Mamhead Church Programme 14 March 2008

TEIGNMOUTH & IVYBRIDGE COMMUNITY CHOIRS PRESENT

SONGS OF SCIENCE

FROM ATOMS TO STARS - FROM SELFISH GENES TO FLYING LIZARDS BY DAVID HAINES IN CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL SCIENCE & ENGINEERING WEEK ST THOMAS CHURCH, MAMHEAD 14 MARCH 2008 A selection from POWERS OF TEN – from quark to cosmos Beach – captures that moment when we suddenly become aware of the beautiful strangeness of the everyday world around us – that sense of the numinous which is further enhanced if we have some scientific understanding of our awe-inspiring universe. Atom – based on the frequently-repeated image of an atom blown up to the size of a cathedral. The nucleus would be the size of a fly, but so dense it would weigh thousands of times the weight of the cathedral. Tamar Valley – what would this great river valley say if it could speak? How would it view the puny efforts of humans to exploit its riches? Moon – an atmospheric evocation of our desolate, lifeless companion in space. Eight Planets - Eight planets orbiting the sun - What are their names, one by one? Mercury is the first we see, Venus second and the Earth makes three and then there’s Mars, Mars, the god of war - Jupiter and Saturn make one, two more Uranus is the seventh planet, Neptune is last and completes the set Eight planets orbiting the sun - What are their names, one by one? Stargazing – a little understanding of the awesome scale and complexity of the cosmos can put our own and planet Earth’s problems in perspective. SEVEN SONGS TO POEMS BY CHARLES CAUSLEY Teignmouth – the poet imagines his parents as a courting couple a few days before the outbreak of World War I. Give me a house – we may dream of acquiring all sorts of material wealth, but what really counts in the final analysis is love. Rattler Morgan – a dreamlike and surprisingly sensual portrait of a drowned sailor, his sufferings ended and the process of integration into the ocean underway. Trusham – a bleak, disturbing vision of this beautiful Devon village where many of Causley’s family lived and died. As a gay man, Causley left no heirs, and the vitriolic “greeting” of an aged local pointing out the visitor’s failings (as he sees them) brings to the poet’s mind his own mortality. Plymouth – a potent mix of drink, desire and death in this city of transients brings to the poet’s mind a vision of the many drowned sailors who never made it back home. Summer was always sun – the poet’s memories of idyllic childhood days. The Parson and the Clerk – a rollicking retelling of the story purporting to explain the origin of the famous cliff and sea-stack at Holcombe, just outside Teignmouth. INTERVAL (20 MINUTES) A selection from LIFETIME – songs of life and evolution Birth - the origins of life on earth will probably always be shrouded in mystery since they can have left no direct record. But the fossil record of life goes way back to Earth’s infancy. Did Life begin on this young planet with the gradually increasing complexity of self-replicating molecules? Or did it start elsewhere in the universe, to be delivered here aboard rocks blasted from other planets such as Mars? Food Chain - (written in collaboration with pupils of Dunsford School). We tend to think of the food chain as a oneway process, but of course it’s really a cycle. When the top predator dies and rots away it becomes food for the very lowest (and highest) organisms in the chain: bacteria, fungi, insects, worms etc. Hedgehog – Whilst some life forms migrate to escape inhospitable seasons, others retreat into hibernation.

