and used the builtin on the page or the url in the comment thread rather than say turning to the local retail behemoth used to specialize the book. Paleontologist and evolutionaryy biologist and Popular Science writer at the lusty distinguished Service Professor at the university of chicago and associate dean of strategy at the university of biological science division. Known for Landmark Research on the origin of the features from fieldwork. He is discovered some of the brilliant and one of his significant discoveries, will you help me out with this a fossil between fish and land animals. Beyond the research itself he is sharing through a variety of means of an active presence on facebook and twitter and he takes it further by sharing his discoveries, knowledge and passion and terrific books including the bestselling inner fish into the history of the human body from the 2008 and 2013 the universe within the deep history of the human body for 2013. At least one of those bring some Assembly Required from ancient fossils to dna is the occasion of tonights virtual return. Please join me in welcoming ne neil. Its a delight to be here to talk about some Assembly Required. I hope this finds you and your loved ones happy and well and thriving and i look forward to the next 30 to 40 minutes. Ive been a paleontologist and biologist working for over three decades. How did mammals arrived, how did the frogs develop their chums and so on. In my First Expedition i got to thinking this could be great. And they left a pile of papers showing how the genes evolve. I like okay, ive got to learn this molecular biology stuff. I either have to change or im going to go extinct. So what i did is i became a molecular biologist. So my laboratory from chicago where i am right now is both finding fossils, expeditions around the world as they were also molecular biology, looking at the beginning to use with this approach is to ask the question how do you create transitions happen. These are the Great Questions that capture the imaginations in the public for over a century. That is what some assembly is required is about. As i was finishing the book, i was reading a biography. Im going to share my screen. I was reading a biography of Lillian Hellman who had a hard living existence as you can see here a fabulous playwright she drink, smoke, have amazing tales, she was put in front of the house on the American Activities Committee in the 50s, she was blacklisted from hollywood, broadway as well and in thinking about her life years later during her autobiography she had a quote that captured the spirit of the book. Nothing of course begins when you think of this. When you look at the history of anatomical features, structures, even dna itself nothing begins when you think it does. If you think that longs evil they learned to walk on land, if you think that there is a rose he would be in very good company. You would also be wrong. That is the story in a nutshell. Its the changes that we associate with him so much is about repurposing. And i the story has new meanings we think about dna into thinking our studies. We think of the molecule. What we have is a molecule as is famously described. You have a 6foot strand of dna rolled up in it so on each cell and inside the nucleus of just how. Think about that for a second, we have 4 trillion in our own body. Each of them have a long strand of dna rolled up. If you were typical of the dna, lay it down from end to end from all 4 trillion or so, it would have run from here almost two pluto. And we live in the era of these genomes technologies it took several decades to get the sequence. We cannot get a copy of that sequence in an afternoon for less than a thousand dollars plus. We now have genomes for the creatures from humans to to fly us to thousands of specie speciy could be genomes in an afternoon. With all of the Genetic Information and computational tools to analyze it, we now see it as a highly active model in spite of the nucleus of each cell. But as each become activated in different ways it is marvelously complex and the origins are amazingly wondrous and i will start with one example and then we will back off and look at other aspects. One exampl example about the hin mysteries of our dna commute begins with science jason shepard, doctor shepherd is a professor of neurobiology at the university of utah and interested in those that control the formation and he uses mice as a model to study them because we have similar ones. Theres one called arc. They can solve that they dont r the solution that next day. There are cognitive differences as well for understanding the function particularly. So jason was studying arc and biochemists were studying biology and he was studying the protein that makes. Keep put it under a microscope and what he noticed the spirit was pointed to this as a super high magnification. He was looking at these saying they are identical to Something Else id seen before. You remember his training at biologist and he pulled off his textbook. They look very similar to those of arc but this isnt a memory she these are formed by hiv, the virus that causes aids. He decided im going to get a opinion. He invited them over and asked them to look at the slide and didnt tell them what was on the slide. That set off a Chain Reaction where they used the resources to see what is going on and they looked at the sequences and it turned out this memory gene had the signature of the kind of hiv and when they looked comparatively they came up with the hypothesis that it was originally a virus that invaded the genome, entered the genome and then it was repurposed instead of injecting and causing distress it was repurposed to function. What they do is interesting. In hiv, they actually protect the genetic material as it travels from cells is ho cell to its work. It protects the genetic materi material. Some of those are. If you look at the genome, 8 of the genome is derived from ancient viruses, 80 of the material is a derivative. Only 2 of it or our own, 2 so we have four times more genetic material so its really remarkable and serves many other functions as well so this goes to show its truly remarkable and surprising because of new technology allowing us to see evolution in whole new ways and some of the most important new