The Science and Innovation Culture Unit of the University of Valencia (UCC+i, UV) has opened registration for the 27th Morning of Evolution, which will take place on Saturday 16 May at the Joan Plaça Auditorium in the Botanical Garden. The event, featuring three talks and a debate, is aimed at secondary and sixth-form teachers, and registration for the activity is free of charge.

The morning will feature Jaume Pellicer, Alba Sánchez and Francisco J. Mojica, with Raquel Ortells, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Ecology at the UV and a researcher at the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, and Juli Peretó, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a member of the I2SysBio Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (UV-CSIC), will act as moderators.

Jaume Pellicer (Barcelona Botanic Garden, CSIC) will deliver the talk ‘Big and Small Genomes: Keys to Understanding Plant Diversity’, where he will emphasise the variability in plant genome size and the limitations this imposes at the nuclear scale, cellular and organismal level, to the point of being able to restrict phenotypic plasticity and ecological adaptability, and thus influence evolutionary resilience.

Alba Sánchez (Department of Geology and Botany, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Valencia) will speak on ‘Amber: an exceptional archive of past life’. Fossil resin preserves an exceptional record of past life. How is it formed and why is it a key material for palaeontology? In her talk, she will analyse the contribution of amber to the study of the evolution and palaeobiology of arthropods.

Finally, Francisco J. Mojica (University of Alicante) will deliver the third lecture: ‘CRISPR et al.: the legacy of the prokaryotic war’. Since the origin of life, co-evolution between bacteria and viruses has forged an extraordinary arsenal of molecular defence and counter-defence. This millennia-old struggle has provided researchers with fabulous tools that are transforming our ability to tackle the great challenges of modern biology.

Following the talks, there will be a discussion between the speakers and the audience.

This activity by the Rector's Delegation for University Outreach (UV) is part of the annual activity plan of the UV's Unit for Science Communication and Innovation (UCC+i) and is supported by the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology (UV), the Institute for Integrative Systems Biology I2SysBio (UV-CSIC), the Faculty of Biological Sciences (UV), the Botanical Garden (UV), UV Publications (PUV), the journal Mètode, Acció Cultural del País Valencià, the Catalan Society of Biology (SCB) and the Institute of Catalan Studies (IEC).

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