Darwin 200th Anniversary Events Calendar

A Partial List of Events in Nebraska Celebrating the
200th Anniversary of Darwin's Birth and the
150th Anniversary of On the Origin of Species
(Announcements provided by various Nebraskans and by Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education)

Two events in Omaha will happen simultaneously at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, February 12. Admission to both events is free.

The 10th Annual Darwin Day Celebration sponsored by REASON-Omaha will feature Dr. Ted Burk, Prof. of Animal Behavior, Entomology, and Behavioral Ecology at Creighton University, on the question "Is it Good to be Sexy or Sexy to be Good?" in Room 1002 of UNMC's Durham Research Center, Emile & Saddlecreek. Park in the visitors garage, across the street and south about 1/2 block, or just across the street in the stalls. For more information, see http://www.reason.ws/darwinday09.html

“Blue Lias, or the Fish Lizard’s Whore” will be in the Hixson-Lied Auditorium in Creighton University’s Harper Center located at 620 N. 20th St. Performance artist Claudia Stevens presents a musical and literary romp about the Victorian "princess of paleontology" Mary Anning. More information about the event is at http://biology.creighton.edu/misc/bluelias/index.html. Information about Mary Anning and her contributions to paleontology is at http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/anning.html. The Blue Lias is a geologic formation in southern England, where Mary Anning grew up and is part of the Lias Group. The Blue Lias consists of a sequence of limestone and shale layers, laid down in latest Triassic and early Jurassic times, between 195 and 200 million years ago and is famous for its fossils, especially ammonites.

On February 13, at 7:30 p.m., George Levine of Princeton University and author of Darwin Loves You will speak on "Darwin's Prophetic Apprenticeship on the Beagle Voyage" at the Nebraska Union, 14th & R Streets in Lincoln. His talk will be the keynote of the university's celebration of the Darwin anniversaries. For further details, visit: http://www.unl.edu/plains/seminars/2009/bdaylecture.shtml. Immediately after the talk, join Nebraska Citizens for Science as they host Levine at Applebee's, 11th & Q Sts. in Lincoln, and toast the memory of Charles Darwin. For further information about Nebraska Citizens for Science, visit: http://www.nebscience.org/

On Sunday February 15, Countryside Community Church in Omaha, Augustana Lutheran in Omaha, and St. Martha's Episcopal in Papillion are among more than 900 congregations from across the country and around the world to participate in Evolution Weekend 2009 Feb. 13-15, a period designed to recognize that religion and science should be seen as complementary rather than confrontational. Evolution Weekend is sponsored by the The Clergy Letter Project.

On Thursday February 19, at 4:00 p.m., Dan Crawford of UNL's Department of Classics and Relgious Studies will adress the question "Is Evolution Compatible with Monotheism?" at Andrews Hall in the Bailey Library on the UNL campus in Lincoln. Additional lectures in the Special Departmental Lecture Series at UNL will occur Feb. 20 - March 11. For more information, visit: http://www.unl.edu/plains/seminars/2009/deptlectures.shtml

On Thursday, February 26, at 7:00 p.m. Joan Roughgarden, Professor of Biological Sciences at Stanford University, will present a lecture entitled "What Jesus and Darwin Have In Common: Reflections of an Evolutionary Biologist" at Countryside Community Church, 8787 Pacific St., Omaha. Suggested donation is $10. For a flyer please visit http://www.countrysideucc.org/userfiles/File/Roughgarden%20Flyer.pdf

On March 26-28, 2009, UNL will host a symposium entitled "Celebrating Darwin's Legacy". For more information, visit: http://www.unl.edu/plains/seminars/2009/program.shtml

For more information, visit the Darwin Day Celebration registry. Use your web browser's "find" function to find the phrase (without quotations marks) "/NE" to locate all registered Darwin Day 2009 events in Nebraska (and Nevada, New Jersey, etc. :) by visitng: http://www.darwinday.org/events/listing.php