Ultraviolet garden - Richard Dawkins 1991 Christmas Lectures 4/5

In this lecture, Richard Dawkins argues against an anthropocentric view of nature and instead presents a rational case for its evolutionary development.

Watch all the lectures in this series here:    • Richard Dawkins 1991 CHRISTMAS LECTUR...  
Watch our newest Christmas lectures here:    • Royal Institution Christmas Lectures  

This lecture was filmed at the Ri on 4 December 1991.

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‘What seems pointless to us is not the point’ – nature exists because it does, not for the benefit of human enjoyment. Enter the ultraviolet garden; a strange world that exists beyond our eyes. A garden in which flowering plants present themselves not for our satisfaction but for the purpose of reproduction and where a virus exists only because it gets copied over and over again.

In this lecture, Richard Dawkins argues against an anthropocentric view of nature and instead presents a rational case for its evolutionary development. He examines the ultraviolet patterns of flowering plants which are undetectable to the human eye but clearly visible to the honeybee and asks why these exist if the flower was just for us?

We now know that in the same way an exotic bird uses its coloured feathers to attract a mate; the flowering plant uses these hidden patterns to attract pollinating birds and insects. This example is just one of many complex evolutionary relationships that exist in nature.

Using examples throughout the lecture, Dawkins argues that nature exists in the absence of any defined ‘purpose’ but instead as a result of many blind stages of evolutionary development.

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About the 1991 CHRISTMAS LECTURES
The world-famous evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins presents the CHRISTMAS LECTURES on "our own growing knowledge of how life grows up in the universe."

Just as children grow up to be adults, so too does life gradually evolve on a planet over thousands of generations, to move from “nonliving simplicity” to become “living complexity”.

Combining beautiful writing with a range of illuminating demonstrations, the series featured a variety of wildlife, a virtual reality Lecture Theatre, and special guests – including the late Douglas Adams reading an excerpt from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Find out more about the Ri CHRISTMAS LECTURES here: https://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures

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We have uploaded Richard Dawkins’ 1991 CHRISTMAS LECTURES to YouTube as part of our commitment to make all past series of the CHRISTMAS LECTURES available to everyone worldwide.

But we also want to make it clear that we consider Richard Dawkins’ more recent opinions about members of marginalised communities to be unacceptable. Although we respect everyone's right to form opinions in scientific debate, or in their own lives, if those opinions are built upon discrimination or hostility, we reserve the right not to validate them.

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