Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Major disagreement among top scientists at the Royal Society over re-writing/reframing the theory of evolution in light of advancements in epigenetics


by Alex Major

Abstract:

New research programs in epigenetics have reinforced a body of empirical evidence deemed “irrelevant” to the theory of evolution for 70 years because it does not fit the assertions of the theory.  Since the 1940s, there have been gaps between what is observed/practised in research labs, between what is admitted to university undergrad students and what is emphasized in the design and the wording of results of research programs.    The gaps widened immensely, culminating in a November 2016 conference/debate at the Royal Society of London.

Many scientists are attempting to extend the existing theory of evolution to account for the phenomenon. Some are calling for its full re-write or replacement.   A third camp fighting for the status-quo disagree with their interpretation and how to incorporate the findings into the existing canon/assertions. Issues are presented with the use of direct quotes from the conference, mostly.


*   *   *



At a conference held the weekend of November 7th, 2016, twenty-two accomplished scientists were invited to speak at the prestigious Royal Society in London to settle major disagreements concerning the theory of evolution. (1)

One of the presenters at the conference had written this in a scientific journal the year before:

“Experimental results in epigenetics and related fields of biological research show that the Modern Synthesis (neo-Darwinist) theory of evolution requires either extension or replacement.“ -Prof. Denis Noble, Journal of Experimental Biology, 2015  (2) See footnotes.  Prof. Noble’s credentials located in the credentials section below.

Epigenetics is the science of non-genetic biological mechanisms of adaptation to internal changes and external environmental changes, and also the inheritance of the adaptations in the very-next-generation and beyond. (3) One such mechanism is DNA Methylation occurring mainly in plants, but also in certain animals, and single-celled organisms. (4)

The conference was named: “New trends in evolutionary biology:  biological, philosophical and social science perspectives.“(probably to bore the media).  The Atlantic covered it. (5)  

All sides of the debate were represented, including moderates/bridge builders. Approximately 300 scientists were in the audience.  

I mostly use direct quotes to represent the issues discussed at the conference:

“The relationship between genes and phenotypes is not a direct one. (Phenotype: observable resulting trait or functionality in an organism. (6)) The whole system is mediated and interpreted by development (in an environment). Non-genetic factors  play a role in developmental transformation of genetic information into the phenotype.  Interpretation of genes is a recursive system of interactions between genes, cells, tissues.   It’s not genes that build bodies;  its cells and tissues that build bodies. None of these levels of organization have explanatory or causal priority.  You take out any one of these, the system breaks down. “ -presenter, Prof. Gerd B. Müller (audio 1 @ 11:32 mins, see audio links section)


_Rapid Adaptation in an Organism_

“Coined adaptive improvisation or developmental selection:  in experiments, they modified yeast DNA so they could not process the glucose they were put it,  and the cells didn’t divide for a long while but then they resumed. They found [the existence of] a trial and error mechanism, trying many transcription networks, then the transcription stabilized, growth resumed, cell division resumed and this [adaptation] was inherited for hundreds of generations. Only 50% of the yeast cells died before growth resumed.   Adaptive improvisation also occurs in drosophila experiments (fruit flies) Some organisms die off completely, can’t cope but some have this ability to cope. “ -Prof. Eva Jablonka (audio 11 @ 36:08 mins)

“Regarding bacteria adaptation studies where bacteria reconstruct their flagellum (tail):  if you have a thousand components interacting in a biochemical network you’ve got a combinatorial explosion The number of pathways in a network like that is gigantic.” -presenter Prof. Denis Noble (audio 13 @ 27:58 mins in Q & A)

