Lucy 50 Monthly Lecture Series—Thomas Morgan PhD

Join ASU Institute of Human Origins researchers in 2024 for a year-long “master class” in human origins research as they illuminate the many facets of how we “became human” and what that means for the future of humans on the planet.

Tom Morgan
Experimenting with Human Evolution

When we talk about human evolution, we are referring to events that took place millions of years ago. This vast expanse of time creates a lot of uncertainty, and while the archaeological record can tell us a great deal, wouldn't it be great if we could wind back the clock and watch our evolutionary history play out in front of our eyes? While time-travel might not be possible, biologists studying other, faster reproducing, species have been able to observe evolution directly in the lab. Could we do the same with humans? IHO Research Scientist Thomas Morgan will show that we can, by crowdsourcing participants and inserting them into online evolutionary simulations. This lets us experimentally study human genetic and cultural evolution at a scale that was previously impossible and offers new insights into the evolutionary causes and consequences of human behavior and cognition.