A Journey from the Amazon to Natural Selection
, 10 October 2013
Continuing our celebration of the life of Alfred Russel Wallace...
We welcomed over 300 A-level students to National Museum Cardiff for this special event in partnership with Cardiff University School of Earth and Ocean Sciences.
At the invitation of Prof Dianne Edwards F.R.S, Prof Steve Jones F.R.S gave a talk entitled ‘Is man just another animal?’
Prof Jones discussed our shared ancestry with other primates, the genetic evidence for human evolution, and cast light on Wallace and Darwin’s different views on the subject. Professor Steve Jones is Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College London and an author of several popular science books.
And Theatr na nÓg gave an excellent performance of their play ‘You Should Ask Wallace’.
The play took us through Wallace’s life as a young boy growing up in Wales to embarking on epic adventures to the Amazon and Malay Archipelago where he discovers the theory of evolution. His great findings would compel Darwin to publish his seminal work on the origin of species.
An exhibition on Wallace’s life will open on 19 October at National Museum Cardiff.