Presenter, Prof. Sonia E. Sultan showed her lab studies on plant adaptations within individuals such as larger leaf growths as light diminishes or larger roots that go deeper during droughts or grow hair-like roots nearly out-of-soil in flood conditions. The adaptations are passed on to the very-next generation epigenetically ( non genetically)  The very-next generation starts-off fully adapted via a modified component mix placed in the seed. (7)   (audio 3 @ 9:00 mins)  This rapid adaptation has also been discovered in vertebrate and invertebrate animals, (audio 3 @ 15:09 mins)  “Genotype (genes) is a repertoire of contingent developmental outcomes ( preprogramming for individual organisms to adapt to many complex situations  ) which leads to a changed and more complex view of genetic diversity. We cannot fit this plasticity as an elaborated version of genotype-based (gene-based) model“    (audio 3 @ 24:44 mins)   “Genes are impervious to the environment, which is why it has such an incredible power as a record of the past.   A commitment to that (gene-centered view) is what we are here to confront. ”  ( nervous laughter)  “Ok, I’ll stop that”   (audio 3 @ 00:35 seconds )  “It’s now very clear that environmental as well as genetic information can be inherited and can participate in shaping development as inborn factors, very often confounded experimentally with genetic factors.” -presenter Prof. Sonia Sultan (audio 3 @  25:45 mins)


_“Junk DNA” has Various Functions_

Prof. James Shapiro explained that so-called junk DNA does not code for protein but does serve other important functions:
-genome reformatting/restructuring, re-arrangements, rewiring transcriptional networks,
-changing expression of sequence functions (in DNA that code for protein),
-regulation of stem cell proliferation,
-roles in nervous system and immune system function   (audio 9 @ 17:50 mins)


_Hybrid Speciation (a new species resulting from the natural merger of two separate species in one event)_

“A lot of this has been known for a long time but not given the prominence they deserve. For example, hybrid speciation is often treated as exceptional and unusual whereas, it may, in fact, be much more common than we recognize.” -Prof. James Shapiro (audio 9 @ 37:52 mins) 

Interspecies hybridization also occurs in fish, dolphins, bats, birds and cats, plants and yeasts. (8) -Prof. James Shapiro (audio 9 @ 09:45, 11:50 and 13:00 mins)

“I remember Peter Grant saying all of the variation in the Galapagos Finches came from introgression, that is from a different population or a different species. ” (audio 9 @ 12:40 mins)   “The initiating event involves the entire genome of the two parent species so that all traits of the organism are affected in a single evolutionary event. It’s not that each trait has to evolve separately. Multiple changes can occur at the same time and hybrids aren’t just mixtures of the two parents, they can have novel characteristics and novel genome configurations.” -Prof. James Shapiro (audio 9 @ 15:00)

Question/comment in agreement:  “ You are describing the situation in which one organism, an unimaginably intricate system where many processes have to be consistent with one another,  then you collide that with a completely different one.  Immediately you get a hybrid that somehow resolves all the conflicts that are emerging at once between the constraints of one system and the constraints of another system. And you call this variability or plasticity and we don’t even care to think about how this plasticity gets organized.  Natural selection does not address this problem of resolving these conflicts when two organisms are merged.“  (could not get his name)  (audio 9 @ 35:42)

Answer: “I agree.  How do complex organized systems such as transcription networks form?  How do they evolve? How do they appear for the first time?   Is it a gradual process or a coordinated event? If it is coordinated, how does it occur?  We need experimental systems to study.” -Prof. James Shapiro answering a question from the Weizmann Institute, Israel,(audio 9 @ 38:21 mins)

“There’s an awful lot of work to be done, especially in convergent evolution where you have different families of endogenous retroviruses (9) doing similar things. We may need to question some assumptions. How do hybrids form coordinated networks which provide adaptive function because, obviously, those things appear in the course of evolution. Maybe in many of these events they don’t happen gradually but more suddenly. How did those successful hybrid radiations come about? ( Evolutionary radiation: a diversification into several lineages from a common ancestor ) An area for a lot of interesting research which needs to be done.”  (audio 9 @ 31:10 mins)

“Living organisms have core biological and molecular tools to rewrite their genomes actively when they are challenged. Examples:
-cell fusions: two cells can merge and become one cell, 
-symbiogenesis, that is the incorporation of endosymbionts, one organism has an eye where the cornea is a mitochondrial endosymbiont and the retinal body is made of cyanobacteria. (10) Many organisms trade DNA.    ( audio 9 @ 06:25)
-composites of multiple organisms such as termites, which would not be able to live if they didn’t have digestive microbes in their intestines.” ( audio 9 @ 01:44 min ) 

Some scientists also spoke about other factors than natural selection at work that are not represented in the standard modern synthesis (11), such as niche construction; how an animal modifying its external environment affects its adaptation.  In my view, this is a sideshow compared to hybrid speciation and epigenetics.

