During the 2008-09 academic year, Bates College and the Lewiston Public Library are commemorating these anniversaries with Darwin at 200, a series of events illustrating the importance of Darwin’s theory to our understanding of life on Earth and to human culture.

The series, which began earlier this month with a reading-discussion series at the library, continues at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, in the Lewiston Public Library’s Callahan Hall with a screening of the 2006 film Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus, written and directed by Randy Olson.

All Darwin at 200 events are open to the public at no cost. For more information about this screening, please call the library’s reference desk at 207-513-3135. For more series information, please visit the Darwin series Web site.

In February (date, time and venue to be determined), the series presents the British Broadcasting Corporation documentary A War on Science. Also from 2006, this piece examines the 2005 court case against the Dover, Pa., school board, which attempted to inject intelligent design into the public school curriculum. The film presents commentary by proponents of both evolution and intelligent design.

Science historian Sheila Ann Dean presents the lecture “Charles Darwin: After the Origin and Before the Descent,” focusing on Darwin’s correspondence relating to his Descent of Man and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. A visiting scholar in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University, Dean speaks at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 11, at a Bates location to be announced.

Click here to view the embedded video.