The Evolutionist Events
November
Day School talk
Friday 13 November
6-7.30pm
The day the time barrier was broken
Human evolution began 150 years ago on 27 April 1859. On that afternoon Joseph Prestwich and John Evans found stone tools in undisturbed gravels and so broke the shackles of a short creationist timescale for human history. Professor Clive Gamble will review the events of that day in a remarkable year made famous by Darwin's On the Origin of Species. The demonstration of a great antiquity for humans had far reaching implications and 150 years later we can put them into perspective by reviewing what we now know or our earliest beginnings.
Book on 0161 275 2643 or email
phyllis.stoddart@manchester.ac.uk , Free, Adults
Day School
Saturday 14 November
From Darwin to DNA: Exploring Evolution in Prehistoric Archaeology
9.30-10am: Registration
10-11am: Jill Cook - On the origins of on the origins
11-11.30am: Coffee/tea
11.30am-12.30pm: Joao Zilhao - The emergence of language, art and symbolic thinking: A Neandertal test of competing hypotheses
12.30-2pm: Lunch (not provided)
2-3pm: Stephen Oppenheimer - Human prehistory and the use of DNA
3-3.30pm: Coffee/tea
3.30-4.30pm: Lisa Maher - Microliths And Mortuary Practices In Near Eastern Prehistory: The Burial Evidence From Jordan
See the document at the bottom of the page for more details. Please contact Phyllis on 0161 275 2643 or
museum@manchester.ac.uk , £40 / £30 if book by 16 Oct
Big Saturday
Saturday 21 November
11am-4pm
Evolution revolution
Celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's book, On the Origin of Species - about Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Find out why this was one of the biggest, most important and most controversial ideas of all time and take part in hands-on activities, get up close to amazing objects, talks and tours for all the family.
Most activities are free and drop-in. Some activities may need to be booked on the day and may cost up to £1.50. All ages
Tuesday 24 November
1-2pm
On the Origin of Species
150th anniversary celebration with Dr Robert Callow.
One hundred and fifty years ago, on 24 November 1859, the publisher John Murray delivered, to a largely unsuspecting world, 1250 copies of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Modestly bound in green cloth and lacking eye-catching illustrations, it was a book to be taken seriously. Making no attempt to explain the origin of life or the nature of human existence, it nevertheless punctured the veil of concealment fostered by centuries of theological introspection. As James Hutton had done for rocks, so Darwin did for organisms: the living and the dead. Evidence is all around us; we have only to open our eyes. This talk celebrates this milestone in understanding and provides a perspective on Darwin's achievement.
Book on 0161 275 2648, Free, Adults
December
Tuesday 1 December
6-8pm
Ideas Café
Darwin's work: use and abuse
Discover how Darwin's scientific discoveries were used and abused to support political agendas.
Book on 0161 275 2648, Free, Adults and older children
