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To honor the 206th birthday of legendary evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin, the University of Alabama at Birmingham will host Darwin Day on Thursday, Feb. 12, and Friday, Feb. 13. The events will celebrate scientific research in evolutionary biology and other disciplines.
“Charles Darwin’s great discovery, the principle of natural selection, is more relevant to science than ever before,” said Steven Austad, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Biology. “For instance, it underlies our increasing success in cancer chemotherapy, provides guidance in combating new strains of drug-resistant diseases, and ultimately will determine how catastrophic climate change will prove to be for our planet.”
On Thursday, a public poster session highlighting the work of UAB faculty and students will kick off this year’s Darwin Day events. The session, which is being held from 2-4:30 p.m. in Lister Hill Library’s Edge of Chaos, will feature exciting new research from students and faculty. Those interested in presenting a poster should email darwinday@uab.edu with their name, department, poster title, and indication of whether they are a student, postdoc or faculty.
On Thursday from 6-8 p.m., Darwin Day activities will continue with a talk by Carl Zimmer, world-renowned science writer for The New York Times and author of the book “A Planet of Viruses.” Zimmer’s lecture, “Darwin’s Ebola: The Evolution of Deadly Viruses (and Not-So-Deadly Ones),” will be held in the McWane Science Center and is open to the public. Reservations can be made by calling 205-714-8414; Zimmer’s books also may be bought through the reservation system.
| “The approach of Charles Darwin represents the scientific endeavor at its best wherein data and reasoning interact to elucidate the natural world. Anthropologists and other students of science today will be well-served by striving to emulate Darwin’s objectivity, meticulous attention to detail and appreciation for complexity during the practice of science.” |
Darwin Day will continue on Friday, Feb. 13, from 4-6 p.m., with a lecture from Emory University primatologist Frans De Waal, Ph.D., provided through an endowment for the John S. Jemison, Jr., Visiting Professorship in the Humanities. De Waal’s talk, “War and Peace Among the Primates,” will discuss his book “The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates” in the UAB Hospital-Highlands Media Center. To attend this lecture, please RSVP to darwinday@uab.edu. Darwin Day activities will wrap up with the Adaptation Party at Desert Island Supply Company on Friday at 7 p.m. Attendees are invited to come dressed as their favorite adaptation.
“The approach of Charles Darwin represents the scientific endeavor at its best wherein data and reasoning interact to elucidate the natural world,” said Doug Fry, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Anthropology. “Anthropologists and other students of science today will be well-served by striving to emulate Darwin’s objectivity, meticulous attention to detail and appreciation for complexity during the practice of science.”
Refreshments and drinks will be provided at all events, and Darwin Day T-shirts will be on sale as well.
Darwin Day is sponsored by the UAB Department of Biology, Department of Anthropology, Honors College, College of Arts and Sciences, UAB Hospital-Highlands, Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society, and the McWane Science Center. For more information about the events, email darwinday@uab.edu.