Yesterday I watched last Mondays edition of University Challenge. There were a set of three questions about evolution, which the University of Glasgow team, the eventual convincing winners, got the chance to confer on as a result of their captains smart interruption on a starter question about the single word linking an early twentieth century theory of Alfred Wegener, the army of the American ......(The answer of course being continental, as I shouted out just as he buzzed). These were the questions: From the Greek for other placewhat is the name of the sort of speciation that occurs when one species diverges into two as a result of separation by some geographical barrier? What is the two word name of the hypothesis popularised by Gould and Eldridge that species once established tend to remain essentially unchanged for a long period of time? What five letter term denotes a group of all the organisms descended from a single ancestor, together with that ancestor? It may be described as a single branch on the tree of life. Guess how many answers this team, which impressed me with its knowledge of history, pop music from the seventies onwards, Russian authors and much else, got right. Yup. None of them. What was particularly disappointing was that one of the four had told us in the introductory section that she was studying genetics! OK, its possible that the poor woman was simply overcome with nerves and her mind went blank. It was early on in a first round match so they were hardly seasoned tv competitors. OTOH, they were the pick of several thousand potential student quizzers, and did well enough collectively over 25 minutes to amass 190 marks, with questions being worth five marks each or 10 for starters, and would doubtless have got more right if the University of Bath hadnt beaten them to the draw on quite a few starters and amassed 120 points themselves. Only on evolution did they seem totally at a loss. I couldnt remember the term allopatric speciation myself, I have to admit. But then Im not a scientist. In case anyone else here is similarly vague about questions 2 and 3, the answers, as I bellowed at the unresponsive tv screen, are punctuated equilibrium and clade. If the brightest and best of our university educated young know so little about evolutionary theory, it bodes badly for the rest of the population. But hey - at least they can recognise from which album the other tracks on Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band originate. :p
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 11:41:46 +0000
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