Who cares about The World Before Darwin?
Monday, August 24, 2009 at 11:36PM
darwin150 in Event News, everett mendelsohn, the world before darwin

We are extremely lucky to be working with Professor Everett Mendelsohn, Professor of the History of Science, Emeritus at Harvard and one of the University's most popular professors, on the first of our free public lecture series this Fall. His lecture will be on "The World Before Darwin," explaining the context in which Darwin's discoveries were truly revolutionary, and setting the stage for our subsequent lectures on Darwin's work.

Students rave about "his ability to connect scientific developments to their historical and social context, and praise the way in which he got undergraduates to interact with course material."

Mendelsohn believes that the sciences "have a real responsibility to make sure that the enlightened citizenry can understand what science is about...emphasizing that Harvard's science faculty should take care to speak to non-science people to increase their confidence that they can and should gain an understanding of what's happening in the sciences."

The Darwin 150 Project Lecture Series is designed to educate the public on the most important insights from Darwin's great book - as well as provide historical context and exciting discoveries at the frontiers of 21st century evolutionary biology.

Free registration for Professor Everett Mendelsohn's lecture is at http://darwinlecture1.eventbrite.com and the event will be available live at Harvard, or via webcast or teleconference.

If you snoozed through science in school or ever just wondered why you should care about Charles Darwin, this is your chance to find out from one of the best possible teachers on the subject!

Article originally appeared on Archive of the 150th Anniversary of On the Origin of Species (http://www.darwin150.com/).
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