ways we can look at the evolution of this is one of the greatest that we have seen within the last 30 years, so they come together and now that a single so will be derived as it divides over and over again. From two to four to eight to 16 and on and on its going to end up as a four chilean like you and i and everybody in the audience today differentiated. We call this process of going from single so, we called the bodybuilding. Those that interact to control the number and the differentiation and where they are and so forth is remarkable. And as we begin to understand the process and the different species, we can begin to understand the evolution in a healthy way because the change in the process of how you build explains evolution when i talked about this historically people have been interested in understanding the transition and evolution for well over a century and one of the apocryphal moments he had one of the greatest jobs at the time. This is a portion of what was drawn. He was lucky as well. The museum of Natural History had a great job at the time because people were coming back from different parts of the globe with creatures that they found and discovered and he got to study them for the first time to understand their basic biology. And he received a package from people working in mexico. They were working in mexico and found the salamanders about 4 inches long so they are fully functioning mature adults that they captured the imagination of the interest to collectors for a couple of reasons. Here is a creature that seems to be mature. They thought maybe he can understand the transition by understanding these creatures. The Indigenous Peoples of mexico found it was so much so they knew quite a bit about their biology. So when he let us go to the key came back and noticed that six months later these are the original diagrams they appear out of nowhere they dont have external gills, they are a different shape. Its like an entire different salamander. It like somebody put chimpanzees in the cage one year seeking to annex to find gorillas and chimpanzees. This got his attention in a big way and he said its a whole new kind that dont appear out of thin air so he decided to study how they go from egg to adult. If a tad external gills and lived in water like little tadpoles and they swim around and get bigger and bigger but then there comes a point when there are two possible states and he noticed the salamanders that are debated fully aquatic ones they get bigger and bigger with all of those aquatic features but theres another way they can develop as they can undergo metamorphosis. They lose the gills and change the shape so heres one Developmental Program that depending on the environment could have two different state. Two different kind of salamanders can come about from the same program. What is important here to realize is the simple shift of development to bring changes across the entire body. Think about that. There is a whole tradition of people studying the evolution in this way to see how small the changes in development can bring about big changes. Now we can relate this to ourselves. These creatures here are human beings, we believe they are and as human beings, we share a number of characteristics that its we have backbones ands schools. We have a spinal cord, arches and slips the form in the development of for a long time people have asked the question what are the closest invertebrate relative to vertebrates. The clams, worms, you name it. People have come to the conclusion of the world supported hypothesis that the closest invertebrate relatives are these. Compare those on the left to the right and you are not going to see a whole lot of similarities. A pat on the right is it pumps water through the site and and theres no apparent spinal cord and some get even weirder. What do you do . Youve got to study the development and how they go from egg to adult. They want to see these things come of this is the larvae. Patches from the egg into has a head and a tail and it has gills just like the rest. And it has another structure which is also part of our history. The closest if you look at the history of these things you will see they hatch, began as a tadpole and they had the nerve core and they swim around and eventually attached to rocks and as they attach, they lose everything they share with us, but tail, the gills until it becomes this. They are basically our ancestors basically were a tadpole that kept the stage and that is what they came so we are similar together. So if you make the stage and make that bigger. An enormous amount of changes from looking at the development. We have tools to look at this it is now we can manipulate the dna which im sure you may have read about you begin to see how the dna controls the development and what it does and how it can evolve. One of the Great Stories is from a creature called an anthropologist. A colleague here have studied them and began to study them for a lot of reason. They are tiny creatures can live on this and that you can see them here. The head is on the left end of the tail is on the right. See the front there they are sort of like lobster claws then behind them at face to the back. In that part of the body it is a backward facing leg. But then you have forward facing legs and thats a part of the body so that genetic address with you bx alone and then shown in that pattern forward facing and then a bba and then the rear end. So what if i use the genome and editing technique . Can i can troll what legs form on the part of the body . The answer is yes. He made an embryo that doesnt have legs just you bx in one area so basically he got rid of that hatch portion at the bottom now he has one region just you bx activity and then has a backward facing leg now controlling the genetic address just to get rid of a gene. You can do it almost out will every single one is just a remarkable experience. But the story gets deeper because it turns out flies have these also colorcoded im not labeling them and with these colorcoded areas in the genetic address a particular area or a mandible what happens. So it is active in the formation of her own body plan and in a lot of different organs but in one particular place as the genetic address for the vertebrae. The thoracic so what if we