AOF Activities & Events
Do not go to the Sierra 2 Center -- AOF will not be there. Why? Because this is the month when the entire Sacramento-area community of reason joins hands with other civic groups to bring you the fabulous Sacramento Darwin Day birthday gala.
In fact it will be the Sixteenth Annual Sacramento Darwin Day, celebrating Mr. Darwin's 204th birthday. As usual it will be in John Smith Hall of the La Sierra Community Center in Carmichael. Can you miss a party like this? Answer: No.
Darwin Day is, of course, an annual celebration of science in honor of the life and work of the great Charles Darwin (b. 12 February 1809), sponsored worldwide by community and educational groups. To learn more of this mind-expanding event, please visit the International Darwin Day Foundation.
For the Sacramento celebration, doors will open at 2 o’clock, the main program at 2:30. Arrive early, tour the displays, visit the vendors, find a good seat, relax and enjoy the opening entertainment. Soon it will segue to our main speaker, Ivan R. Schwab, M.D., Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of California, Davis and the author of a new book, Evolution’s Witness: How Eyes Evolved (2011). A sample of his topic:
Life began 3.75 billion years with photoreception as key to its survival. Those first living cells made use of light as an energy source and evolved based on the influence of light over the ensuing three billion years. Then, with the early forms of vision and predation as catalysts, the first known eye appeared during the Cambrian period in an animal known as a trilobite approximately 550 million years ago. This period was a crucible of evolution and exploded with anatomic creativity. The Cambrian spawned nearly all morphologic forms of the eye, followed by descent over hundreds of millions of years providing unimaginable variety through at least 10 different designs. These ocular designs include eyes that can be called simple, compound, and camera style eyes but some display spectacular creativity with mirror, scanning or telephoto optics. Vision was a principal, although not the only, determinant of evolution and its direction. Some of these ocular designs are merely curiosities, but others offer the finest visual potential packed into a small space, limited only by the laws of diffraction or physiological optics. We should be so lucky.
Rounding up the show will be more entertainment, snacks, and of course, yummy birthday cake. (It is Chucky D's birthday, after all!)
Ticket price? A pittance! Merely $7.50 if purchased before Feb 8, $10.00 at the door, or for students with Student ID, $5.00. To purchase tickets or for more information, please click to the main event website, http://sacdarwinday.info/.
