Who cares about 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!

Missed our call with Richard Milner? Listen to the mp3!

Last Wednesday, we kicked off our Fall Darwin150 Campaign -- the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" -- with scientist, editor, and author Richard Milner.

Milner delighted us with the stories, songs, and science of his new book, "Darwin's Universe." An Associate in Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History, Richard Milner is an unusual combination of scientist, writer, historian, and Broadway actor.

Download the mp3 of our wonderful conversation here: Download RichardMilner-Aug-19-2009-ReadingOdyssey

We recommend Richard's wise and witty book. Buy it here: http://www.DarwinsUniverse.org

And check out Milner's musical performance website: http://www.DarwinLive.com

Don't miss our future events! Find out more and register for free on our Darwin Events page.

Richard Milner Lecture--3 days left to register! It's free!

Wednesday, August 19
Speaker, RICHARD MILNER
Associate in Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, Contributing Editor of Natural History magazine and author of the just-released "Darwin's Universe"
Discussion of his new book, "Darwin's Universe"
8:00 PM EST/ 5:00 PM PST (1 hour call + Q&A)

REGISTER FOR FREE!

Wednesday, August 19, at 8pm eastern time, we will have a live phone-based discussion with Richard Milner about his new book, "Darwin's Universe." Hosted by The Reading Odyssey and the Darwin 150 Project. Sponsors include Citrix Online and HiDefConferencing.

Milner will help to set context for our 150th Anniversary Lecture Series to begin in September by talking broadly about Darwin, evolution and Milner's new book which catalogs the scientific, cultural, political impact of the theory of evolution.Milner shares with the Reading Odyssey community the idea that we have a lot to learn from the great thinkers, great books and ideas of the past - and that we can "talk" to those thinkers and learn from them. As Milner says in his introduction, there is a lot of value to creating a conversation with Darwin. "Despite our conviction that present scientific knowledge surpasses anything known a century ago, we can still learn a great deal by 'talking over' the  great questions of evolution and science with Darwin and his friends."
 

Richard Milner Associate in Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, Contributing Editor of Natural History magazine and author of the just-released "Darwin's Universe"
Richard Milneris an Associate in Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History, contributing editor at Natural History magazine, and Fellow of the Linnean Society of London. Author of three award-winning books on evolution, he has published articles inScientific Americanand other science magazines and has been featured on the History, Discovery, and Animal Planet channels, as well as on BBC Two and Nova. Milner has performed his one-man musical Charles Darwin: Live & In Concert in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and in Darwin's beloved Galápagos Islands.

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Darwin's 200th Birthday

In just 12 days, we were able to get over 200,000 members to the Facebook group to wish Darwin a Happy 200th Birthday! 

Prominent scientists attended our 1-hour tribute on Darwin's birthday, Thursday, Feb 12 and we all wished him happy birthday together on the call. :)

Listen to the call here!

Summer Lecture with Richard Milner

Don't miss our FREE event on Wednesday, August 19 at 8pmEST!

Speaker, RICHARD MILNER, Associate in Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, Contributing Editor of Natural History magazine and author of the just-released "Darwin's Universe" Discussion of his new book, "Darwin's Universe"
8:00 PM EST/ 5:00 PM PST (1 hour call + Q&A)

Richard Milner, a longtime writer and author of three award-winning books on evolution, will spend an hour talking with us about his new book, "Darwin's Universe" and about many
of his interesting projects, including his one-man musical, "Charles Darwin: Live & In Concert."

For more information and to register for free, click here:
http://RichardMilner2009.eventbrite.com/