Friday February 10 2012
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CCTV: Are we being watched too much?
A Kingston professor has suggested that we need to think a bit more before we criticize the proliferation of CCTV around the country. |
| No fanfare for Darwin | Send to a friend |
| Written by Emma Waghorn | |||||
| Monday, 16 February 2009 15:47 | |||||
The 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin passed without celebration or ceremony at Kingston University last Thursday.
While other universities ran Darwin conferences and Darwin public lectures, Darwin quizzes, Darwin film festivals and Darwin poetry readings – Birmingham University even concluded its Darwin bicentenary celebration with a “Rap Guide to Evolution” – here at Kingston there were no Darwin-themed events to entertain and enlighten us on February 12.
One of Darwin’s biggest fans is Sir David Attenborough, who received an honorary degree from Kingston University last semester.
In his recent documentary, “Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life”, Sir David paid tribute to a man whose insights have revolutionised the way we see the world.
Sir David said: “Darwin has shown us that we are not apart from the natural world.” He added: “We do not have dominion over it. We are subject to its laws and processes, as are all other mammals on earth, to which indeed we are related.”
It is not too late to get into the Darwinian spirit, however. The National History Museum’s big exhibition, Darwin – Big Idea, runs until 19 April, although it is proving so popular that you will probably need to book tickets (£5.90 for students).
Other Darwin 200 events are being held around the country right up until 24 November 2009, the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species.
Down House in Bromley, Kent, where Darwin lived and worked for forty years, has just reopened to the public after a three-month renovation.
The Horniman Museum is running a photography competition on the theme of Exploring and Investigating Nature. Winning photographs will be exhibited at the museum from 19 November 2009.
And on Monday 30 March there will even be an event here at the Penrhyn Road campus. As part of Think in Kingston, the borough’s annual “festival of ideas”, Dr Thomas Dixon, Senior Lecturer in History at Queen Mary’s College, University of London, will be giving a talk entitled “Evolution versus Creationism: A Very American Conflict?” The event is free but you will need to book.
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