'Darwin Now' is a programme of events to mark in Latvia the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work ’On the Origin of Species’. The events in Latvia is delivered by British Council Latvia, Latvian National Commission for UNESCO, Natural History Museum in Latvia, Centre for the Cognitive Sciences and Semantics of Latvia University, Association of Biology Teachers in Latvia, Students' Council of the Faculty of Biologyof Latvia University and Centre of Debates. In the international perspective the 'Darwin Now' is a global programme run by the British Council in more then 40 countries. Its goal is to examine the impact of Darwin’s ideas of evolution on contemporary biology, medicine and society. 'Darwin Now' comprises a dedicated web campaign and a mobile exhibition that will visit 43 countries around the world during 2009, a youth summit involving 60 students from around the world to be held at the Natural History Museum between 2 and 4 July, the British Science Festival in Guildford between 5 and 10 September, a Darwin seminar at the National Science Learning Centre in York between 25 and 30 October and celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the publication of ‘On the Origin of Species’ on 24 November. Darwin Now culminates in the “Alexandrina Conference” a three-day international conference on evolution and society attended by academics, science communicators and media, which will be held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt between 14 and 16th November. In particular, the Programme aims to engage young people from around the world and provide an opportunity to explore the ideas that lie at the heart of evolutionary theory in an unprejudiced and open way.
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