_Various positions_

Against the status quo:

“George Ledyard Stebbins (12) was one of the main architects of the Modern Synthesis.  Stebbins’ book: Variation and Evolution in Plants (published in 1950) is filled with examples that do not fit the Modern Synthesis including hybridization and plasticity, but he instructs the reader:  ’Pay no attention because it’s not important to evolution’. Stebbins struggled to fit a great range of phenomenon, quite dominant in the plant clade, into the new synthesis model. A lot of what we’ve been discussing here had been pushed to the periphery. The question we’re asking now is: ‘Shall we bring them to the center?’ ” -presenter Prof. Sonia Sultan(audio 9 @ 41:50 mins)  

“In 1983, I asked Francisco J. Ayala (14) a question about transposable elements, ( transposons, used to be disregarded as ‘junk DNA’ (15)) . He said: ‘They are not relevant to evolution.’ … We have to adjust our thinking both to what is possible and how we design experiments to get more empirical evidence on what is actually going on in the process of evolutionary change." -presenter Prof. James Shapiro (audio 9 @ 44:10) 

Echoed by Prof. Sonia Sultan: a biased view warps the experimental design, each reinforcing each other.   (audio 3 @  02:44)

 “We have a much more complex picture.  The standard theory is focused on natural selection of characteristics that exist already and their variation and maintenance but not on how they originate." -presenter Prof. Gerd B. Müller ( audio 1 - 33:12 mins also at 10:10 mins)

“What it (the standard theory of evolution) does not explain:
  -the origin of body plans (13) 
  -complex behaviors,
  -complex physiology,
  -development (explained by Pro. Sonia Sultan),
  -non-gradual transitions,
  -the fact that not all the variation is equally distributed, there are biases in the distribution 
 The theory of evolution is not designed for addressing them.” -Prof. Gerd B. Müller ( audio 1 @ 11:02 mins  ) 

“Most textbooks still define evolution as understood in the 1930s which was not a real synthesis. It was a conglomeration of various concepts from different disciplines based on natural selection and population genetics.” -presenter Prof. Gerd B. Müller (audio 1 - 06:37 mins) 

“The modern synthesis (theory of evolution/Neo-Darwinism) has been the inspiration for some extraordinary work in population genetics, and many areas of biology. I simply think we know much more. We know there are processes previously believed impossible. "-presenter, Prof. Denis Noble (audio 13 @ 27:33) (not to be confused with Prof. Ray Noble’s brother, also in attendance)

“I actually had a paper rejected from Evolution (magazine?) because it was too complicated, not the writing, the data!”  -Prof. Sonia Sultan  (audio 3 @  26:37)

“…related to the assumption that Dr. Russ Lande makes that heritability of the traits he was dealing with doesn’t change over time.  That gives you the ability to solve these equations. A lot of assumptions that go into the kind of analysis that was put forward up until the 1960s has to be altered as we know more about the underlying biology. “ - Prof. Marcus Feldman, Roundtable discussion, audio 16 @ 28:30 mins


Moderate:

“It is virtually always possible to operate new findings in the established theoretical framework. But we often pay a price for that in that the new findings can be weakened or distorted to fit with what pre-existed and that alternative perspectives can be of value to the extent they allow the new findings to be fully explored. They encourage researchers to open up new lines of inquiry. It’s not a call for revolution, it’s a call for greater explanatory pluralism.” -presenter Prof. Kevin Laland, University of St Andrews, UK (audio 8 @ beginning)


Defending the status quo:

“I agree in a lot of what you’re saying in that the Modern Synthesis isn’t so modern anymore. ( but) You’re criticizing what you find in textbooks. In any field, textbooks are a simplification of what you find in the field.“ -Prof. Russsel Lande (audio 1 @ 35:18)

 “Russ referred to textbooks giving a superficial view and indeed they do, including my own but if you go back to my 1986 edition […] you see what Gerd has been talking about is already part and parcel in the thinking of practicing evolutionary biologists who still retain the general framework of the Modern Synthesis but extended it to a vast variety of phenomena.   When transposable elements were discovered it took very few years to have population genetic models of their behavior and their consequences for natural populations.” -Prof. Douglas Futuyma - Stony Brook U, US (audio 2 @ beginning)

