Sono trascorsi due secoli dalla nascita di Charles R. Darwin e 150 anni dalla pubblicazione della prima edizione della sua opera fondamentale “Origin of the Species” nella quale, per la prima volta, veniva delineata la possibilità di una spiegazione intrinsecamente biologica della varietà dei viventi del nostro pianeta. L’idea di un'evoluzione biologica fece sobbalzare i contemporanei di Darwin, soprattutto perchè legava esplicitamente l’origine della specie umana a quella degli altri primati. Nonostante ciò, le evidenze sempre più convincenti e l’apporto della spiegazione genetica dell’origine della variabilità biologica consolidarono via via l’idea formulata da Darwin, tanto che, nel secondo dopoguerra, T. Dobzhansky, uno dei più autorevoli neo-darwinisti, si spingeva ad affermare che “l’evoluzione  rappresenta la base su cui si fonda e da cui oggi non può prescindere qualsiasi ricerca biologica”. Se era legittimo affermare ciò cinquant’ anni fa, lo è tanto di più oggi, quando lo studio della fologenesi è basato sul sequnzizmento del DNA di genomi di diversi organismi uni- e pluri-cellulari. Non solo ciò sta rapidamente chiarendo le relazioni tra specie e l’evoluzione di interi gruppi, ma anche comincia a spiegare, a livello di DNA, l’origine delle variazioni ed il loro ruolo nelle modificazioni delle forme e delle funzioni dei diversi organismi, da un lato rimuovendo antichi pregiudizi e dall’altro introducendo nuove chiavi interpretative.
Il simposio Darwin 200 si propone di fare il punto sullo stato attuale  delle conoscenze nei diversi argomenti di studio della Biologia contemporanea. Non casualmente ben quattro Premi Nobel hanno accettato di intervenire, testimoniando ad un tempo la rilevanza della teoria darwiniana nello sviluppo del pensiero scientifico e l’ormai inscindibile legame tra comprensione dei meccanismi dell’evoluzione e prospettive della ricerca biologica.

Giorgio Bernardi Chairman
Gian Antonio Danieli
Walter Erdelen
Alessandro Minelli
Engelbert Ruoss
Talal Younès

PROGRAM
Saturday, May 2nd

Session 1: Fundamental Aspects of Evolution

Chairpersons: ANGELO AZZI, DAVID STEWART

10.00 a.m.
CHRISTIAN DE DUVE A darwinian look into the future
10.30 a.m.
WERNER ARBER The impact of microbial genetics on the theory of molecular evolution

11.00 a.m. Coffee

11.30 a.m.
TOMOKO OHTA Drift and selection in evolution of complex systems
12.00 p.m.
GIORGIO BERNARDI The neoselectionist theory of genome evolution

12.30 p.m. General Discussion: Contribution of basic science to the understanding of evolutionary processes

Chairperson: LARS JERMIIN

1.00 p.m. Lunch

Session 2: Evolutionary Genomics

Chairpersons: ERWIN BECK, JEAN-MARC JALLON

2.30 p.m.
EDWARD TRIFONOV Towards the earliest steps of molecular evolution
3.00 p.m.
MARC VAN MONTAGU On the evolution of plant genomes
3.30 p.m.
GARY FELSENFELD Chromatin and the evolution of regulatory mechanisms

4.00 p.m. Coffee

4.30 p.m.
VITTORIO SGARAMELLA Structural variations of the somatic genome in development and evolution
5.00 p.m.
NORIHIRO OKADA Multiple SINE insertions made our brain mammalian?

5.30 p.m. General Discussion: Genetic mechanisms of evolution

Chairperson: RALF RESKI

Session 3: Evolutionary Developmental Biology

Chairpersons: JEAN DAVID, FRANCESCO SALVATORE

9.30 a.m.
BRYAN CLARKE The importance of natural history to understanding molecular evolution
10.00 a.m.
WALTER GEHRING Darwinian evolution of eyes and photoreceptors

10.30 a.m. Coffee

11.00 a.m.
EMILE ZUCKERKANDL Epigenetic plasticity and evolution
11.30 a.m.
GERD MÜLLER The extended evolutionary synthesis

12.00 p.m. General Discussion: Developmental biology and evolutionary theory

Chairperson: ETTORE OLMO

12.30 p.m. Special UNESCO-ICTP Session
CLAUDIO TUNIZ Latest developments from physics methodologies for the study of evolution

Chairperson: TALAL YOUNÈS

1.00 p.m. Lunch

Session 4: The Evolutionary Tree of Life

Chairpersons: PIETRO CALISSANO, MOTONORI HOSHI

2.30 p.m.
WILLIAM MARTIN Hydrothermal vents and the origin of life (an idea that Darwin might have liked)
3.00 p.m.
WERNER MÜLLER Shaping the root of the metazoan tree of life: Urmetazoa
3.30 p.m.
TAKASHI GOJOBORI Is darwinian evolution the impetus of species differences in the genome network system?

