• Charleston Chapter of Sigma Xi
• CofC Biology
  
• CofC Geology
• Lowcountry Hall of Science and Math
  

The Public is Invited...
to the Third Annual observance of Darwin Week in Charleston.  We've got an exciting line-up of events on the schedule!  All are free.  But arrive early - seats fill up fast!

All Talks are Scheduled...
for late afternoons or evenings on the College of Charleston campus.  The CofC Science Center is located at the corner of Coming and George Streets.  The address of the Education Center is 25 St. Philip Street.  Parking is available in the City Garage on the corner of St. Philip and George.  Each talk will be followed by an opportunity to meet the speaker over refreshments.  Birthday party for Charles Darwin on Wednesday!
 

Monday, Feb 10 - Dr. Milford Wolpoff
A Neandertal in Your Closet?
Neandertals are the best known of the human fossils, the most widely characterized and caricatured, and "Neandertal" is the only word from paleoanthropology to work its way into common speech. Most people have an image and an opinion about Neandertals - ask your postman - and there are probably no ancient humans that evoke a wider range of interpretations. Who were these people? Are the swirling conflicts about them, or about the history of their discoveries? And most importantly, is there a Neandertal in your family tree, and is it on a branch, or on the main trunk?  Dr. Milford Wolpoff is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan.  He has firsthand experience with virtually the entire human and pre-human fossil record, from evidence of hominid origins to the appearance of modern humans and their evolution.
5:30 - 6:30 pm,  Science Center Room 123.  Refreshments afterward.


Tuesday, Feb 11 - Dr. Timothy A. Mousseau
Contemporary Adaptations: Explaining the Past and Predicting the Future.
Recent advances in molecular biology and ecology have generated a wide range of comprehensive case studies that provide tremendous insight to phylogenetic patterns and the evolutionary processes responsible for the generation of biodiversity. Using examples drawn from molecular genetics to ecosystems studies, Professor Mousseau will explore the recent developments in biology that are helping to refine our understanding of past evolutionary events and generate predictions concerning biological responses to environmental change in the future.  Dr. Tim Mousseau is Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina.  His research focuses on the evolution of life history, physiology, and behavior in crickets, grasshoppers, beetles and love bugs.
4:30pm - 5:30 pm Science Center Room 123.  Refreshments afterward.
6:40 - Repeat  performance at The Citadel, Grimsley Hall Auditorium, Room 117.

Wednesday, Feb 12 - Dr. Paul D. Fullagar
Age of the Earth:  From Darwin's Time to Now
Scientists have determined that Earth is 4,550 million-years-old, based on the decay rates of radioactive isotopes.  However, in the 19th century, Charles Darwin and especially his contemporaries, had quite different ideas as to the age of the Earth.  We will consider some of the early efforts to determine the age of the Earth, and see how the discovery of radioactivity in the late 1800's changed views regarding Earth's age, and led to the development of much improved methods for determining ages.  Dr. Paul Fullagar is Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.  His research focuses on the evolution of the crystalline rocks in the southern Appalachians and elsewhere.
4:30pm - 5:30 pm Science Center Room 123.  Birthday cake & refreshments afterward.
Happy 194th Birthday C.D.!

Thursday, Feb 13 - Dr. David S. Mann
In Court:  Teaching Evolution and Creationism--Deja Vu all over again
Are public elementary and secondary schools permitted by law to teach two truths:  the history of the earth according to science AND the history of the earth according to Judeo-Christian religious theology?  Is that question itself a contradiction?  Dr. David Mann is Professor of Political Science at the College of Charleston.  His research interests include state government policies, judicial politics, criminal justice, and political behavior.
6:00 - 7:00 pm, Education Center Room 118.
Repeat Performance at The Citadel - 6:40 pm, Thursday Feb. 20.  Grimsley Hall Auditorium, Room 117.

Thursday, Feb 13  - Inherit the Wind
Join the College of Charleston Film Club for a screening of Inherit the Wind, a dramatization of the "Scopes Monkey Trial."  This 1960 Hollywood classic (starring Spencer Tracy) recreates the sensational 1925 courtroom battle betweenWilliam Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow that Bryan called a "contest between evolution and Christianity."  The defendent was John T. Scopes, arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution to his high school biology class in Dayton, Tennessee.  This event is held in conjunction with The Jazz Age project at the College of Charleston.
7:00 - 9:20 pm, Education Center Room 118