Susan Mazur has a column here about an upcoming conference--and she interviews a number of prominent scientists and philosophers about why it is necessary:
It's not Yasgur's Farm, but what happens at the Konrad Lorenz Institute in Altenberg, Austria this July promises to be far more transforming for the world than Woodstock. What it amounts to is a gathering of 16 biologists and philosophers of rock star stature – let's call them "the Altenberg 16" – who recognize that the theory of evolution which most practicing biologists accept and which is taught in classrooms today, is inadequate in explaining our existence. It's pre the discovery of DNA, lacks a theory for body form and does not accomodate "other" new phenomena. So the theory Charles Darwin gave us, which was dusted off and repackaged 70 years ago, seems about to be reborn as the "Extended Evolutionary Synthesis".Part of what has long bothered me about the way in which evolution is taught as Revealed Truth--and the questions that Intelligent Design advocates raise are falsely portrayed as repackaged Creationism--is that, as Mazur's column points out, evolutionary theory is recognized even by some prominent evolutionists as inadequate. A little humility goes a long ways.
Papers are in. MIT will publish the findings in 2009 – the 150th anniversary of Darwin's publication of the Origin of Species. And despite the fact that organizers are downplaying the Altenberg meeting as a discussion about whether there should be a new theory, it already appears a done deal. Some kind of shift away from the population genetic-centered view of evolution is afoot.
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