Second annual Darwin Day coming Saturday

The 198th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth will be celebrated on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2007 on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus.

The morning session will feature three talks: “Irreducible Complexity and the Human Eye” by zoology Professor Janette Boughman and philosophy Profess Elliott Sober; “DNA and Human Evolution” by genetics Professor Bret Payseur; and “An Introduction to Evolutionary Medicine” by UW-Milwaukee anthropologist Michael Muehlenbein. The talks and question periods will run from 9 a.m. till noon in 3650 Humanities on campus.

After lunch, activities move to the Geology Museum, Weeks Hall, for an afternoon of displays that will explore how evolution is important to medicine and agriculture, as well as a variety of other evolutionary topics. Among the topics will be the age of Earth, sexual selection, convergent evolution, why flowers are beautiful, farming and pharmacy in ants, evolutionary trees, transitional fossils, biogeography, and human evolution.

Presenters for the displays include faculty, staff, and graduate students from the departments of agronomy, anthropology, bacteriology, biochemistry, botany, geology and geophysics, history of science, horticulture, and zoology.

All of the day’s events are intended to be engaging for the public. Questions and discussion will be welcomed. Refreshments will be provided throughout the day. Free supplemental materials for teachers are planned.

All events are free and open to the public. Parking is available throughout campus. Humanities (morning session) is located on Park Street, and State Street, south of the Historical Society. The Geology Museum in Weeks Hall (afternoon session) is located on the southwest corner of West Dayton and Charter Streets.

For information, please contact Prof. Dana Geary at dana@geology.wisc.edu or 263-7754; Mara McDonald at mamcdona@wisc.edu or 263-8941; or Brooke Norsted at brooke@geology.wisc.edu or 262-1412.

For more details, visit the Darwin Day Web site.

The event is sponsored by the College of Letters and Science, the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, the Geology Museum, the department of geology and geophysics and the evolution coordinating committee.