Contact: Sasha Steinberg
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Mississippi State's third annual Darwin Week events begin Sunday [Feb. 8] with a presentation by biological sciences assistant professor Heather Jordan.
Free and open to all, this and other daily events through Friday [the 13th] recognize the life and work of Charles Darwin (1809-82), the English naturalist and geologist.
"Darwin Week is intended to be a time when we can open a dialogue about current research in the biological sciences," said geology instructor Amy P. Moe-Hoffman.
She said the scheduled events offer programming relevant to diverse audiences, highlighting some exciting new advances in science that have built upon Darwin's ideas and addressing such topics as the evolution of diseases and the importance of preserving biodiversity.
Activities include:
--Sunday [the 8th], a 2 p.m. presentation by Heather Jordan titled "Bugs...In Bugs? Mysteries of Mycobacterium ulcerans and Buruli ulcer disease" at Mississippi University for Women's Plymouth Bluff Center on Old West Point Road west of Columbus. Jordan is an MSU assistant professor of biological sciences.
--Monday [the 9th], a 4 p.m. Tea Time Roundtable in 314 Harned Hall. Assistant professors of biological sciences Matthew Brown, Heather Jordan, and Justin Thornton, along with biological sciences associate professor Janet Donaldson, will discuss "Microbiomes!"
--Tuesday [the 10th], Café Scientifique, to begin at 6 p.m. at Starkville's Veranda restaurant on Loxley Way. "Evolution's History Written on a Butterfly's Wing" will be the topic of biological sciences assistant professor Brian Counterman.
--Wednesday [the 11th], beginning at 9 a.m., eighth-grade science students from Starkville's Armstrong Middle School will make a three-hour "Career in Biological Sciences" tour of the university's Dunn-Seiler geology and Cobb archaeology museums, among other facilities. They will learn about career opportunities in biology, biological archaeology/forensics, entomology, paleontology and microbiology/epidemiology.
--Thursday [the 12th], beginning at 10:30 a.m., four-year-old students at the MSU Early Childhood Institute's Aiken Village Preschool will learn about minerals, rock and fossils while touring the Dunn-Seiler Museum in Hilbun Hall.
Also Thursday, a 5:30 p.m. Darwin birthday reception in the Cobb Institute of Archaeology foyer. In Room 100, Michael Galaty, head of the anthropology and Middle Eastern cultures department, will present "Darwinian Evolution Gone Wild! Frontier Effects on Biological and Cultural Diversity." Cake and appetizers will be served.
--Friday, a 2 p.m. Team Time Roundtable in 314 Harned Hall. "Science and Education" will be discussed by biological sciences professor Nancy Reichert; geosciences associate professor Renee Clary; Ryan Walker, assistant professor of curriculum, instruction and special education; and Aressa Coley, a graduate student in curriculum and instruction and biological sciences.
For additional Darwin Week information, contact Moe-Hoffman at 662-325-3915 or apm105@msstate.edu.
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