just do thes experiments . What happens can you change the genetic address and that the vertebrae that develops the different parts of the body . Look at this and now just zoom in at the rear end. Thats a we are honing in on. If you look at the normal development there is a genetic address for each kind. Look at the embryo in the middle. These are versions is the only has the one activity and then in a yellow and then 11 activity. So it turns out that genetic address determines which vertebra forms where so what if we do the same experiment that he only have the offset address what kind . And thats exactly what happened. The nearly and up with ten then boom now you have lumbar vertebrae and sacral vertebraes you can change the address of the different parts of the body. So where do they begin . They are repurpose genes like enter pods. So there is a commonality to the toolkit. Following that turning to my own research looking at the transition in the land moving in a mall. If you look at this there are all kinds of things that have to change for animals to motor on land the creature with a different shaped hand this has since thats the tip of the iceberg. To be at the same time as all of these other structures. If you made a list of all the features the list would be long. They all have to arrive at the same time. A very long history. And a great character with paleontology there were two passions. Most of his work in 1910 and 1920, a curator of reptilia reptilian, armored fish, ancient armored fish. But he also was a curator of medieval armor and help both institutions literally across the park from one another. And he used to walk around new york city in samurai armor and is quite the character. But he discovered one important thing lungs are there primitive condition and fish. It was remarkable. He is fascinated by the fish by the worlds cutest fish the australian monkfish. Look at that. It is gorgeous. They live a long time one in chicagoland 84 years. That lungfish have lungs and gills. They use the gills with the oxygen content is high but when it drops, the less they come to the surface in angola they are and force it into their mouth and push into their lungs. It turns out their lungs theres three different versions one in south america and australia and one in africa. This is the african one. Look at the lungs you can see them on top along structure it lies adjacent to the got look at the middle where the arrow goes to look at the bottom right. Looks like alveoli. Look at the biological structure its virtually identical to our own if you look at the genes of the development of air sacs they are similar so there is a deep tie. And the story is rich look at the evolutionary tree of life. The closest living relative and the other fish as well. If you look at the presence of lungs where are they . Lungs are primitive. Before intervals took their first step on land. You have a situation where lungs were functioning to help creatures live in at risk water environments where the oxygen content they already have lungs so think of this transition with the fish living in the aquatic ecosystem my team and i spent six years looking for a fish what we found after six years worth of work in the arctic and then the wedding you can see it but then to have a flat head on top and then the head is separated and can move independently and then with the senate has the bones even parts of a wrist. It is remarkable. What does this mean . That this living in Aquatic Ecosystems 375 million the on million years ago already had lungs and arms and wrists and next and ahead. That when the time came to walk on me and they were repurpose thing what already existed all the features associated with the land for those fish in the Aquatic Ecosystems. This could be every other transition in the history of life. First birds have all kinds of specializations wishbones, wings, feathers, high metabolism and the list goes on. Guess what you can find each of those features and a dinosaur. Wishbones and the list goes on they were fine but using them to capture food on land originally not server function our flight it was originally for portrait displays and things like that so just like other structures all in a major step of evolution to repurpose what word exist it begins earlier and in that context you find a rise to one thing so much is not those infrastructures per se but all the infrastructures. Thank you very much im happy to take your questions i will answer them as we go. What about Group Selection or multilevel selection . Group selection is ed debate going on for years particularly about altruistic traits. If there is a trait that appears to hurt the individual the good for the group how is that . There are two notions perhaps the groups that have individuals that sacrifice themselves but the other is maybe these traits have other effects on other individuals they dont appear to be altruistic but it helps me because i share genes with the individuals i am helping or saving. It is a hot debate because the idea is its actually a very slow process individual is very efficient. So in most cases people favor the explanation its not Group Selection thats important here but more individual. But that being said there are multilevel selection coming into play to have traits that can help individuals so when you think of traits like reproduction those are ones i would personally favor many people would disagree with that but certain traits i would predict that it increases the diversity and habitat so thats the area i would favor Group Selection. The second question on the topic of genetic addresses do you believe these mandate spaces . It could shut it . Probably not. But you could manipulate to be reproductively isolated. I dont know why we do that. Maybe for agriculture. And for particular purposes to clean the environment, detoxify. And agriculture purposes. And we are doing that quite a bit to make this much more efficient. Are there any truth to the rumors any other factor affects us . Honestly i dont know it is a fastmoving field im not an expert in it i dont know if i can offer an opinion because it is outside my zone but by the way talk about covert virus for a second science that normally happens over months and years we are watching it happen in weeks and weeks you