ICTP, UNESCO celebrate Darwin

ICTP is joining efforts with BRESCE, UNESCO’s regional office in Venice, to celebrate Darwin’s bicentennial. As side events to UNESCO's 3-day Darwin 200 Symposium, ICTP is organising a small exhibition and an afternoon of lectures with the help of several institutions from Trieste, including: Zoic Srl, Museo Civico di Storia Naturale, Museo Nazionale dell'Antartide, Universita' degli Studi di Trieste, Elettra, and Accademia delle Scienze della Mongolia.

The exhibit, which opens 27 April, will highlight modern physics tools that can provide precise information on chronology and microstructure in evolution studies. It will show reproductions of some remains that have helped scientists to quantify evolution, including a Slovenian flute made by a Neanderthal man 40,000 years ago. Also on display will be bones of the hominid remains from Krapina (Croatia) that are being used to sequence the Neanderthal genome; and the remains of a hominid from the Trieste area who was the common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans.

The "Darwin, Evolution & Science" afternoon of lectures, to be held on 29 April starting at 15:00, will include two speakers from ICTP—Claudio Tuniz and Julian Chela-Flores. Tuniz will also speak at the UNESCO symposium on “Latest Developments from Physics for the Study of Evolution”, during a special UNESCO-ICTP session.

Both the exhibit and the lectures will be held at the BRESCE office in Venice. For further information and detailed programmes, see the BRESCE website.