Darwin’s legacy: why biology is not physics, or why evolution has not become a common sense11Award Lecture, Genetics Society of Canada P. Moens and W.F. Grant Award of Excellence, 2010. / Conférence du récipiendaire, Prix d’excellence P. Moens et W.F. Grant de la Société de Génétique du Canada, 2010.

Cosmology and evolution together have enabled us to look deep into the past and comprehend evolution-from the big bang to the cosmos, from molecules to humans. Here, I compare the nature of theories in biology and physics and ask why physical theories get accepted by the public without necessarily comprehending them but biological theories do not. Darwin's theory of natural selection, utterly simple in its premises but profound in its …