SPECIAL DARWIN DAY PRESENTATION

2020

Tentative title:  Parasites, Brain Zombies, and Evolution

Wednesday, February 12th

Presenter:  Dr. Gabrielle Stryker, CWU Department of Biological Sciences

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PAST CELEBRATIONS

2019

Becoming Charles Darwin

Presenter:  Dr. Lixing Sun, CWU Department of Biological Sciences

Dr. Sun shares some lesser known stories involving Darwin's education, family life, and personal crises, and we will learn how these experiences helped shape the famous naturalist, biologist and theorist of evolution.

DARWIN DAY T-SHIRTS AVAILABLE NOW!

 

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2018

Beautiful Weapons and the Diversity of Life

Friday--February 9th -- 5:45 to 6:45pm -- Hertz Hall Theater, Room 100

Darwin's birthday cake will be served in the Hertz Hall Lobby directly following the performance.

 

 

For the keynote presentation of our Darwin Day celebrations this year, we are excited to bring to campus a unique study of biodiversity and evolution.  "Beautiful Weapons and the Diversity of Life" is a dance performance by the Gonzaga University Repertory Dance Company. 

Discussion after the performance will be led by Dr. Brook Swanson, a comparative physiologist in the Department of Biology at Gonzaga University and Suzanne Ostersmith, Gonzaga University Dance Director.

Dr. Swanson describes the event as "...an exploration of biodiversity, examined both through research and through dance...we touch on processes of natural and sexual selection [and]...examine comparative biomechanics and the relationship between form and performance...[specifically] how interactive selective pressures lead to different solutions to life's challenges, and eventually to diversity."

 

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2017

From Bones to Behavior:  Using Sign of Injury and Illness to Understand the Lives of Extinct Mammals

Dr. Meaghan Wetherell, CWU Department of Geological Sciences

Friday--February 10th -- 4:00pm -- Science Building, Room 147

 

DARWIN DAY BIRTHDAY CAKE CELEBRATION

Tuesday--February 14th--3:15pm -- Dean Hall Lobby

Come have a slice of cake before the presentations!

 

Chasing Darwin:  Ten Days in the Galapagos with a Biologist and Geologist

Drs. Holly Pinkart (CWU Department of Biological Sciences) and Bob Hickey (CWU Department of Geography)

Tuesday--February 14th--4:00pm--Dean Hall, Room 104

 

Hobo Sapiens: History of a Peripatetic Species

Dr. Joe Lorenz, CWU Department of Anthropology

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2016

Cuddling With Nature:  Aesthetics, Biophilia, and Evolution

Lixing Sun, CWU Department of Biological Sciences

A birthday cake for Darwin will be served in the foyer at 3:30 

Friday -- February 12 -- 4:00pm -- Science Building, Room 147

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2015

Tuesday -- February 10 -- 4:00pm -- Science Building, Room 147

The History, Evolution, and Future of Alpine Plants in the Rocky Mountain Floristic Region

To kick off this year's Darwin Days celebration, please join us for a talk by Dr. Eric DeChaine, Curator of the Pacific Northwest Herbarium at Western Washington University.
The Rocky Mountain Floristic Region, spanning the Rocky, Coast, Cascade, and Sierra Nevada Mountains from New Mexico to Alaska, is one of the most botanically diverse regions in North America. Alpine plants inhabit a fragmented archipelago of sky islands within this landscape. Some species are widespread, while others are narrowly endemic. The diversity and distribution of these high elevation taxa have been and will continue to be strongly influenced by the climatic variability of the Quaternary.

Wednesday -- February 11 -- 4:30pm --Lobby of Science Building

Let's Celebrate: 156 Years Since The Publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species

Come party, Darwin style! 
Join us for this fun Darwin Days event!  We'll have performers from the popular local dance troupe, TusuyPeru, music and yummy birthday cake, all in honor of Charles Darwin.
See you there!

Thursday -- February 12 -- 5:30pm -- Lobby of Dean Hall

Why the Rush?  Evolutionary Perspectives on Addiction

To celebrate Charles Darwin's 206th birthday, the Museum will explore evolutionary perspectives on addiction, including the emergence of opiate and dopamine pathways.  Why wasn't addiction, which seems so destructive,  "bred out" of human populations long ago? Is a propensity to addiction a by-product of neurobiological processes that offer significant adaptive advantages to our species? Featuring CWU faculty members, Drs. Kara Gabriel (Psychology), Lucinda Carnell (Biological Sciences), and Joe Lorenz (Anthropology and Museum Studies), the round-table will be moderated by Dr. David Darda (Biological Sciences), followed by a question and answer period for the audience.

The round-table complements the Museum of Culture and Environment's current exhibit, Righteous Dopefiend: Homelessness, Addiction and Poverty in Urban America.

 

T-SHIRTS AVAILABLE 2/9  

*order through Biology Office*

 

2014

Monday, February 10th

12:00-12:50 pm  |  Science Building, Room 147

Dr. Jennifer Dechaine:  Epigenetics: A New Dimension to Understanding Disease, Behavior, and All that Makes You, You.

Tuesday, February 11th

12:00-12:50 pm  |  Science Building, Room 101

Dr. David Darda:  Oddball Anatomical Structures and the Stories They Tell:  The Governor of the Testes. 

Wednesday, February 12th

Keynote Speaker & Book Signing

7:00-8:00 pm  |  Science Building, Room 147

Dr. Lixing Sun:  The Fairness Instinct: The Robin Hood Mentality and Our Biological Nature.

Darwin's birthday cake will be served in the foyer following the talk.

Thursday, February 13th

12:00-12:50 pm  |  Science Building, Room 147

Dr. Dominic Klyve:  Darwin vs. Mendel: The Historical Grudge Match for the Soul of Biology.

5:30-6:30 pm  |  Dean Hall, Museum Lobby

Dr. Joe Lorenz, Love in the Time of the Pleistocene.

Dr. Lorenz, a biological anthropologist, will talk on the complicated and intimate relations between Neanderthals and early modern humans.