Celebrating Darwin’s Adventure – tonight, 8:00 pm EDT

Back in February, I wrote a post comparing the adventures of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln (who were both born on February 12, 1809), and the different navigation challenges and skills each man’s quest entailed and required.
This fall marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s Origin of the Species. And for anyone who’s interested in knowing more about his adventure, and how he managed to navigate his way through the scientific puzzle of what he found on his journey, there’s a great series you can tune into for free. 
Reading Odyssey (a cool organization in and of itself, which offers virtual reading groups for some of the great classics—including Origin of the Species) is sponsoring a lecture series this fall on Darwin and his work.
The second lecture in the series—live at Columbia University, but available both as an audio teleconference and via Skype … is tonight at 8:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time. And like all the lectures, it is completely free of charge. The speaker is Jonathan Weiner, Pulitzer-prize-winning author of Beak of the Finch—a fascinating book about a modern-day research couple whose 20-year study of finches on the Galapagos Islands reveal more than even Darwin imagined when he studied the birds there more than 150 years ago.
Adventure comes in many guises, and exploring the mysteries of the world is every bit as challenging … and rewarding … as any physical or entrepreneurial venture. And if this lecture is even half as good as the first in the series, it’s well worth your time. 
Information on the lecture can be found at: http://darwinlecture2.eventbrite.com/?ref=ecal
Information on the rest of the Darwin 150 celebration can be found at www.darwin150.com.