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Evolution

© Christine Roane

The world of the 21st century is all about multimedia, live images, sounds, sensation -- an evironment that has changed radically since the founding of many venerable museum institutions. In the 19th and for a good portion of the 20th centuries, natural history education meant that museums funded safaris. Hunters killed magnificent animals, which were then stuffed (Okay, the appropriate word for this process is taxidermy). Museum visitors were meant to be edified by the sight of static corpses of elephants, lions, elands...fixing us with their glassy-eyed stares against artfully painted dioramas.

To succeed in their mission, leaders of today's major institutions are acutely aware that museums must change with the times. They must incorporate the technology and speak to the culture of the present-day audience. To survive, just as do living organisms, museums must adapt. They must evolve.

To that end, the Florida Museum of Natural History plans a free lecture featuring Carl Zimmer, the author of Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea, the companion volume to the seven-part PBS television series Evolution, which aired September 24-27, 2001. The talk and book signing is co-sponsored by the museum, WUFT-TV Channel 5, the Alachua County Library District and the University of Florida Genetics Institute. (Originally set for September 23, this lecture is to be rescheduled, due to the national tragedy of September 11.)

Evolutionary science is a topic that has had profound effects on society and culture. To help us better understand, many museums offer special exhibits. Though physically located in Poland, the Museum of Evolution (Museum and Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences) has an enjoyable, quirky website. (You might want to turn down your computer's speaker volume before you click.) Visit three main exhibits that cover Evolution on Land, South American Fauna and The Earth: A Living Environment. Perhaps you'll make an offer on the cast of an armored dinosaur offered for sale.

Back in North America, the Royal Tyrrell Museum offers an online tour of Evolution. Learn about Charles Darwin, his Galapagos expedition (which includes period illustrations of various finch beaks). Then explore a "dazzling array of life" by perusing the museum's fossil collection.

Visit the Evolution Wing of the Museum of Paleontology, University of California-Berkeley. Explore both the theory of evolution and the history of evolutionary thought with links to resources -- for teachers and we lifelong learners. It is heavy in text, but do not let that deter you -- this is fascinating stuff.

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