Question/comment:  “I don’t believe in the existence of a standard theory or an orthodoxy.  When I look at evolutionary biologists, I see a pluralistic group of people who are working on specific problems. All the things you mentioned, conventional evolutionary biologists use all the time.  This idea of a group with a homogeneous view is a form of shadow boxing.”  - Prof. Richard Goldstein (audio 1@ 37:13 mins)

Reply: “Yes. I was expecting this.  There are two reactions we get: 
    1- ‘Evolutionary practice ( in the field) has changed, so what?’ and 
    2- ’We need to change the theory much more.  You’re not radical enough.’
If current practices were introduced into the complete theory then I would agree but it hasn’t. There are individual researchers that use all these concepts, but that’s my point.  We don’t need a new theory, it’s already in the making and we must draw the consequences saying:  ‘some of these are not in line with the standard view.’ Whether that’s called Extended Synthesis, it doesn’t matter, this is a working title. We can call it whatever " -Prof. Gerd Müller, against status quo   audio 1 @ 37:18 mins)

“I want to dissolve the myth of a unified orthodox evolutionary biology where, as some kind of conspiracy, we talk about genes and nothing else, and we’re all on the same page against the other stuff…  Some of the complaints have been targeted against  population genetics, the part of evolutionary theory which is tasked with formalizing the whole thing, the gold standard. If an aspect of evolutionary theory cannot be framed in terms of theoretical population genetics, it’s kind of dodgy…  Developmental adaptation is special and separate from evolutionary change. Natural selection is only a concept within evolution. Some of the problems that have arisen so far have hinged on not seeing that distinction.  Either thinking that, you know,  all of evolution is supposedly adaptive.  And I’m not ignoring all this other stuff” -presenter, Dr. Andy Gardner   (audio 14 @ beginning)     “I’m just looking at natural selection because I think that’s where the design is coming from.  The multi-level selection controversy, group variance, group fitness. Should natural selection work in a group as well as individuals? Should groups be treated as “super-organisms”?  Some say yes some no.  The Portuguese man of war is a group of unrelated organisms working together as a super-group  “  -Dr. Andy Gardner    (audio 14 @ 27:45 mins)    
 
Responder: “I agree regarding multi-level selection but I disagree with your characterization of theoretical population genetics as rejecting the idea of fitness maximization” -Prof. Russel Lande, moderate)  (audio 14 @ 34:00)  Andy Gardner backpedalled.

“Prof. Noble was granting the phenomena are familiar to many of us but saying he viewed them in a more integrationist framework and less reductionist framework. I’m having trouble understanding what it means to have a different perspective and how that advances things. I feel as is I were reading a paper by an 18th century scientist who is thinking about many things in an entirely different way from the way I do and I wouldn’t know how to interpret what the person is writing. I feel as if there may be a lack of translation from one perspective into the other though there’s rather little we deeply disagree about.”  (Prof. Futuyma, Roundtable discussion, audio 16 @ 08:31 mins)   “There has been a continual growth in evolutionary biology without any kind of Kuhnian break with the 1940s and there’s been a comfortable assimilation of a lot of new perspectives, you know. Sexual selection, for example. There’s less of a difference than we seem to be trying to make out.  ”  (Prof. Futuyma, Roundtable discussion, audio 16 - 33:00 mins)   
Prof Noble replied: “It seems clear that conceptual framework matters in what we do.  Our differences between our conceptual frameworks is a different notion of causality. Clearly, you’ll have a completely different set of possible experiments  and hypotheses that could be tested. If you stick rigidly to one conceptual framework, you’re never going to do those experiments because you’re never going to ask those questions. (Prof. Denis Noble, Roundtable discussion, audio 16 - 34:34 mins) 

In a bizarre twist, Dr. Andy Gardner tore down Intelligent Design as an argument for the status quo when no one in the opposing camp was speaking of it outright.  (audio 14 @  06:53) In attendance at the conference were 20 “converts” to the Intelligence Design theory/movement including Dr. Stephen Meyer from the much maligned Discovery Institute (16)) Maybe he decided to admonish them when he saw them even if they did not participate in questions, except for this exchange after the fact:

