One Book One Northwestern 2008-2009 Archives
May 9 - August 24, 2008
"Design in the Age of Darwin: From William Morris to Frank Lloyd Wright"
With the publication of The Origin of Species in 1859, Charles Darwin challenged the foundations of both science and culture. His ideas about the transmutation of species and the mutability of nature provoked strong reactions among naturalists and theologians and continue to stir debate today. It is less well known that the influence of Darwinian and other modes of evolutionary thought extended into the realms of architecture, the decorative arts, and design, as well, where biological terms like “adaptation,” “fitness,” “functionalism,” and “type” were used by theorists and practitioners alike. During the fifty or so years following the publication of The Origin of Species, biologists and designers wrestled with the question of whether the evolution of plants and animals, and the decorative forms derived from them, was the result of an internal dynamic presided over by a divine creator or external factors governed by mere contingency. The dispute, which may be called the "formalism/functionalism debate," was engaged by the English designers William Morris, Christopher Dresser, C. F. A. Voysey, and C. R. Ashbee, as well as the American architects Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, whose works are included in the exhibition.
This exhibition was guest curated by Northwestern University art history professor Stephen F. Eisenman. A full color illustrated catalogue ($36.95) published by the Block Museum and Northwestern University Press accompanies the exhibition.
June 5, 2008, 5:30 pm
The Phyllis Weil Ellis Lecture at the Block Museum of Art: "Charles Darwin: Evolution and Influence"
Northwestern University professors Stephen F. Eisenman (art history) and Teresa Horton (neurobiology and physiology) explore the principles of Darwin's theory of evolution and its impact on design aesthetics.
Presented as part of the One Book, One Northwestern program and co-sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Committee on Evolutionary Processes.
August 13, 2008, 8:30 pm
Block Cinema Outdoor Movie: "Inherit the Wind"
(Stanley Kramer, 1960, 128 minutes, DVD). “Inherit the Wind” is a dramatized version of the famous 1925 Scopes monkey trial where a high school teacher, John Scopes, was tried for teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Spencer Tracy plays Henry Drummond, the fictional stand-in for the famous trial lawyer Clarence Darrow. It is one of the great courtroom dramas.
Screened in conjunction with the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art's exhibition, "Design in the Age of Darwin."
July 9, 2008, 9:00 pm
Block Cinema Outdoor Movie: "Planet of the Apes"
(Franklin Schaffner, 1968, 112 minutes, DVD). Imagine a world where apes are the ruling species and humans are the beasts. Astronaut Taylor (Charlton Heston) falls from the sky into this uncanny world, where the ruling class refuses to believe that something as low as humans could ever be related to apes. The film is a brilliantly open-ended metaphor on race, class, fundamentalism and our inability to see beyond ourselves.
Screened in conjunction with the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art's exhibition, "Design in the Age of Darwin."
September 3 - October 2, 2008
"The Multifarious Mr. Darwin"
Come experience the depth and breadth of Northwestern University Library's collections through an exploration of the life and times of Charles Darwin.
September 20, 2008, 1:00 pm
"Language and Signs as Indicators of Evolution"
Curator of Anthropology
American Museum of Natural History
Join Dr. Ian Tattersall at the Field Museum as he tackles Darwin and the role of natural selection in the development of the human symbolic mind. Hear about the recent innovations in the fields of biology and culture that have led him to his conclusions and learn how this impacts the future of human evolution. Presented by the Leakey Foundation and The Field Museum.
October 7, 2008, 7:00 pm
"The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution"
Sean Carroll, Ph.D.
Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
University of Wisconsin
Darwin's theory of Evolution by natural selection is still the meachanism we use to explain organizmal adaptation, but the intervening 150 years since the publication of the Origin have led to many new discoveries that help us to document the precise basis of those adaptations - to see the steps of Evolution. Chief among these is the sequence of an organism's DNA, which contains a detailed record of its evolutionary history - a record of how the fittest are made.
October 13 - December 23, 2008
"The Multifarious Mr. Darwin: Darwin's Finches"
In conjunction with the One Book, One Northwestern program, Northwestern University Library has opened a new section of its exhibit, "The Multifarious Mr. Darwin." This new display, chiefly on the third floor of the Deering Library, highlights Charles Darwin's antecedents and influences, his life and the development of his ideas, and reactions and responses to his scientific work. It also demonstrates the richness of the resources available to students and researchers at Northwestern by featuring books and other materials from the Charles Deering Library of Special Collections, from other libraries on the Evanston campus, from the Galter Health Sciences Library, and from the collections of the Field Museum of Natural History and of the Chicago Botanic Garden.
A special exhibit case on the main floor of the Main Library houses "Darwin's Finches"--specimens of the diversity among finches that made Darwin question the idea that species are fixed and unchanging--which are on loan from the Field Museum of Natural History.
October 20, 2008, 7:00 pm
"The Ascent of Darwin: Commemorating the Origin of Species"
Janet Browne, Ph.D.
Aramont Professor of the History of Science
Harvard University
By the time of his death Charles Darwin was one of the most celebrated –and one of the most notorious—scientists in the world. Today he is probably even more famous. Still controversial, Darwin has become an icon of modern science at the same time as his theories have become the basis of modern biology. This talk asks what are we to make of this public visibility, past and present? Janet Browne explores the different ways that Darwin and his famous book On the Origin of Species have been commemorated, and looks ahead to issues that may underlie the forthcoming anniversary celebrations.
