| Title: | Public lecture to celebrate Darwin’s 200th anniversary - "Darwin and the Origin of Humans” |
|---|---|
| Date: | Thursday 12 February 2009 |
| Time: | 6.00 pm |
| Organiser: | UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science |
| Location: | Science Lecture Theatre A, Belfield |
| Audience: | All Welcome |
Public lecture to celebrate Darwin’s 200th anniversary
On 12 February 2009, the world will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, the evolutionary biologist who changed the way we understand the origin and evolution of species on earth.
To mark this anniversary, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science will host a public lecture by leading mammalian biologist Professor Tom Hayden entitled: “Darwin and the Origin of Humans” at 6:00pm on Thursday 12th February 2009, in Science Lecture Theatre A, Belfield.
“On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life,” by Charles Darwin published in 1859, a century and a half ago, introduced to the world to a new theory that species populations evolve over the course of generations through a process called ‘natural selection.’
The central evidence for Darwin’s theory of ‘natural selection’ came from materials gathered and observations made on his almost five year voyage on the HMS Beagle in the 1830s, and was expanded by correspondence with scientific researchers and additional experiments upon his return to England.
At the time of publication, Darwin’s theory of natural selection was highly controversial and it attracted widespread interest beyond the scientific audience. Darwin’s theory of natural selection remains the most widely acknowledged model of speciation today. Despite this, political and religious challenges to the theory of evolution continue in some countries to this day.
Evolution and population biology is one of the strongest research themes in the UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science. Researchers at the School endeavor to reconstruct the evolutionary history and ecology of animals and plants using leading techniques from molecular biology and anatomical and palaeontological approaches which date back to the time of Darwin.
