Michael Jackson had a skin disorder called Vitiligo. It is a chronic disorder that causes pigment loss in patches of the skin. In terms of its biology, it occurs when the melanin pigment-producing cells called melanocytes die are not able to function properly.

There is evidence to suggest that it is triggered as an event by a combination of immune, environmental and cellular development factors.

It is genetically inherited. The worldwide incidence of Vitiligo is between 1 to 2 per cent.

The Living History Project has been completed. A final report on the results has been written by Professor Himla Soodyall of National Health Laboratory Service and School of Pathology, University of the Witwatersrand.

The report is available as a PDF file, and can be downloaded here.

All through 2009 public talks and activities are commemorating the work of the famous evolutionist Charles Darwin. First published 150 years ago in the book On the Origin of Species, Darwin’s ideas live on as the central organising concept of modern biology. The geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky said “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution."

Yet when it was first published Darwin’s book provoked a storm of controversy, some of which continues today. What turned an fairly ordinary young man into the great thinker who wrote the Origin of Species?  Darwin always said that it was the Beagle voyage that made him what he eventually became:  'The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole career.' Five years at sea, travelling around the world on a British surveying ship, he certainly saw many sights. On that famous voyage he also began an intellectual journey. He returned home with a torrent of new ideas to contemplate.

With all the celebrations of Darwin's two hundredth birthday around the world, three points are coming up again and again. First, how central his ideas are to our pressing concerns about climate change and the other critical impacts humankind is now having on global biodiversity. Second, how difficult governments and many other bodies are finding it to recognize what Darwinian science is now telling us so urgently about the pace of change and the dangers ahead. And third,  how greatly we need to build the Darwinian  understanding and share it with others, if we are all to agree on effective action to avoid ecological disaster.

Until recently, Darwin has been  seen as a remote and forbidding figure with a chilling message about life on earth. Interest is now growing  in the man and his life. In meetings with conservationists, teachers and pupils in Brazil,  Galapagos and now here in South Africa, I’ve found an enthusiasm for Darwin's years on the Beagle voyage. Students, artists, poets and musicians are also exploring Darwin's later life at Down House in England, and it is increasingly clear that all  Darwin’s insights can be explained vividly and interestingly through what he did on his travels round the world and then around his  home in the English countryside. This is proving a worthwhile way to use his heritage for understanding,  and themes are being developed in exhibitions, drama, films and many other treatments. 

If Charles Darwin were alive today, he would be “appalled” at the impact human beings have had on the natural world in the past century. But he might have been impressed by email and the electric light. And he would have been thrilled that fossil discoveries during the past few decades proved him right on his idea that humankind originated in Africa.

Speaking at Iziko Museums earlier this week, Darwin’s great-great-grandson Randal Keynes said that during his life Darwin saw the “super fecundity” of nature, its overwhelming abundance and its ability to survive.

“There was little awareness of the human impact on the natural environment (in the mid-19th Century), even though there was a lot of industrial pollution and mining damage relative to the time,” Keynes said.

“(Today), he would have seen just how humans have been able to destroy almost every place in the world. There are few places left that are truly pristine.”

Keynes joined Darwin biographer Prof Janet Browne and local scientists in a panel discussion to consider what about the modern world might have surprised Darwin, if he were alive today, and what might not have. The discussion was part of a lecture series which recognised the humanity of the naturalist who was born 200 years ago, and published the groundbreaking work On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection exactly 150 years. The discussion was hosted by the Africa Genome Education Institute and the University of Cape Town (UCT) Division of Human Genetics.

Please download the complete presentation by Dr Wilmot James.

• Darwin200final_script_291008.pdf
• IOOCT3008.pdf