Connected Lives 13 February 2010

22nd January 2010

Connected Lives - EVENT INFORMATION:

Event Title: 'Darwin-Miller- Dick: Connected Lives' - A day of talks and discussion to celebrate Darwin's birth and some north Highland connections.

Event Venue: Caithness Horizons, Old Town Hall, Thurso, Caithness KW14 8AJ

Date of Event: 13th February 2010

Times: 10.00am-4.00pm [Check programme for details of individual talks]

Refreshments and a buffet lunch will be available

FREE event
- Booking advised, but not essential

For detailed information on the programme or bookings:
Tel 01847 896508 E-mail: info[AT]caithnesshorizons.co.uk

For detailed more information contact:
·Christine Russell, Education & Community Officer, Caithness Horizons
01847 896508 christinerussell[AT]caithnesshorizons.co.uk
·Pat Kieran MBE, Chair Caithness Branch, British Science Association
01847 811287 pat_kieran[AT]yahoo.com

2009 saw the bi-centennial of Charles Darwin's birth. Born on 12th February 1809, it was fifty years later, in 1859 that the publication of his book, 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection' sparked public controversy and a fundamental shift in the way people perceive the progression of life on planet Earth. Now two hundred years after Darwin's birth, the Caithness branch of the British Science Association has joined forces with Caithness Horizons in Thurso to examine the legacy of this eminent naturalist, along with that of two north Highland contemporaries: Hugh Miller, stonemason and geologist; and Robert Dick, baker, botanist and geologist.

'Darwin-Miller- Dick: Connected Lives,' will be a day of talks and discussion at Caithness Horizons in Thurso on 13th February, featuring the lives and work of all three men. One of the connecting threads to be teased out in the course of the day is the degree to which their respective religious beliefs affected, or were affected by, their individual achievements as observational scientists.

Charles Darwin out-lived both Hugh Miller and Robert Dick by many years, but his bi-centenary is a timely opportunity to put all three men in the same spotlight and draw some comparisons as well as some contrasts. Darwin had an extensive education and a private income: neither Hugh Miller nor Robert Dick were born into that privilege, being largely self-taught. Darwin travelled across the globe, and observed an exotic range of live plants, animal and bird specimens: Miller and Dick's home terrain in the Highlands of Scotland provided all the material of their lives' research. In their respective ways, and relative to the resources at their disposal, however, all three developed the habit of meticulous observation of the natural world around them, combined their research with original and innovative thinking, and left legacies that continue to inform and inspire.
To put all this in context, Pat Kieran, chair of the Caithness branch of the British Science Association has invited four speakers to chart how the lives of these 19th century polymaths are connected.

"I am hoping to bring enthusiasts together from all corners of the county and beyond to learn something about the scientific contributions of these men to the greater body of knowledge.

"This event celebrates three men whose life and work in natural history were connected in the 19th century. Darwin's valuable work was undertaken with the support of a wealthy background. Miller and Dick worked locally while they plied their trade to support their investigations, which yielded tremendous contributions to the fields of botany, geology, palaeontology and the creation/evolution discussion, still active to this day."

The day will open with the connection most local to Caithness. Christine Russell will kick things off with an account of the life of 'Robert Dick: Baker, Botanist, Geologist - a Driven Life'. Education and Community Officer at Caithness Horizons, Ms Russell is keen to impress on visitors the extra-ordinariness of a man who overcame significant odds against being anything other than a provincial baker.

"We're lucky at Caithness Horizons to have what remains of Robert Dick's botanical collection, along with other personal items and a few of his fossils. Everyone knows about Darwin, but until I came to work here I knew nothing about a man who spent most of his life just a street away, following an astounding personal regime of self-education and methodical research of his environment. No less a contemporary scientist than Sir Roderick Murchison, Director General of the Royal Geographical Society, said that Dick 'knew infinitely more of botanical science … than [he] did' - Even allowing for posthumous hyperbole, that's quite a statement".

