Darwin Week Activity at CFI

 
I attended a lecture by Carl Zimmer last summer at the Chautauqua Institute [Carl Zimmer at Chautauqua]. He posted the text on his blog at: Darwin, Linnaeus, and One Sleepy Guy.

Here's one of the important bits ...

I’d like to thank the Chautauqua Institution for inviting me to speak during this week’s series. I’m particularly grateful that the Chautauqua Institute saw fit to make this week’s theme Darwin *and* Linnaeus. We are now descending into a frenzy of Darwin celebrations, and you’re not going to escape it until the end of 2009. We’ve got his 200th birthday in February, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species in November. The spotlight is going to be on Darwin, and Darwin alone.

I think this is a mistake. Darwin deserves celebrating, but that doesn’t mean we should fall prey to a cult of personality. Darwin did not invent biology. Darwin did not even find most of the evidence that he used to back up his theory of evolution. And he certainly did not discover all there was to know about evolution. Biologists have discovered many new things about evolution since his time. In some cases, they’ve challenged some of his most important arguments. And that’s fine. That’s the great strength of science.

So today I’m going to take advantage of our dual celebration of Linnaeus and Darwin. I’m going to talk about the process of science, how great thinkers challenge the thinkers of the past, how their own great ideas are altered by future generations. I’m going to talk about why Linnaeus was so important, and how Darwin shattered some of Linnaeus’s most cherished claims. I’m also going to talk about modern biologists have done the same to Darwin.

The best way to convey how drastically biology has changed since Darwin’s day is to focus on one group of living things. It’s a group about which Darwin–and Linnaeus–had little to say. I’m going to talk about microbes.

Carl was pointing out the obvious. Science has not stood still since 1859, the year that Origin of Species was published. As we approach the celebrations in February and November it's important to keep this in mind. That's why I'm giving a talk about the modern view of evolution and how it builds upon, but differs from, the views of Charles Darwin in 1859.

Come listen ...

Darwin Week Activity: Pre and Post Darwinian Science with Larry Moran

Starts: Friday, February 13th at 7:00 pm

Ends: Friday, February 13th at 9:30 pm

Location: Centre for Inquiry Ontario, 216 Beverley St, Toronto ON (1 minute south of College St at St. George St)

What was science like before Darwin, and how did it change after Darwin?

Larry Moran will be discussing our modern scientific world in light of the impact Darwin and his theory of evolution due to natural selection has had on it.

Larry Moran is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto.

$5, $3 for students and FREE for Friends of the Centre

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