The UCA Biology Department and Pearson Higher Education will host “Darwin Day” on March 3.
Darwin Day is a global celebration of science and reason held near the birthday of Charles Darwin, who was born Feb. 12. However, inclement weather forced this year’s celebration to be postponed.
The goals for this event are to inform the public about the importance of evolution as the unifying theme of modern biology as well as the life and work of Charles Darwin, said Dr. Mark Bland, professor of biology and director of the Arkansas State Science Fair.
This year’s speakers include UCA scholar Dr. Ben Waggoner whose talk will focus on Darwin’s obsessive quest to understand a little-known animal, the barnacle. Also speaking is Dr. Jason Wiles from Syracuse University. Dr. Wiles, an Arkansas native, will give a lecture entitled “Seeing the Light of Evolution: An Arkansan’s Journey Toward Understanding and Acceptance of Biological Change.”
Both will give their lectures March 3 in Lewis Science Center, Room 102. Dr. Waggoner will speak at 9:25 a.m. and Dr. Wiles at 12:15 p.m. Free birthday cake will be served at 11:15 a.m.
Along with the lectures, the PBS’s seven-part series “Evolution” will be shown in the Lewis Science Center 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.