Photo of the week
Celebrating the 150th anniversary of D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860-1948).
Wednesday 28 April 2010
The University of St Andrews, together with the University of Dundee, is hosting a year-long programme of events to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of renowned biologist, mathematician and classics scholar D'Arcy Thompson.
The influential polymath, shown here with the skeleton of a sparrowhawk, is most renowned for his book - On Growth and Form. It was within this book that he presented his 'theory of transformations', which shows how the differences between the forms of related species can be represented geometrically.
In 1917 D'Arcy took up the Chair of Natural History at the University of St Andrews. While at St Andrews, D'Arcy built up the Bell Pettigrew Museum of Natural History and added considerably to its displays. One correspondent reports that in 1932, when he was eight years old, he met D'Arcy on a visit to the Museum. He was hailed by the Professor, who showed the young man round its exhibits, and afterwards gave him a glass jar of stick insects, pointing out that these should be fed on fresh privet leaves.
Several events are scheduled for D'Arcy Thompson's birthday weekend, 30 April - 3 May, including a Friday lecture by evolutionary biologist Professor Wallace Arthur of the University of Ireland, who will be discussing Thompson's theory of transformations and its relations with the evolutionary views of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace.
The lecture is open to all and will take place at 17.00 in the Bute Building, Lecture Theatre C.
To view the full programme of events please visit: www.darcythompson.org/events.html