October 24, 2008, 12:00 pm
Performance: Inherit the Wind
The Theatre & Interpretation Center will be presenting a staged reading of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's classic American play about the Scopes "Monkey" Trial, Inherit the Wind, on Friday October 24th at noon in the Barber Theatre, 30 Arts Circle Drive.
Inherit the Wind, directed by Henry Godinez (TIC Artistic Director) is a fictionalized account of the 1925 Scopes "monkey" trial, which resulted in John T. Scopes' conviction for teaching Charles Darwin's theory of Evolution to a high school science class, contrary to a Tennessee state law that prohibited the teaching of anything besides creationism. In the play the fictional characters Matthew Harrison Brady, Henry Drummond and Bertram Cates correspond to the historical figures of William Jennings Bryan, Clarence Darrow, and John Scopes.
October 27 & 28, 2008, 7:00 pm
Silverstein Lecture: "Building a New Biology"
Drew Endy, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering
Stanford University
Imagine generating a living thing of your own design, to your own specifications. Recently, researchers have developed powerful new technologies that allow life to be built from scratch. New, engineered organisms are being constructed to help cure cancer, produce renewable energy, and assemble living computers. Teenagers can now learn to program DNA just as they learn to program computers. But who will control these new biotechnologies? What good and bad possibilities seem likely to come true? Endy will discuss the science behind this new biology and the many factors that must be considered as research progresses, from practical issues like patents and copyrights, to the weighty implications of essentially creating life.
October 30, 2008, 7:00 pm
"Darwin and the Evolution of Reason"
Daniel C. Dennett, Ph.D.
Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy
Tufts University
Evolution by natural selection not only accounts for the apparent design of the biological world; it explains the emergence of intelligent designers like us, acting on reasons that we formulate and evaluate. Our capacity to be moved by reasoning is one of Evolution's most potent products to date, unique in the biosphere, and a lens through which we can look back at the evolutionary process itself.
November 4, 2008, 8:30 pm
Slivka Residential College Fireside Chat
Laura Panko, Ph.D.
Lecturer, Program in Biological Sciences and Weinberg College Advisor
Northwestern University
Topic: Biological Evolution
Students are encouraged to write questions on notecards for discussion.
November 11, 2008, 7:00 pm
"Darwin's Gift to Science and Religion"
Francisco J. Ayala, Ph.D.
Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences, Ecology & Evolution
University of California, Irvine
Darwin’s theory of evolution accounts for the design and diversity of organisms as the result of the gradual accumulation of spontaneous mutations sorted out by natural selection. Darwin’s theory is a gift to religion, because the imperfections and cruelties of the living world need not be attributed to the Creator’s design, but to natural processes, just like earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.
November 24, 2008, 4:00 pm
"The Role of Development in Human Cognitive and Cultural Evolution"
William Wimsett, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
Committee on Evolutionary Biology and the Committee on Conceptual Foundations of Science University of Chicago
Lecture co-sponsored by the Department of Philosophy
January 8, 2009, 7:00 pm
"Only a Theory? Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul"
Kenneth R. Miller, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
Royce Family Professor for Teaching Excellence
Brown University
A century and a half after the publication of On the Origin of Species, evolution remains a contentious subject in the United States. Is this because evolutionary science is still tentative and uncertain, making it “only a theory” in the minds of most Americans? Or, is it because Darwin’s answer to the origin of species has become part of the culture wars that seem to define our society? In the short term, the answers to these questions will surely determine how we view ourselves and the natural world around us. Over the long term, our attitudes towards evolution will determine whether the future of American society will be shaped by the acceptance or the rejection of science and the scientific method.
February 5, 2009, 7:00 pm
Keynote Lecture: "Darwin Against Himself: Caution versus Honesty in the Life of a Reluctant Revolutionary"
David Quammen
Wallace Stegner Chair of Western American Studies
Department of History and Philosophy
Montana State University
Using as background my portrait of Darwin in “The Reluctant Mr. Darwin,” I’ll explore
the way these two character traits--his tendency toward caution and his extraordinary
intellectual honesty--balanced against each other to affect the way he lived his professional (and personal) life, the way he conceived and developed his evolutionary theory, and the peculiar 21-year delay that intervened before he published that theory in The Origin of Species. As I do in my little biography, I’ll attempt in the lecture to make Darwin vivid and knowable as a very human person, not just a towering scientist.
February 12, 2009
Darwin Day: The Celebration of Charles Darwin's 200th Birthday
It's a party and you're invited! Charles Darwin is turning 200 years old.
1. Mid-Morning Event: "The Music of Evolution," performances by NU Music Students. (McCormic Auditorium, Norris Center: 12:00 pm - 12:45 pm)
2. Have some birthday cake in honor of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln's 200th Birthday. (Norris: 11:30 am - 12:00 pm)
3. Afternoon: "The Art of Evolution." Art works submitted by NU students, staff, and faculty. Refreshments will be served. Although the objects will only be on display for this one afternoon, photographs will be available on the One Book website after the event. (Norris Center, specific location TBA: 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm)
4. Afternoon: Public release of "BugHunt," an online multiplayer computer game that simluates natural selection. Players compete to be the top predator. BugHunt was developed at NU by Uri Wilensky and Michael Novak (of the Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling) for the One Boook One Northwestern project. It will remain as a permanent legacy of the One Book One Northwestern Darwin project for the teaching of Evolution--and just for fun! (Release occurs @ 3:00 pm at the "The Art of Evolution" exhibit and online on this website)