Queen bee – The hedgehog only has to look after itself in the spring and perhaps find a mate to start a family. But the Queen bumble bee, having spent the winter in hibernation alone has to found a whole colony whose complex social organization will thrive for one season then die off again when the cold weather arrives. Lake – New species generally arise when populations of a single species become separated. In adapting to their environments over long periods of time, the populations become genetically distinct to the point where interbreeding is no longer possible even if the populations are reunited. A beautifully clear and simple example of this process is the rise and fall of water levels in the great African lakes. At low water levels the various populations of cichlid fish diverged genetically in the separate, smaller lakes thus formed. When the water level rose, these new, separate species were again free to intermingle in the single larger lake but could no longer interbreed. Thus Lake Malawi alone contains some 200 species of cichlid all tracing their ancestry back to a single species in the distant past. Swallow – Why do so many species migrate such vast distances from season to season? One explanation is that their migrations were originally relatively small, but continental drift over millions of years has gradually enlarged these distances to hundreds of times their original size. Whatever the origins, migration is undoubtedly one of Natural Selection’s most remarkable inventions. Flying creatures – (written in collaboration with pupils of Starcross School). The ability to fly and glide has evolved independently in many different animal groups: reptiles, amphibians, mammals, birds, insects, and more. A wonderful example of the plethora of solutions invented by the blind hand of evolution. Taxonomy – Estimates of the number of species of life living on Earth rise higher every year, currently standing at around 30 million. We need a system to organize our knowledge of this constantly-shifting mass of information, and taxonomic classification provides that system. We humans have our own place in the family tree. As the song says: Kingdom – Animal, Phylum – Chordate, Class – Mammal and Order – Primate, Family – Hominid and Genus – Homo, Homo Sapiens, that’s the species of every human that you know. Selfish gene – (written in collaboration with members of Teignmouth Community Choir). Still controversial after 30 years, Richard Dawkins’ book, The Selfish Gene, persuasively argued that evolution by natural selection works primarily at the level of the individual gene rather than the individual organism. And, as the songs says, a gene is little more than a “software routine”. Mister Darwin – We all remember Charles Darwin as the genius who realized that the evolution of species was driven by the engine of natural selection. But a gardener named Patrick Matthew came up with the idea nearly 30 years earlier in a book boringly named On Naval Timber and Arboriculture. Matthew did not recognize the importance of his suggestions however, and nobody took any notice. Darwin, fearing the controversy that he accurately predicted would follow the publication of this theory, dithered for twenty years after returning from his voyage on The Beagle. Only when the younger naturalist, Alfred Russell Wallace, sent him his own version of the theory, independently arrived at from his own observations and travels, did Darwin race to get his Origin of Species into print. Eras – The history of Life on Earth is so vast in comparison to a human life span that it’s impossible to comprehend fully. But at least giving names to these great tranches of time gives us some sort of handle on Life’s history. Mutate! – We tend to think of mutation in negative terms, but without it evolution just couldn’t happen. It’s those random variations in genetic inheritance that enable natural selection to do its work. And it’s that second element that people have difficulty understanding – mutation may be random, but natural selection is decidely not. By its very nature it is a finely-tuned balancing act between genes and environment that can result – given enough time – in the most stunningly complex adaptations such as a buzzard’s eye, a butterfly’s wing – or us. In the words of the song: Let’s award the first prize for cock-ups, the second for slips, Without them we’re nothing but slimy algae, Put your hands together for things that go wrong, Take off your hats to serendipity Living light – It’s hard to think of an evolutionary niche that life hasn’t adapted to. Name an evolutionary strategy and it’s usually been followed many times on separate occasions by life forms from different kingdoms or phyla. The evolution of bio-luminescence is one such example. Four billion years - Despite the words of this song, it’s unlikely that Homo sapiens could destroy all life on earth, even in the event of nuclear holocaust. But we are the main cause of a catastrophic mass extinction that is happening all around us right now. It would be tragic if the one species on Earth capable of appreciating the enormous diversity of life turned out to be the cause of its impoverishment. We’d like to thank everyone involved with St Thomas’s Church for making tonight’s concert possible, but especially David, Angela, Lorraine and Maia for their generosity of time and enthusiasm. Teignmouth Community Choir always welcomes new members of all ages. You need no experience of singing – indeed, many of our members thought they couldn’t sing until they joined us. You don’t need to be able to read music. We usually rehearse Thursdays or Fridays. Your first session is free, so do come along and give us a try. More details at www.CommunityChoir.co.uk or on 01626 864786. Lifetime was written with funding from Awards for All (lottery) and Grants for the Arts (Arts Council).