Keith Thomson, Professor Emeritus of Natural History, University of Oxford, Senior Research Fellow, American Philosophical Society.

How and when did Darwin actually come to his revolutionary ideas? How did a quiet and shy twenty-seven-year-old with no apparent credentials as an intellectual, who had moreover been isolated for five years on a small ship (HMS Beagle) on a voyage around the world, develop the most dangerous idea of the past two hundred years? The concept of natural selection did not suddenly come to him one day in the bath (as Archimedes is supposed to have discovered the phenomenon of specific gravity). On what intellectual foundation did he create such a theory out of a mass of information and a complex of rival theories, and in a context of intellectual and social turmoil?

Note, Professor Thomson will also be giving an informal presentation at 7:00 pm Feb. 12th as part of NightLife entitled, Who was Charles Darwin?

The Academy is pleased to sponsor this event as part of Evolve 2009, a San Francisco celebration of evolution in honor of the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species.
 
Reservations: Ticket prices: Adults $10, Seniors $8, Members free.  To make a reservation or to purchase a ticket, call (800) 794-7576.  Please note that seating is limited and that admission is for the lecture only.  Tickets to the entire museum are separate and optional.