It's ironic then that Tuesday, Feb. 12, won't be just any old day in Knoxville, Tenn. Led by evolutionary ecologist Massimo Pigliucci, the University of Tennessee will hold its annual Darwin Day celebration on the old guy's 193rd birthday. Festivities include movies, discussions, information booths, book displays, and a keynote speaker, University of Wisconsin philosopher Elliot Sober. Last year's celebration featured a performance of the play, Inherit the Wind. According to Pigliucci, "we usually have a teachers' workshop too. This year it's on using controversial issues to teach about science."
The idea of celebrating Darwin's birthday goes back even farther. Pigliucci thinks it originated at Salem State College in Massachusetts in the 1980s, though the school didn't call it Darwin Day then. That probably started with the Stanford Humanists (now the Humanist Community of California) several years later.
Elizabeth Craig directs the Kansas Citizens for Science, formed in response to ...