Timothy: “You are quite happily talking about a design for organisms, you see the phenotype adapted to its purpose, then say exactly like Paley did: “Therefore, there must have been a design in place before the developmental process of the phenotype began. Tell me how this view of design differs from that of Paley?” -Prof. Timothy Ingold, University of Aberdeen (audio 14 @35:40 mins ) 

Andy: “the core part is that you may have no idea what this thing is for, but it’s clearly a designed object.  It’s not like a rock (as Paley observed.) ”

Tim: “I’d like you to explain why you believe that an organism is a designed object. (*Andy sighs*)   I’d like to know what you mean by ‘designed.’ You’re using this word very freely and generally speaking, if we’re talking about the design for a thing, it means that there is, in the world, a plan of some kind which underwrites its subsequent construction. And if you are saying that this is something that you yourself have observed, and are then imputing it to the organism as having been there in advance and realized in development, then I would say that your argument is circular.”

Andy:  “It’s an analogy to say that natural selection is designing the organism. The plan in mind is to maximize that individual’s inclusive fitness.”

Timothy: “So natural selection is an agent with a plan? A design agent?“

Andy: “No I didn’t say that.”

Timothy: “That’s what you said. “ (laughter)

Andy “No”

Timothy: “Do you believe that natural selection is a design agent. “

Andy: “It depends what you mean by agent. “

Timothy: “That’s what I want to know.“ (louder audience laughter,  moderator stopped the questions, and audio ends.)  -Prof. Timothy Ingold, University of Aberdeen (audio 14 @35:40 mins) 


Q&A between Prof. Ray Noble and presenter Prof. Douglas Futuyma defending the status quo (audio 2 - 38:00 mins):

Noble:  “The problem I have with a gene-centered view of evolution is that it is maintaining variation within a population. It does not explain how we get speciation.  (to become a distinct species.)” 

Futuyma: “Sorry, I have to disagree…”

Noble: “I haven’t finished yet…”

Futuyma: “There is enormous literature on the genetics and ecology and behavior and everything else that goes into speciation. There’s a book by Jerry Coyne and Allen Orr (Speciation 2004) and another by Sergey Gavrilets. Like everything else in biology, there are aspects that are not sufficiently understood.”

Noble: “What you do generally, is to say: ‘well… there’s nothing new there.  And this and that was said a long time ago’, indicates to me that an awful lot of ideas have been ignored because we have developed…(gets interrupted again by Futuyma, unintelligible)   What I want to see in a theory of evolution […] produce some kind of speciation where the two populations get separated from each other.  And I don’t see that. All these random variations are maintained and balanced-out within the population.  That’s not what speciation does.”

Futuyma: “I don’t think I understand what you’re talking about.”

Noble: “Exactly” (audience laugher)

Futuyma: “Yeah…no, it’s uh…” (end of audio)   (audio 2 - 38:00 mins)

Why is there still resistance to the data that does not “fit” the current wording of evolution? Are evolutionists afraid the new data will explain-away the evidence they use to support evolution-based origins theories? Defenders of the status quo deny the existence an orthodoxy. Seems like a scorched-earth strategy. Does a minimal subset of the principles in the theory still exist upon which to build an orthodoxy under the umbrella term: “evolution?” What does the term mean?  Is it a long term process over millions of years or adaptation within an organism’s lifespan within days, months or years? I agree with the conference presenters. Accurate wording is required.

___Audio Links____

Conference audio for Meeting on New trends in evolutionary biology: biological, philosophical and social science perspectives.  (audio arranged by order of speakers )

audio 1:
The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis,
Prof. Gerd B. Müller University of Vienna, Austria 
Direct link to presentation audio:  http://downloads.royalsociety.org/events/2016/11/evolutionary-biology/muller.mp3
or scroll down to Schedule of talks.   Select Session 1 -> show detail: 
https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2016/11/evolutionary-biology/

