The American Museum of Natural History’s prestigious DARWIN exhibition opens in New Zealand exclusively at Auckland Museum at the end of September and runs to January 18 2008. This comprehensive exhibition features the broadest and most complete collection ever assembled of specimens, artifacts and original manuscripts related to Darwin.

Darwin offers visitors an engaging and enlightening exploration of the extraordinary life and mind of Charles Darwin (1809–1882), whose curiosity, observations, and discoveries nearly 150 years ago forever changed the perception of the origin and nature of our own species, as well as the myriad other species on this planet, and launched modern biological science.  Visitors experience the wonders Darwin witnessed on his journey as a curious and adventurous young man aboard the HMS Beagle on its historic five-year voyage (1831–1836) to South America, the Galápagos Islands, and beyond, including a fleeting visit to New Zealand.

The first clues that led Darwin to his theory of evolution came into focus during his voyage on the Beagle as the ship’s naturalist.  The exhibition re-creates this experience with live animals, like those Darwin himself encountered, along with actual fossil specimens he collected.  Darwin also features an elaborate reconstruction of the naturalist’s study at Down House, where, as a keen observer and dedicated experimenter, he proposed the revolutionary theory that all life evolves according to the mechanism of natural selection.  It was a theory that Darwin would keep secret for 21 years while he continued his research and studies.  Rare objects on display, coupled with descriptive text, illuminate the patterns he observed among species, which led to the publication of the astonishing and brilliant The Origin of Species, wherein he assembled the massive evidence of life’s diversity, animal and plant domestication, and the geologic and fossil record to support his theory of evolution.

Visitors learn how Darwin arrived at the startling conclusion that life on Earth is not static, but changing, and how his controversial theory of natural selection offered a mechanism to explain the existence of the amazing diversity of life on Earth.  These insights continue to guide Museum scientists and their colleagues worldwide today as they apply Darwinian concepts to global inventories of life, conservation biology, reconstruction of the evolutionary Tree of Life, and the treatment of diseases ranging from AIDS to SARS. 

“Having presented the face of science to our visitors since we were founded in 1852 Auckland Museum is delighted to presented the life and work of Charles Darwin, a remarkable naturalist whose views on the origins of life and evolution changed forever our knowledge of the natural world, “said outgoing Museum Director Rodney Wilson, whose retirement coincides with the opening of this exhibition.  “One of our key purposes is to present and apply the biological sciences, and we look forward to hosting this landmark exhibit about a critically important subject and continuing to engage our audiences in the wonders of scientific discovery.”

INTERESTING LINKS

 The Virginia Quarterly Review: Cover “Why Darwin is still right”

 http://www.vqronline.org/viewissue.php/prmIID/245

Newsweek Cover The Real Darwin - His Private Views on Science & God

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10118787/site/newsweek

Niles Eldredge, ANHM Paleontology Curator and curator of Darwin

http://www.nileseldredge.com/darwin_blogs_010.htm

A Contrary View The Catholic Education Resource Centre: An Evening with Darwin in New York

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/science/sc0082.htm

Ends

© Scoop Media