National Taiwan University (NTU) and the British Council in Taiwan this weekend launched a year of events commemorating the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of his theory of evolution.
NTU president Lee Si-chen (李嗣涔) and Lo Chu-fang (羅竹芳), dean of the College of Life Science, inaugurated a replica of Darwin’s One tree of Life manuscript at the college on Friday.
“The revelation we learn from Darwin is that those who can propose evidence to challenge the scientific establishment commonly accepted by the public will be able to play a leading role in scientific research,” Lee said at the ceremony.
“I hope one day a scientist from NTU will also be able to challenge contemporary scientific theories like Darwin did,” he said.
The events will include lectures on Darwin and evolution, exhibits and a play, said Kuo Shu-shen (郭書紳) of the NTU secretariat.
Academics from Taiwan and abroad will give lectures every month, he said.
The highlights include a lecture next month by Artyom Kopp of the College of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Davis, and one in June by Douglas Futuyma of the department of ecology and evolution at Stony Brook University on evolutionary biology since The Origin of Species.
A play titled After Darwin will be performed by dongjianti (動見体劇團) theater group from March 13 to March 15.
The play concerns society and the principle of survival of the fittest, NTU said.
More information is available online at http://darwin200.evomyth.net/index.html.
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