audio 2:
The evolutionary synthesis today: extend or amend?,
Prof. Douglas Futuyma, Stony Brook University, USA
Direct link:  http://downloads.royalsociety.org/events/2016/11/evolutionary-biology/futuyma.mp3
or scroll down to Schedule of talks.   Select Session 1 -> show detail: 
https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2016/11/evolutionary-biology/

audio 3:
Developmental plasticity: re-conceiving the genotype, 
Prof. Sonia Sultan, Wesleyan University, USA
Direct link: http://downloads.royalsociety.org/events/2016/11/evolutionary-biology/sultan.mp3
or scroll down to Schedule of talks.   Select Session 1 -> show detail: 
https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2016/11/evolutionary-biology/


audio 8:
The middle ground between artificial and natural selection: niche construction as developmental bias,
Prof. Kevin Laland, University of St Andrews, UK
Direct link:  http://downloads.royalsociety.org/events/2016/11/evolutionary-biology/laland.mp3
or (Session 2 -> show detail -> audio link

audio 9:
Biological action in Read-Write genome evolution,
Prof. James Shapiro OBE, University of Chicago, USA
Direct link:  http://downloads.royalsociety.org/events/2016/11/evolutionary-biology/shapiro.mp3
Or Session 3 -> show details -> see audiolink


audio 11:
The role of epigenetic inheritance in evolution
Prof. Eva Jablonka, The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
http://downloads.royalsociety.org/events/2016/11/evolutionary-biology/jablonka.mp3
or Session 3 -> show detail -> audio link


audio 13:
Evolution viewed from medicine and physiology
Prof. Denis Noble CBE FMedSci FRS, University of Oxford, UK  ( Prof. Ray Noble’s brother)
Direct Link: http://downloads.royalsociety.org/events/2016/11/evolutionary-biology/noble.mp3
or Session 4, click show details

audio 14:
Anthropomorphism in evolutionary biology
Dr Andy Gardner, University of St Andrews, UK
Direct link: http://downloads.royalsociety.org/events/2016/11/evolutionary-biology/gardner.mp3
or Session 4, click show details

audio 16:
Roundtable discussion 1
http://downloads.royalsociety.org/events/2016/11/evolutionary-biology/panel-tues.mp3

NOTE!  I entered the links into the Wayback Machine Internet archiver and saved the audio files to my hard drive  These kinds of public sites tend to be modified or deleted when the material is about to give bad press.


___Credentials___

Against the Status Quo:

Prof. Gerd B. Müller, biologist, University of Vienna, Austria,
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerd_B._M%C3%BCller
   https://theoretical.univie.ac.at/gerdbmueller/
   Peer reviewed papers:
     https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gerd_Mueller
   book: Origination of Organismal Form   
     https://www.amazon.com/Origination-Organismal-Form-Developmental-Evolutionary/dp/0262134195#customerReviews

Prof. Denis Noble CBE ( Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire)  FMedSci FRS ( Fellow of the Royal Society ), University of Oxford, UK
   https://royalsociety.org/people/denis-noble-12007/
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Noble
   https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Denis_Noble

Prof. Sonia E. Sultan, plant evolutionary ecologist,  Wesleyan University, USA
     https://www.wesleyan.edu/academics/faculty/sesultan/profile.html#
   Peer reviewed papers:
     https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sonia_Sultan
     http://sultanlab.research.wesleyan.edu/selected-publications/
    Book: Organism and Environment: Ecological Development, Niche Construction, and Adaptation
     https://www.amazon.com/Organism-Environment-Ecological-Development-Construction-ebook/dp/B014I4HP1K/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1546888616&sr=1-2

Prof. Eva Jablonka, The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Jablonka
      https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eva_Jablonka2
      https://m.tau.ac.il/~cohn/staff/eva-jablonka.htm
    
Prof. James Shapiro OBE( Officer of the Order of the British Empire), University of Chicago, USA
     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Shapiro
     http://shapiro.bsd.uchicago.edu/
     https://www.researchgate.net/profile/James_Shapiro  

Prof. Ray Noble ( Denis Noble’s brother ), zoologist, physiologist, ethicist, University College London 
     https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ray_Noble
     http://ucl.academia.edu/RayNoble
     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_College_London
     http://www.voicesfromoxford.org/people/ray-noble/208