Nigel Trewin, Emeritus Professor of Geology at Aberdeen University, is well-placed to present an account of Hugh Miller, one of Dick's correspondents and friends, and most famously author of The Old Red Sandstone (1841). Professor Trewin's research interests are in palaeontology and ancient environments, particularly related to the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland - the very same geological formation that intrigued Miller. Nigel Trewin first visited Caithness in 1970, and apart from scientific papers on fossil fish has recently published a guide book to the geology of the area. He edited the 4th edition of 'Geology of Scotland', and his book 'Fossils Alive' features localities in Caithness. He is a Patron of the charity 'The Friends of Hugh Miller'.

Dr Roy Sexton will follow that with a paper entitled 'Darwin and the Evolution of Our Native Orchids'. Formerly a plant scientist at Stirling university, Dr Sexton is chairman of the Stirling Branch of the Scottish Wildlife Trust. His hobby is conserving and studying wild orchids.

"Beautiful orchids like the ladies slipper and bee orchids were seen by Creationists as representing conspicuous examples of "Celestial art for man's enjoyment". My talk will illustrate how Darwin's investigations revealed that these exotic flowers had been fashioned by natural selection to manipulate insects so they transferred pollen from one plant to another and avoided self fertilisation. Darwin went on to establish that cross-pollination of flowers gave superior offspring to those produced by selfing. This talk, which was written for Darwin's Bicentenary, has been given to several major gardening and natural history societies. It will refer to most of our Scottish orchids."

Dr Ralph O'Connor is a lecturer in History at Aberdeen University, and the author of The Earth on Show: Fossils and the Poetics of Popular Science (Chicago, 2007). His research focuses on how science has been promoted in the past, and he is currently working on a study of the Scottish writer and geologist Hugh Miller. He will close the programme of talks with 'The Science of Creation: Science and Religion Before the 'Origin of Species', a look at 19th century attitudes to science and religion before the emergence of Darwin's seminal work.

Pat Kieran, who will introduce the day, was himself acknowledged in the 2010 New Year Honours List with an MBE for his Services to Science, and is well-known and respected in Caithness for his enthusiastic promotion of innovative scientific projects. He hopes 'Connected Lives' will appeal to a cross-over audience, and to young and old alike.
"We are really pleased to work with Caithness Horizons and see this as an ideal and stimulating venue for everyone to celebrate the multi-disciplinary nature of these intrepid, dedicated and determined investigators."

Organisers hope that connections will extend beyond the subject matter of the talks. Members of Tullibody Heritage Group intend to travel north for the event, reinforcing links between Tullibody, where Robert Dick was born, and Thurso, where he died. Also attending will be Martin Gostwick, who is curator of Hugh Miller's Cottage in Cromarty, run by the National Trust for Scotland. Christine Russell is excited at the potential of developing these connections.

"Since Caithness Horizons opened just over a year ago, this will be the first opportunity we've had to formalize communication between ourselves and other key organizations that have links with our Robert Dick collection. We're grateful to the British Science Association for enabling these relationships which I hope we can develop".
'Connected Lives' is a whole day event, although members of the public who cannot attend for the whole day are free to drop in for individual presentations. Refreshments and a buffet lunch will be available in the course of the day.

The event is being organized with funding from the Scottish Government by The British Science Association, with support from Caithness Horizons.


PROGRAMME for the DAY

10.00-10.20am Pat Kieran: Welcome & Introduction

10.20-10.50am Christine Russell: 'Robert Dick: Baker, Botanist, Geologist - A Driven Life'

11.00-11.15am Tea/Coffee

11.15-12 noon Nigel Trewin: 'Hugh Miller, Geologist'

12 noon- 1pm Lunch [Opportunities for socialising, seeing exhibitions, watching 'Caithness Horizons' film]

1-2.15pm Roy Sexton: 'Darwin and the Evolution of Our Native Orchids'

2.15-3.00pm Ralph O' Connor: 'The Evolution of Creation: Science and Religion before the Origin of Species'

3.00-3.15pm Tea/Coffee

3.15-4.00pm Plenary discussion