Darwin Exhibition At Auckland Museum

The public programme that accompanies this outstanding exhibition features a comprehensive line-up of lectures, school holiday activities and special events all themed around the work of this revolutionary thinker and the society in which he lived.

Darwin offers visitors an engaging and enlightening exploration of the extraordinary life and mind of Charles Darwin (1809–1882), whose curiosity, observations, and discoveries nearly 150 years ago forever changed the perception of the origin and nature of our own species, as well as the myriad other species on this planet, and launched modern biological science. Visitors experience the wonders Darwin witnessed on his journey as a curious and adventurous young man aboard the HMS Beagle on its historic five-year voyage (1831–1836) to South America, the Galápagos Islands, and beyond.

The first clues that led Darwin to his theory of evolution came into focus during his voyage on the Beagle as the ship's naturalist. The exhibition re-creates this experience with live animals along with actual fossil specimens he collected. Darwin also features an elaborate reconstruction of the naturalist's study at Down House, where, as a keen observer and dedicated experimenter, he proposed the revolutionary theory that all life evolves according to the mechanism of natural selection. It was a theory that Darwin would keep secret for 21 years while he continued his research and studies. Rare objects on display, coupled with descriptive text, illuminate the patterns he observed among species, which led to the publication of the astonishing and brilliant The Origin of Species, wherein he assembled the massive evidence of life's diversity, animal and plant domestication, and the geologic and fossil record to support his theory of evolution.

Visitors learn how Darwin arrived at the startling conclusion that life on Earth is not static, but changing, and how his controversial theory of natural selection offered a mechanism to explain the existence of the amazing diversity of life on Earth. These insights continue to guide Museum scientists and their colleagues worldwide today as they apply Darwinian concepts to global inventories of life, conservation biology, reconstruction of the evolutionary Tree of Life, and the treatment of diseases ranging from AIDS to SARS.

"Darwin was a true giant in the history of science, an explorer and a lover of nature who translated his passion into a scientific explanation for the diversity of life that is the foundation of all biology," say's Vanda Vitali, the incoming director of Auckland Museum. "As a prominent geneticist once stated, 'nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution.' "The exhibition is also an opportunity for people to further explore Darwin's great scientific accomplishments. This year we're celebrating the 300th anniversary of the birth of two other great scientists - Linnaeus and de Bouffon - so it's very exciting to celebrate the achievements of Darwin during 2007 also. It is also timely, given that 2008 has been named the United Nations year of Planet Earth."

"Darwin left a rich paper trail revealing just what he saw on the Beagle, how he came to his realization that life has evolved, how he discovered natural selection in 1838, and how he developed into a top-notch experimental evolutionary biologist while living at Down House for the last 40 years of his life," said Niles Eldredge, Curator in the American Museum of Natural History's Division of Paleontology, and the curator of Darwin. "This exhibition follows that trail of Darwin's discovery of evolution by natural selection."

"Having presented the face of science to our visitors since we were founded in 1852 we are delighted to presented the life and work of Charles Darwin, a remarkable naturalist whose views on the origins of life and end evolution changed forever our knowledge of the natural world, "said outgoing Museum Director Rodney Wilson, whose retirement co-insides with the opening of this exhibition. "One of our key purposes is to present and apply the biological sciences, and we look forward to hosting this landmark exhibit about a critically important subject and to continuing to engage our audiences in the wonders of scientific discovery." -- www.aucklandmuseum.com