Feature: On tour with Darwin's ideas

Winter 2010

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Marking the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and 150th anniversary of ‘On the Origin of Species’.

The Research Councils worked together on an exhibition that toured the UK throughout 2009 to show how Darwin’s ideas still influence contemporary research – from bioscience to robotics, economics, language and business practices. Professor Alan Thorpe, who leads on public engagement for Research Councils UK (RCUK), describes the project.

The aim of ‘Darwin Today’ was to bring Darwin out of the history books and to illustrate how the theory of natural selection affects many aspects of our daily lives. Rather than presenting separate aspects individually, the Research Councils worked together to show the pervasiveness of Darwin’s ideas across diverse areas of research and study.

We were particularly keen to reach people across the UK, beyond ‘the usual circuit’. Over the year, ‘Darwin Today’ was presented at 34 sites from the Isles of Scilly to Orkney, and from Belfast to Norwich. It is estimated that at least half a million people have had access to the exhibition over the year. Venues included: civic centres, a school, libraries, science centres, a cathedral and museums; with the exhibition typically staying for between 2 and 4 weeks.

Aimed at ‘all-ages’, ‘Darwin Today’ included posters, puzzles and games, including a computer game that challenged players to overcome selection pressures as a plant and pass on their genes to a next generation. It also provided a backdrop for informal talks, discussion meetings and other activities. These included a discussion evening on Darwin’s ideas and creationism at ‘Search’ in Gosport, an ‘insect safari’ and Darwin talk in the Isles of Scilly, and school visits at the Forum, Norwich.

Darwin Today was led by BBSRC for RCUK. Further details about a small spin-off exhibit on plant and crop evolution and online resources from ‘Darwin Today’ are available from www.bbsrc.ac.uk/events

RCUK is very grateful to all those who hosted the exhibition during the year.

Darwin Today images

Click on the thumbnails to view and download full-size images.

These images are protected by copyright law and may be used with acknowledgement.

5,000 youngsters were among the crowd at Big Bang 2009. A popular feature was Shelly, an interactive tortoise, enabling young children to learn through play (328KB)

GCSE students at Thomas Hardye School in Dorchester engaged with the exhibition, which was also open to members of the local community (250KB)

Visitors could leave views about religion and evolutionary theory (110KB)

Touch-screens explored areas such as the evolution of language, adaptation and natural vs artificial selection (288KB)

A trumps card game - a fun way to learn, sometimes surprising, facts about animals, plants and microbes (44KB)

Classroom resources, such as 'Clippy Island', enriched the visit for schools' groups (121KB)

Piece the jigsaw together, then stand back and see the full picture emerge (278KB)

Wider activities complemented the tour, including collaboration with New Scientist magazine on a special insert in the 24 January issue. (311KB)

A starring exhibition in the Science Tent of the National Eisteddfod at Bala 2009 (104KB)

The Forum, Norwich (102KB)

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Contact

Tracey Duncombe
tracey.duncombe@bbsrc.ac.uk
tel: 01793 414695
fax: 01793 413382