Darwin’s 200th Commemorated

The Harvard community celebrated Darwin’s 200th birthday in style with free drinks, science-themed rock bands, cake, decor, and a dancing gorilla.

The birthday party, which was sponsored by the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy and held in the Queen’s Head Pub, concluded a full day’s events that celebrated Darwin, his theory of evolution, and its contributions to humanity.

“It’s really exciting that we’re all here to celebrate Darwin’s birthday,” Elisha W. Rivera ’10, said. “It’s a great day for science,”

Dr. Andrew J. Berry, who teaches a core course called “Understanding Darwinism,” added that it was a remarkable feat for Darwin to have a “simple idea that explains the staggering organic diversity.”

“Darwin’s is the biggest single idea in the history of ideas,” he said. “It’s one of the very few scientific ideas which has had a ripple effect beyond the sciences.”

Throughout the day, events like the Darwin Day Symposium and an Origin of Species read-a-thon explained the scientific basis of Darwin’s theories and offered a glimpse into the private life of Darwin, the man.

Allison E. Rosenberg ‘12, said she was interested to learn the actual ideas from Darwin’s original words by participating in the read-a-thon.

“I know I haven’t read the entirety of The Origin of Species, and it’s interesting for me to see exactly how he presents his ideas,” Rosenberg said.

History of science professor Janet Browne said that she has seen these papers firsthand in an archive with Darwin’s original works, and commented on the magnitude of Darwin’s theory.

“For me, the magic of [Darwin] is to be able to open up his papers, see his writing,” Browne said at the Darwin Day Symposium, which also featured Stephen Pinker, Hopi E. Hoekstra, Marc D. Hauser, and Arkhat Abzhanov.

But the day was far from being purely academic.

Birthday cakes were served during meals and a troop of friendly gorillas interrupted classes and wandered through dining halls.

“Tourists were taking photographs of me in the gorilla suit,” said Fernando Racimo ’11, who was one of the seven members of Team Gorilla. “I think I scared some people, though, especially when I started talking.”

The day’s events were organized by Hann-Shuin Yew ’10 with assistance and funding from Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, the Life Sciences Division, Harvard College Program for Research in Science and Engineering, the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard, the Humanities Center, and the Harvard University Press.

Despite the importance of Darwin’s theory of evolution, there is still much debate about the validity of the theory. A Gallup poll conducted this Wednesday showed that only 39% of Americans say they “believe in the theory of evolution.”

But Racimo, who is an OEB concentrator, said that he hopes the celebration of Darwin will entice people to look at the evidence.

“Hopefully, Darwin Day 200 will raise a higher consciousness of what all this means to us as a species, who Darwin is, and how much he means,” Racimo said.