SEMINAR: May 14th at 3:00pm, Richard Milner presents "Darwin's Oddball Army"

[Laura Bracken <lbracken@rsmas.miami.edu>]

RICHARD MILNER

Darwin’s Oddball Army: Amazing Tales of Evolutionary Eccentrics

 Last year Richard Milner helped us celebrate Darwin’s birthday with a musical performance, Charles Darwin: Live and in Concert.  This Friday, Milner will return to the Rosenstiel School to share more history and humor.

 Darwin's theory of evolution inspired a ragtag army of dinosaur diggers, monkey watchers, paleontologists, and field naturalists -- some of whom were uncommonly brilliant, but also colorful and wildly eccentric.

 This entertaining talk by Richard Milner, the author of Darwin’s Universe: Evolution from A to Z chronicles a remarkable cast of characters: from Waterhouse Hawkins, the first dinosaur artist whose greatest works are buried beneath New York’s Central Park, to Kary Mullis, the Nobel laureate who claimed his ground-breaking discoveries in biotechnology benefitted from conversations with “a glowing raccoon” in northern California.

 Find out how England’s coprolite diggers saved the country’s economy by mining tons of dinosaur poop, and learn about the brilliant scoundrel called Flint Jack, who bamboozled Victorian gentlemen with his forgeries of prehistoric stone tools. See how Richard Garner locked himself in a cage in the African forest in order to safely observe wild apes and monkeys. 

 Don’t miss this slide-illustrated hour of incredible-but-true episodes in evolutionary science by a master storyteller.  Then join us for afternoon tea.

FRIDAY, May 14, 2010

Presentation begins at 3:00pm, followed by afternoon tea.

Rosenstiel School Library

4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Virginia Key, FL 33149

Laura Bracken

Alumni & Outreach Manager, Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science

Science & Education Specialist, R.J. Dunlap Marine Conservation Program

University of Miami 

4600 Rickenbacker Causeway

Miami, FL 33149

305-421-4207 office

305-322-9449 mobile

305-421-4931 fax