can follow it on the news and on twitter and now we have a different process than we did before now people compose papers for peer reviews another and scientist hands before they are peerreviewed so now you see the covid19 the disease you see them coming up very rapidly and thats one of the reasons people are doing their best with limited data how many estates are susceptible how long can they hang on . And these questions are very complicated. You see a diversity of viewpoints. The important thing is looking at the results and the virus of covid19, keep in mind you are looking at science happening in realtime at a hypothesis what we need is better evidence were getting it pretty quickly but skeptical about anything that you see right now because we leave then only in this two and a half months and its amazing what we know. The sequence for the virus came out early january some time and so much as happened since then its an interesting time for science because its happening in realtime. But thats a short way to say i dont think anybody else. Come back and see what the experiment shows. Also briefly would love to hear about the emotional process so it seemed like a discovery. Have all kinds a plus she sent to me. [laughter] yes i saw the mine craft one but if the dna sequence at that see scores are the closest vertebrae . Yes that group of creatures are the closest vertebrae which are recorded in which is pretty cool but then you look at the embryo in the larva. That talks ten and 11 . Are these dividing cells . Some are divided into two . What controls the activity . It is very interesting. You have been networks interacting with one another so take these factors and networks with other genes turned on and off in response than those controls the genes so yes they control their activity and then the upstream approach there is a relationship between the proteins and the genes that are active and their position in space it all comes together to control gene expression and with them opening and closing controlling activity and were really just learning how to understand it. Why are octopuses so intelligent . They have very big brains there is a team to understand consciousness in the octopus you know the famous putting sharks in the tank and they would disappear and it turns out there was an octopus eating the shark every week. [laughter] i dont know why they are so intelligent the brain to body size is huge how its wired, i dont know in a study that reactively. And the ability to have one question what would that be . I would like to know how life came about and we have experiments i would love to know how that happened i can imagine replicating the molecules but so your life with the membrane i would like to see the steps involved in that is not to begin when you think it does but what are the steps . Its something that would have to be created but isnt that continuity with the creatures . That is correct from primitive voter molecules look at the comparative record. Luckett is a camera i in different versions and also look at the genes weather flies or people there is a Similar Network as well. Look at the evolution of eyes at multiple levels and at the level of the oregon itself and how it is structured and traced that two different creatures or the level of proteins that controls reception themselves and how they perceive different colors and the genes that can pull all that stuff and each showed a continuity that can happen. How did bones evolve . Good question. We know they have multiple origins a different creatures. So some skeletons are Calcium Carbonate based like shells other are hydroxy on hydroxyapatite like our bones but talk about the first skeletal tissue is an open question if the first skeletal tissue repeats. When you look at the first bones they look a lot like teeth with the enamel on the outside but it turns out the first skeletons we see our armor and its fine on fairly common in the fossil record look at the arm on the outside of the body under a microscope so they would argue the first skeleton the later that developmental process we would see armor so thats called the outside in hypothesis they vacancy the genes also that would be fun. Smoke any evidence of original emergence of consciousness . Good question. Embedded in that question is also the notion that are there antecedents to consciousness we see another creatures . Is somebody who thinks of antecedents all the time i would say probably i can octopus and versions of consciousness we seen another creatures the more we look we see mental state different versions that we would say were quintessentially human but present in other creatures. About six years ago it showed clearly that rats in a certain regime show empathy for individuals in the population that were suffering it is special empathy just like rat empathy signs. But there is a number of studies read wonderful book it was a bestseller about how versions of her own mental states. The on are you a vegetarian . We just make two different dishes. But yes also be just pesca terrien. And then i go back and forth. How far back in time is the biological repurpose thing quick. I thank you can take it all the way back. With evolution what we have seen is it so there is a couple ways it can happen duplication, copying is one important way. But also recombining one plus one equals four and that happens a lot so the same is true with biology. So repurpose seeing and recombining, these are all the pieces of the evolution of life from the very beginning. We are done with questions. Thank you so much for being here with us this is a fascinating presentation thank you for everyone else here this evening you can find many more on the website we hope you will consider making a donation to town hall seattle your support allows us to find other things like this evening are interested in purchasing a copy of his book you can use the link to purchase their friends at third place books and finally thank you for being here tonight stay safe and have a great evening hello and welcome back to the National Book festival brought to you by the library of congress and the literary director. Today we focus on a fascinating new book called once upon a tim time. In 2013 the second in command of a four month Simulated Mars Mission for the nasa