4.00 p.m. Coffee

4.30 p.m.
NICOLE LE DOUARIN The neural crest: a major innovation for the evolution of vertebrates
5.00 p.m.
NORI SATOH Notochord, a key organ to understand the evolution of chordates

5.30 p.m. General Discussion: Missing links in the tree of life

Chairperson: CECILIA SACCONE

Session 5: Evolution, Man and Environment

Chairpersons: FERNANDO ALVAREZ VALIN, GIUSEPPE MARTINI

9.30 a.m.
MARVALEE WAKE Darwinian principles of diversification and today's biodiversity crisis
10.00 a.m.
RITA COLWELL Climate, oceans, infectious diseases: the evolution of vibrio cholerae and cholera
10.30 a.m.
DAN HARTL Evolutionary pathways of drug resistance

11.00 a.m. Coffee

11.30 a.m.
MARCUS FELDMAN Darwin and the human genome
12.00 p.m.
LUCA CAVALLI-SFORZA Darwin's prophecy on linguistic evolution

12.30 p.m. General Discussion

Chairperson: PAOLO AMATI

1.00 p.m. Lunch

Session 6: Evolution on Education

Chairpersons: TELMO PIEVANI , GIOVANNI GIACOMETTI

2.30 p.m.
MAXINE SINGER Teaching evolution in schools
3.00 p.m.
GABRIEL MACAYA Darwin(ism) in the classroom: science for a renewed citizenship
3.30 p.m.
JOHN BUCKERIDGE The Creationist challenge to evolution and science: is this to be taken seriously?

4.00 p.m. General Discussion: Conclusions of the Sessions 1 - 6

Chairperson: ALESSANDRO MINELLI

02.30 - 04.00 p.m.
UNESCO-BRESCE Web Conference with the participation of WERNER ARBER, CHRISTIAN DE DUVE, WALTER GEHRING, RITA COLWELL and students from selected European Universities
(Palazzo Zorzi-4930 Castello).

Chairperson: GIORGIO BERNARDI

04.30 p.m.  JAMES WATSON

05.00 p.m.  Closing remarks and end of the Symposium

06.00 p.m.  
GIORGIO BERNARDI, GIAN ANTONIO DANIELI, ALESSANDRO MINELLI
‘Darwin 200’ Darwin oggi
Il punto sui meccanismi dell’evoluzione biologica
Summary of the Symposium (Media information in Italian)

ISTITUTO VENETO ASSOCIATED EVENT
(Palazzo Franchetti-2847 S.Marco, Venice)

Eighteenth meeting of the cycle Clearly Science
First human population in Europe.
GUIDO BARBUJANI and GIORGIO MANZI will speak at the meeting, chaired by GIOVANNI CARRADA.
For further information: www.istitutoveneto.it/chiaramentescienza

UNESCO-BRESCE ASSOCIATED EVENTS
(Palazzo Zorzi-4930 Castello, Venice)

02.30 – 03.00 p.m.   Press conference: “Darwin 200” Symposium and UNESCO-BRESCE Associated Events

03.00 – 06.00 p.m.   Inauguration of Exhibition :  Darwin and Modern Science

An ‘evolutionary’ exhibition organised by the UNESCO Office in Venice (BRESCE) , the ‘Abdus Salam’ International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Trieste) and Zoic s.r.l. with the Museum of Natural History (Trieste), the Trieste Museum of Natural History, Sincrotrone Trieste and the Academy of Sciences of Mongolia.

Some of the spectacular objects that will be displayed are the following:  extinct penguins from Antarctica; the hologram of the Altamura Man; an archaic Neanderthal whose bones are still buried in a cave in Southern Italy; a flute made of animal bone by a Neanderthal man 40 thousand years ago, from Slovenia; the bones of a Neanderthal remains used to sequence the Neanderthal genome from Croatia; and the remains of an hominid from near Trieste, the common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans.
The exhibition will remain open to the public and for school visits until 14 May 2009.

 03.00-06.00 p.m. Darwin, Evolution & Science

Mini conferences organized by the UNESCO Office in Venice (BRESCE), and the ‘Abdus Salam’ International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Trieste)

ATOMS, GENES AND THE POLITICS IN THE STUDY OF HUMAN EVOLUTION (Atomi, Geni e Politica negli Studi di Evoluzione Umana)

Presentation of the Italian version of the  book ‘The Bone Readers. Atoms, genes and the politics of Australia's deep past’. 2009, Allen & Unwin Publisher : Claudio Tuniz, Centro Internazionale di Fisica Teorica Abdus Salam, Trieste

PASSAGE TO EUROPE. THE FIRST HUMANS IN THE NORTH OF ITALY (Il Passaggio Per l’Europa. I Primi Umani Nel Nord-Est d’Italia)
Giovanni Boschian, Dipartimento di Scienze Archeologiche, Universita' di Pisa

AND WHAT IF DARWIN HAD BEEN IN ANTARTIDE? (E Se Darwin Fosse Stato In Antartide?)   
Nevio Pugliese, Museo Nazionale dell'Antartide - Sezione di Trieste, Universita' degli Studi di Trieste

THE ORIGIN OF LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE (L'origine della Vita nell'Universo)
Julian Chela-Flores, Centro Internazionale di Fisica Teorica Abdus Salam, Trieste

 02.30-04.00 p.m. Web Conference with the participation of WERNER ARBER, CHRISTIAN DE DUVE, WALTER GEHRING, RITA COLWELL and students from selected European Universities. Interested students should submit their questions on evolution related topics via email no later than 30 April 2009 (email: veniceoffice@unesco.org).

Exhibition: Land use planning traditions, goods and services in Biosphere Reserves