British Celebrate Charles Darwin
On the 200th anniversary of his birth, evolution is still a hard sell to many
LONDON—On Thursday, February 12, a large crowd gathered around a huge iced fruitcake topped with 200 candles in a park in central Shrewsbury to sing "Happy Birthday, Dear Charlie." The honoree? Shrewsbury's most famous son: Charles Darwin. The candle-blowing is the photo-op part of a celebratory, monthlong Darwin Festival in the naturalist's hometown, a series of events that also include lectures and guided walks.
Shrewsbury, a historic market town set among the rolling hills of England's West Midlands, is hardly alone in using the occasion of Darwin's bicentenary to pay him tribute. Nationwide, Britain is pulling out all the stops to honor not only the man who first expounded the theory that natural selection is the basis for millions of years of evolving life on Earth but the coincidental 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work, On the Origin of Species. A year's worth of commemorations and events will essentially make 2009 the Year of Darwin in the United Kingdom.
LONDON—On Thursday, February 12, a large crowd gathered around a huge iced fruitcake topped with 200 candles in a park in central Shrewsbury to sing "Happy Birthday, Dear Charlie." The honoree? Shrewsbury's most famous son: Charles Darwin. The candle-blowing is the photo-op part of a celebratory, monthlong Darwin Festival in the naturalist's hometown, a series of events that also include lectures and guided walks.
Shrewsbury, a historic market town set among the rolling hills of England's West Midlands, is hardly alone in using the occasion of Darwin's bicentenary to pay him tribute. Nationwide, Britain is pulling out all the stops to honor not only the man who first expounded the theory that natural selection is the basis for millions of years of evolving life on Earth but the coincidental 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work, On the Origin of Species. A year's worth of commemorations and events will essentially make 2009 the Year of Darwin in the United Kingdom.
"It's a fantastic response," says Bob Bloomfield, director of Darwin200, the umbrella group for many of the planned activities. And why not? he asks. "Darwin's ideas have influenced virtually every aspect of human thought," from science to art to religion. The man who revolutionized modern biology and his legacy "are a huge national heritage" worthy of all the attention.
No comments:
Post a Comment