WHO: Richard Lewontin, evolutionary biologist, author

WHAT:  "Should People Believe What Scientists Say? The Problem of Elite Knowledge in a Democratic Society"

The event is free, but registration is required: humanities.sas.upenn.edum/03-04/lewontin.html

WHEN:   5 p.m., Wednesday, April 14, 2004

WHERE:   Dunlop Auditorium, Stemmler Hall, 3450 Hamilton Walk (one half-block south of 34th and Spruce streets,) Philadelphia

Many people believe that science is the religion of the last century, that its word is gospel and the authority of its clergy/scientists inviolate.

Richard Lewontin, an evolutionary biologist and a leading critic of many of his contemporary scientific popularizers, considers head-on our rush to take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life.  A leader in developing the mathematical basis of population genetics and evolutionary theory, Lewontin pioneered the notion of applying techniques from molecular biology to questions of genetic variation and evolution.

Along with others, including his late Harvard University colleague, Stephen Jay Gould, Lewontin has been a persistent critic of the type of genetic determinism espoused by some neo-Darwinists.  In his writings, he calls for what he considers a more nuanced view of evolution, which he claims requires a more careful understanding of the context of the whole organism as well as the environment.