Adaptation

Our ability to adapt

to changes in everyday life is a fundamental skill, a core characteristic of all the living. How does adaptation work, how do we evolve, how does evolution find the critical balance between inherited abilities and plasticity to produce the best survival strategies? The fine art of the interplay between the determinism of the survival-of-the-fittest mechanisms and an organism’s ability to deviate from optimality for the sake of long-term improvement is one of nature's most intricate mysteries. By studying adaptive systems on every scale of life we can get a glimpse of what guides adaptation, evolutionary dynamics and population diversity.

On Thursday October 17th in the Science Café Nijmegen, two leading researchers in the field of Adaptive Systems will share their knowledge on the mechanisms of adaptation from psychobiological and evolutionary perspectives. Developmental psychologist Willem Frankenhuis (Radboud University) studies the skills and abilities that people develop as a response to adversity. In the Science Café he will elaborate on the interplay of developmental systems and their environment and how this may give specific developmental trajectories and outcomes, individual differences, and cultural variation. Evolutionary biologist Daniel Rozen (Leiden University) uses bacteria in laboratory evolution experiments to study the ecology and genetics of adaptation. He can tell us all about the causes ánd consequences of within population diversity. This evening, from 7.30 pm onwards, Wolke and Aniek Maren - using their voice, guitar and loop player - will also mix repetitive motifs and adaptations, to forge musical vitality.