Spring Break
ECU celebrates Darwin's 200th birthday
Max Lemanowicz
Issue date: 2/17/09 Section: News
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Dr. Jeffrey Mckinnon, the chair of the Department of Biology, opened the ceremony by introducing Alan White, the dean of Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences.
White gave an overview of Darwin's "Origin of Species" and briefly discussed the book.
"Rather than me telling you about Darwin, I thought, let Darwin speak for himself," White said. "It's almost like going to a Shakespearean play. This is not the way we talk today. It's not written the way we write today. But you just have to let it wash over you."
White mentioned the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle's hints at the theory of evolution. "What's missing is a mechanism," White said. "Aristotle lacked a way of explaining why it is that we evolve. Darwin came up with a mechanism -- a way of explaining how this happened and that is natural selection."
From 1831-1836, Darwin embarked on a five-year journey aboard the HMS Beagle. He made significant finds all across South America and particularly on the Galapagos Islands in accordance with his theory. Twenty-three years later, he compiled his notes, wrote and published "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection" in 1859.
In his introduction to "Origin of Species," Darwin points out that we need to know "how" evolution happens and not just that it happens.
"In the intro, he's laying out his jargon for this idea of natural selection," White said.
White closed his discussion of Darwin with a reading of the last paragraph of Darwin's famous text. In these last words, Darwin reiterates his theory of evolution and notes that, "we have all been produced by laws acting around us."
Associate Professor Jason Bond then lectured on biodiversity and the future of life. Bond has become a well-known spider researcher of late and was a recipient of "the Colbert bump," a term used to describe the increase in popularity someone gets after appearing on "The Colbert Report."
Bond recently named a new species of spider after Colbert along with naming several other spiders after Angelina Jolie, Nelson Mandela and Neil Young.
"I've heard this stuff before," Nick Creech, a junior biology major said. "I took the class in 2007 and I was there with him when he was naming his spiders and when he was telling us about them. It's still quite interesting."
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