Beagle and beyond

A major symposium in Sydney on 20-21 March will discuss Charles Darwin … his life, his voyage of scientific discovery on HMS Beagle and the great surge of scientific research into natural history that he inspired.

Attention will be given, for example, to two young contemporaries, Joseph Hooker and Thomas Huxley, who followed the more famous scientist on Royal Navy voyages to the South Seas (including Australia) and collected further remarkable evidence in support of his theory of evolution.

Hooker visited Hobart while serving as an assistant surgeon on HMS Erebus during the 1839-43 Ross Antarctic expedition. With the assistance of Tasmanian collectors he published the first comprehensive description of the island’s flora.

Thomas Huxley was assistant surgeon on HMS Rattlesnake on its survey of northern Australia and New Guinea in 1846-50.

Eminent speakers from the UK and across Australia will also…

• provide new insights into scientific collecting, surveying and cross-cultural exchanges in the antipodes in the age of Darwin;

• shed light on the European scientists’ interactions with indigenous voyagers;

• take a very modern look at the naturalists’ influence on today’s cutting edge scientific research… when global warming has raised the stakes to an unprecedented level.

The seminar In The Wake of the Beagle: Science in the Southern Oceans from the Age of Darwin will be presented by the Australian National Maritime Museum and the Australian Research Council at the National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour.

It will coincide with the opening of the National Maritime Museum’s exhibition Charles Darwin – Voyages and ideas that shook the world, from 20 March to 23 August.

The symposium is open to everyone. Registration for the two days (9.30 am – 6 pm) is $50, for one day $25. Light refreshments will be served in the morning and afternoon breaks.

Registration also includes an inspection of the new exhibition. For further information or to register, phone (02) 9298 3644 or visit www.anmm.gov.au/charlesdarwin.