Planner John Levin of Norwalk will make Darwin come alive at the second annual Darwin Day Dinner on Friday Feb 12, 2010.
The second annual Darwin Day Dinner, featuring a full course banquet, the highly intriguing and engaging Charles Bailyn on “The Evolution of the Universe”, captivating and amusing contests with prizes, and high conviviality, is planned for Darwin’s Birthday on Friday evening February 12, 2010, in honor of Charles Darwin’s life and contributions, and to celebrate science, science education, and rational thinking.
Norwalk’s John Levin, co-founder of the Southern Connecticut Darwin Day Committee, says “Hey, you can have a fabulous meal and great company any day of the year – but this event promises some really great science.”
“This will be a night to enjoy and remember.” added Norwalk’s Cary Shaw, Darwin Day planner.
The event is organized by the Southern Connecticut Darwin Day Committee, and it is sponsored by:
-Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Fairfield County,
-Unitarian Church in Westport,
-Wilton Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers),
-Norwalk Public Schools Science Department
-American Humanist Association
When the “First Annual” Fairfield County Darwin Day event was planned for February 2009, it was not known what the public response would be. It drew the enthusiastic response of over a hundred attendees, and the momentum for an encore was not to be denied.
The February 2010 speaker, Yale’s Professor Charles Bailyn, is a renowned astrophysicist who developed innovative methods for teaching science courses for non-scientists. He was awarded the Dylan Hixon Prize, Yale's highest honor for teaching excellence in the natural sciences, and his course "Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics" was selected as one of the first courses to be put on-line for the public as part of Yale's "Open Courses" initiative.
The first Darwin Day Dinner in Fairfield County drew crowds. More are expected at the second annual one on Friday February 12, 2010.
Four places have been donated to promising high school students. For the event, Mitchell Kalmus, biologist and teacher, has designed a new science quiz which will entertain and enlighten.
Why Darwin
Darwin Day is an international celebration of science and humanity held on or around February 12th, the day that Charles Darwin was born in 1809. Specifically, it celebrates the discoveries and life of Charles Darwin—the man who first described biological evolution via natural selection with scientific rigor. More generally, Darwin Day expresses gratitude for the enormous benefits that scientific knowledge, acquired through human curiosity and ingenuity, has contributed to the advancement of humanity.
The principles of evolution, as Charles Darwin integrated them, explain and predict a vast body of facts. The principle of common ancestry explains why giraffes and humans have the same number of neck bones; why animals that swim in the sea have flippers whose internal bones are five fingered. It predicted the existence of fossils which were later discovered. Written before viruses were known, the principles of evolution predict how drug-resistant strains of viruses develop. Written before DNA was known, evolution correctly predicts the similarity of DNA among living things.
Speaker Bailyn
Professor Bailyn is the author of over one hundred scientific papers relating to the observational study of black holes and related sources of X-rays, and to dense star clusters and the consequences of collisions between stars. His work on measuring the masses of black holes was awarded the 2009 Bruno Rossi prize from the American Astronomical Society.
Professor Bailyn is the Thomas E. Donnelley Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Yale University, and served as Chair of the Astronomy Department from 1999-2005. He has carried out research with a wide variety of ground and space-based telescopes, and currently serves as the Principal Scientist of the Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System (SMARTS) which operates four telescopes in Chile, and as President of the WIYN Corporation, which operates two telescopes in Arizona.
How to Reserve
The public is invited to this, Connecticut’s second annual Darwin Day Dinner, to be held on Friday, February 12th, at Quattro Pazzi Restaurant, located in Norwalk’s Oak Hills Park Golf Course, (address: 165 Fillow Street). Cocktail Hour will begin at 7 PM and a full course Dinner will be served at 8 PM. For more information contact the Southern Connecticut Darwin Day Committee by calling John Levin at (646)371-9280 or emailing him at jlevin@tfm-llc.com, or emailing Craig Tomarkin at ctomarkin@aol.com. Seating is limited. To reserve your place, send a check for $60 for each person, ($55 if received by January 31), payable to Darwin Day Committee, to 249 Chestnut Hill Road, Norwalk CT 06851. Info is posted at www.darwindayct.org.
