Feb. 11, 2017, 6:30 p.m.

A showing of the full-dome digital show, Natural Selection. Join the young Charles Darwin on a voyage of exploration circumnavigating the world with the HMS Beagle. In Victorian times much of the physical world had been successfully described by natural laws, but life’s central mystery was still unexplained: How could new species arise to replace those lost in extinction? Whence the variety of life? What drove the evolution of organisms, already well known in Darwin’s time through the study of fossils? Witness the thrill of scientific discovery by seeing the world through Darwin’s eyes, make observations of the most beautiful natural scenery and let the pieces of the scientific puzzle slowly but surely fall into place. Allow Darwin himself to reveal the simple and beautiful mechanism that explains the evolution of all life on Earth: natural selection, the idea that has become the central organizing priciple for all of biology.

Running time: 40 minutes; Suitable for family audiences and school groups.

Produced by Mirage3D.

The Saturday show will be followed by a talk and Q&A session by two Darwin Day Scholars about natural selection and research relationships.

The Speakers

Vishal Sharma is currently a PhD. Candidate in the Department of Biological Sciences at the George Washington University. Vishal's research is focused on understanding how neural circuits in the brain develop asymmetrically. For this research, he uses a microscopic organisms whose brains can be manipulated with precision using molecular biology tools.

Alexis Garretson is a student researcher at George Mason University where she focuses on native wildlife and ecosystem interactions. She studies hybrids descended from grey wolves and coyotes, better known as 'coywolves.' As these hybrids spread across the Mid-Atlantic, they are changing ecosystems in exciting new ways and offer a new challenge to researchers.

Our capacity is 58 seats. We set aside 20 seats to accommodate those who arrive without a reservation, so if the show is sold out you can still try to attend by arriving close to 6 p.m. However, although we will do whatever we can to seat all comers, there is no guarantee of admission without a reservation.