Sciencespeaking topic
Try to clear up the common misunderstanding between natural selection and the phrase survival of the fittest.
— Charles Darwin, concept of natural selection
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- Hedonic adaptation: the brain quickly gets used to every new pleasure and the old thrill fades; this is the hedonic treadmill. Why does a new phone or a raise become ordinary after a few weeks; is happiness always a moving target?
- If enough people in a society are vaccinated, even an unvaccinated person doesn't get sick, because the virus can't find a path to reach them. So what protects you isn't your own immunity but the invisible wall the people around you form. Is health a personal possession, or a property of the network?
- Why you have to reapply sunscreen every two hours: the UV filter isn't 'used up' on your skin, it's broken down by light. Why does the protection eat itself over time?
- What did Vesalius change in medicine by dissecting cadavers himself and correcting Galen's anatomical errors in On the Fabric of the Human Body?
- Optimism bias: why do we think bad things always happen to someone else? Why do we systematically underestimate our own risks?