James Lennox to Deliver Darwin Lecture

James Lennox, professor of history and philosophy of science in Pitt’s School of Arts and Sciences, will present the first lecture of Duquesne University’s commemoration of naturalist Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday. The lecture will take place at at 3 p.m. Jan. 16 in the Pappert Lecture Hall of Duquesne’s Bayer Leaning Center, 600 Forbes Ave., Uptown. A second engagement will be held at 1 p.m. Jan. 17 in the Carnegie Museum of Art Theater, 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. A noted scholar of Darwin and his theory of natural selection, Lennox will discuss in his lecture, titled “The Origins of Darwin’s Origin,” how Darwin’s observations during his voyage with the HMS Beagle inspired the questions he sought to answer in his benchmark 1859 book, On the Origin of Species. Darwin sought to account for unusual patterns in the distribution of animals and plants around the world and kinship between the fossils and the living species in the places he visited. To honor Darwin’s birthday and the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species, Duquesne will expand its annual Darwin Days series (established in 2003) to include lectures and events around Pittsburgh. More information is available at Duquesne’s Darwin 2009 Web site at www.duq.edu/darwin2009.