Jonesboro, AR – (Contributed) – This year, the Darwin Day activities at Arkansas State University kick off with an exhibit at A-State Museum, located at 320 University Loop, inside Dean B. Ellis Library.
“The exhibit will feature fossils and specimens of different plants and animals that no longer live in Arkansas, and in some cases, no longer live anywhere on earth,” said Dr. Drew Sweet, associate professor of evolutionary biology.
Sweet said that Arkansas once looked very different from what it does now, and the exhibit will showcase how both plant and animal life have changed.
“The exhibit will also focus on some plants and animals that are not extinct yet but are not doing very well. We still have time to save them, but we need people to be aware,” added Sweet.
The exhibit will be open from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 9, through Saturday, Feb. 28.
A panel discussion, Darwin Day: Extinction and De-Extinction, will be held from 4 – 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 11, in room 157 of A-State Museum.
“Organisms have been going extinct at an increasingly faster rate over the last several centuries,” Sweet continued. “One approach to counteracting high extinction rates is ‘de-extinction,’ which seeks to use cutting-edge biotechnology to resurrect previously extinct species. However, some approaches to de-extinction are controversial, and it is important to have discussions about the ethics of these approaches.”
This panel discussion will feature experts from the A-State community, including biologists and philosophers.
On Thursday, Feb. 12, the keynote speaker for the Darwin Day events will speak on “The Elephant from Heaven and the Chicken from Hell: Does De-extinction Make Sense?” This event will be held from 5 – 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of A-State Museum.
Dr. Gregory Kaebnick, director of the research department and editor of the Hastings Center Report at the Hastings Center for Bioethics, will speak about ethical issues surrounding the resurrection of previously extinct species.
Those who cannot attend the event in person can still attend online here.
