Jessica Riskin — The Power of Life: The Revolutionary Science of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Stanford historian argues that Lamarck's dismissed evolutionary theory is vindicated by modern epigenetics, reframing how living beings shape their own evolution.
Why we picked this
The scientist who coined the word 'biology' has been a punchline for two centuries — Riskin makes the case that epigenetics is proving him right, and the implications ripple far beyond the lab.
Stanford historian Jessica Riskin presents a rehabilitation of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, the naturalist who coined the term “biology” and proposed that organisms could shape their own evolution through interaction with their environments. For two centuries, Lamarck has been dismissed as the man who got evolution wrong before Darwin got it right.
Riskin argues that recent discoveries in epigenetics and niche construction are vindicating Lamarck’s core insight: that living beings are not passive recipients of random mutation but active participants in their own development. The implications extend beyond biology into questions about agency, adaptation, and what it means to be alive.
An evening event at the New York Society Library.