Prof. Marcus W. Feldman,  director of the Morrison Institute for Population and Resource Studies, and co-director of the Center for Computational, Evolutionary and Human Genomics (CEHG) at Stanford University, USA
     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Feldman
     https://www-evo.stanford.edu/marc.html
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT-Jb0lKVT8

Prof. Timothy Ingold, FBA, FRSE, University of Aberdeen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Ingold
https://www.abdn.ac.uk/socsci/people/profiles/tim.ingold


For the Status Quo:

Prof. Douglas Futuyma, evolutionary biologist,  Stony Brook University, USA
     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_J._Futuyma
     https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/ecoevo/people/faculty_pages/futuyma.html
     https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/16006662_Douglas_J_Futuyma

Prof. Russell Lande FRS, Center for Biodiversity Dynamics, NTNU, Norway:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Lande
    https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/russell.lande
    https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/39434340_Russell_Lande

Dr Andy Gardner, University of St Andrews, UK
     http://biology.st-andrews.ac.uk/contact/staffprofile.aspx?sunid=ag243
     https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/andy-gardner(60838b3d-ea54-42ee-8bb8-be8e071d26cf).html
     https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andy_Gardner5
     https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=WQrZYMIAAAAJ&hl=en

Prof. Richard Goldstein, University College London ( not a presenter )
    https://www.ucl.ac.uk/infection-immunity/people/professor-richard-goldstein


___Footnotes___
( If you want clickable links, please email me. I’ll sent a PDF file )

1)  Royal Society conference: New trends in evolutionary biology: biological, philosophical and social science perspectives.  
https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2016/11/evolutionary-biology/
Articles published related to the presentations: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsfs.2017.0051

2)  Evolution beyond neo-Darwinism: a new conceptual framework, Prof. Denis Noble,  Journal of Experimental Biology   http://jeb.biologists.org/content/218/1/7

3)  Epigenetics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics
Research on epigenetic inheritance of traits via DNA Methylation: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5559844/
Other known mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgenerational_epigenetic_inheritance
More on DNA Methylation inheritance research: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12095278

4) DNA Methylation  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_methylation    
https://www.the-scientist.com/the-literature/transgenerational-epigenetics-prepares-plants-for-drought-32264#.WK9pQChe4oo

5) The Atlantic: The Biologists Who Want to Overhaul Evolution:  https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/11/the-biologists-who-want-to-overhaul-evolution/508712/?utm_source=fbb

6) Phenotype, definition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenotype

7) Prof. Sonia Sultan: “It inherited the changes via the seed nutrients,  hormones, and other signaling molecules and DNA Methylation (8)  (audio 3 @ 21:15 mins )    In many cases, these responses comprise an immediate developmental mode of adaptation that takes place at the level of the individual organism, unlike the random and rare occurrence of a genetic variant, plasticity ( ability to adapt) can provide adaptive variation when it is needed in numerous individuals in a population at once.   Genotype ( genes) is a repertoire of contingent developmental outcomes ( preprogramming for individual organisms to adapt to many complex situations  ) which leads to a changed and more complex view of  genetic diversity. Similarly, epigenetic adaptation and trans-generational inheritance occur in animals like the tadpole and sea urchins. ( audio 3 @ 15:09 mins)   Surprisingly, the amount a particular pattern of genetic variation available to natural selection are both, environmentally contingent  and not a property of population’s genotype ( genes)    (17:58 mins)  We cannot fit this plasticity as an elaborated version of genotype-based ( gene-based) model “  ( audio 3 @ 24:44 mins )

8) Hybrid Speciation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_speciation#Animals

9) Endogenous retrovirus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endogenous_retrovirus

10) endosymbiont https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endosymbiont

11) Modern Synthesis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_synthesis

12) George Ledyard Stebbins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._Ledyard_Stebbins

13) Body Plan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_plan

14) Prof. Francisco J. Ayala  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_J._Ayala

15) Junk DNA / Non-coding DNA:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-coding_DNA

16 Stephen C. Meyer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_C._Meyer
Role at Discovery Institute: https://www.discovery.org/p/11
Dr. Stephen Meyer video about Intelligent Design, claiming to be in attendance at the Royal Society conference https://youtu.be/lgs6J4LqeqI?t=491