By Dan Dan Thio
The third event organized by Humanist Society (Singapore), Darwin Day 2011, is a huge success with the biggest turnout yet!
Dr. John van Wyhe (above) debunked the false claims that Charles Darwin’s religious beliefs drift towards agnosticism was due to the lose of is favorite daughter Annie. By sharing with us Charles Darwin’s personal life, he shone a new light on the matter and brought us closer to understanding this scientific figure.
Yuchen (above) ended the series of talk with an entertaining and jaw-dropping presentation which has various photos of insects and their genitals, a video of fearsome sea slugs “penis-fencing”, and a humorous animation of “displacement of someone else’s semen”. In between laughs, he showed that sexual selection has much greater effect than natural selection on producing this diversified sexy animal kingdom.
The talk “What makes a scientific truth” by Dr. Mathia Lee is both courageous and intriguing. Dr. Mathia explained how scientific truths are skewed by social and economic reasons, and that we must remain skeptical and cautious with information even if it is from the scientific community.
After the talks, a raffle was drawn, and token of appreciations were give to the speakers. Then, the members and the public mingled altogether as two wonderful birthday cakes baked by our talented committee member, Sven, were distributed.
One depicts the Galapagos Islands and the other a birthday cake, coated with brightly colored coconut shreds, soft and fluffy, everyone took one or more pieces! Not forgetting the addictive fish-shaped cookies Denise helped to make! *nom nom nom*
The society also loaned out books related to evolution on this special day, such as “On the Origin of Species” by the birthday boy, and “The Greatest Show on Earth” by Richard Dawkins. Return them on time or you get fined!
NTU student Kenneth Lee found “the first speaker particularly interesting as it puts to question the reliability and accountability of modern science; a pillar which we have put so much faith in”.
Darwin Day 2012 is going to be bigger and better, watch out!
“What? Pikachu is evolving?”
