Darwin's Island: The Galapagos in the Garden of England

The Origin of Species is the most famous book in science but its stature tends to obscure the genius of Charles Darwin's other works.  The Beagle voyage, too, occupied only five of the fifty years of his busy career.  His Galapagos visit lasted just five weeks and on his return he never left Britain again.  Darwin spent forty years working on the plants, animals and people of his native land and wrote six million words, in nineteen books and innumerable letters, on topics as different as dogs, barnacles, insect-eating plants, orchids, earthworms, apes and human emotion.  Together, they laid the foundations of modern biology.

Steve Jones will explore the domestic Darwin, the sage of Kent, and will bring his work to a new audience.  Great Britain was Charles Darwin's other island, its countryside as much, or more, a place of discovery as had been the Galapagos.  Darwin's Island traces the great naturalist's journey across Britain's modest landscape: a voyage not of the body, but of the mind.

The British Science Association local branch are organising an informal Evolution cafe at Borders book shop near Milton Keynes train station on Friday 16th October.

Prof. Steve Jones from UCL will be visiting Borders to talk about Darwin's Island from 6:45pm.

Date: 16/10/2009
Location: Borders, Elder Gate, Milton Keynes, MK9 1BB
Admission: Free
Places Remaining: 50