[media-credit name=’MEGHAN CONLIN/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]Faculty at the University of Wisconsin held the first-ever Darwin Day Outreach Symposium in Ingraham Hall Saturday.

"Evidence of Evolution: Updating Darwin's Case" was the subject of a day-long series of lectures and a discussion panel marking the 197th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, founder of modern evolutionary theory.

In an effort to inform fellow educators and the public alike, experts from a variety of UW departments and disciplines spoke of Darwin's life and research. The symposium speakers also addressed more recent evidence supporting his work that has accumulated since his death in 1882.

"The main goal [of Darwin Day] is really to educate people to understand the scientific evidence of evolution," said David Baum, professor of botany at UW and a member of the Darwin Day Organizing Committee. "If someone is pulled aside and asked why they believe in evolution, we want to give them something to talk about."

Baum outlined two basic principles of evolution: natural selection and common ancestry.

An example of such selection, Baum said, can be seen in the increased number of elephants born without tusks in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. According to scientists, this phenomenon has arisen due to rampant ivory poaching in Africa.

Because poachers target elephants with tusks, more tuskless elephants are born and pass on tuskless genes, since the poachers do not kill them.

He also pointed out — as an example of common ancestry — that President George W. Bush and his former presidential contender, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., are actually ninth cousins, twice removed.

Dana Geary, professor of paleobiology, spoke about "Deep Time," the fact that the earth is 4.6 billion years old, and the practice of biostratigraphy — the use of fossils from extinct species to date the rocks in which they are discovered.

Geary said the most practical application of biostratigraphy is to help oil companies decide where to drill.

"If evolution hadn't happened, you couldn't have driven here today," Geary said.
Additionally, the day served as a resource for anyone, regardless of background, looking to gain more familiarity with evolution.

"The symposium has been a fantastic opportunity for the scientific and philosophical community to reach out to lay people and engage this discussion," said Michael Hobbs, a UW graduate student in biochemistry who attended Darwin Day.

Hobbs said many of the issues addressed at the symposium will help him "arm" himself when discussing evolution with those who feel evolution falls short in explaining the origin of life on earth.

One such person is Dr. John Morris, a geologist at the Institute for Creation Research in California. Morris is an advocate for Intelligent Design, or the idea that life is too complex to have developed through chance adaptations and must have been created by an intelligent cause.

"I think evolution is wholly unscientific. I don't think it's a correct view of history," Morris said. "Creation is at least as scientific as evolution and evolution is at least as religious as creation."

UW philosophy professor Elliott Sober insisted that evolution and a belief in God are not irreconcilable. Sober also noted the theory of Intelligent Design is flawed when it claims evolution is based on chance.

"Natural selection is not random because it favors those organisms most fit to survive, the same way smokers get lung cancer more frequently than non-smokers," Sober said.