Main content

Nobel Prize for Medicine - Peppered Moth

Quentin Cooper talks to Mike Majerus, professor of evolution at Cambridge University, about the Peppered Moth and its significance in the debate about Darwin's evolutionary theory.

NOBEL PRIZE FOR MEDICINE
Sir Martin Evans has helped to transform our understanding of diseases like cancer and heart disease. His discovery of embryonic stem cells has led to the ground breaking technology of gene targeting.

Quentin talks with this year鈥檚 winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine - Sir Martin Evans and his colleague Professor Alan Clark about investigating the function of individual genes and the incredible ability to 鈥渒nock them out鈥.

THE PEPPERED MOTH
The Peppered Moth used to be mostly light with dark speckles but then came the industrial revolution. And the moth changed its spots. A neat example of natural selection in action? Not so said critics of Darwin seizing on controversy over some of the original moth experiments.

And the moth was withdrawn from school textbooks. The controversy doesn鈥檛 end there. Professor Mike Majerus and Jerry Coyne want the moth restored to the ranks of Darwin鈥檚 Dignitaries and tells Quentin why.

Available now

30 minutes

Last on

Thu 11 Oct 2007 16:30

Broadcast

  • Thu 11 Oct 2007 16:30

Inside Science

Inside Science

Adam Rutherford explores the research that is transforming our world.