Randal Keynes

On July 4th 2012, it was my pleasure to host a visit by honorary graduand Randal Keynes, with his wife Zelfa and mother Anne, to the University of Birmingham. Their day here included lunch with the Vice-Chancellor and others, a trip to the Special Colletions and Archives, along with Alice Roberts to see a first edition Origin of Species (thanks to Sue Worrall), and a visit to the Lapworth Museum of Geology (thanks to Ivan Sansom).Randal received an honorary doctorate at the School of...Read Full Story

Following on from the previous post, Randal has now sent me the speech he gave while receiving his honorary doctorate. Here it is:Deputy Pro-Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, my fellow Graduates, Graduands and guests,My thanks first to Professor Raine for his citation tracing all my relations and explaining my interests in conservation and science heritage. Fellow Graduands, I’ve come here today to join you in this wonderful ceremony with a strong sense of the excitement of Birmingham Biosciences...Read Full Story

Life is rather too frenetic to blog much lately. Have just returned from a science/poetry workshop at the Hinxton Hall conference centre organised by Elizabeth Lynch as part of a Wellome Trust-sponsored project called Evolving Words. The aim of the project is to get poets and scientists working together to get young people from five UK cities to create poetry celebrating Darwin and evolution. The project will play out over most of 2009, culminating in performances in London in November. The...Read Full Story

I have now received two VIP tours of Down House with Randal Keynes (Darwin's great-great-grandson) as tour guide. Randal's mellifluous voice, sharp intellect and wide-ranging knowledge of Darwin's life, science and family make these trips an unforgettable treat!Last Friday I visited with three eminent American speakers at the Great Read at Birmingham initiative: Ken Miller, John Hawks and Captain Ben Kirkup. John Hawks has already blogged on the experience here: http://johnhawks.net/weblog...Read Full Story

Still very busy do the Darwin's Pilgrims tour, so little time to blog. Have now done shows and visits in Cambridge and London. Tomorrow Birmingham and Friday Shrewsbury. Will supply a fuller account when it is all over. But this morning we visited the Darwin's Big Idea exhibition at the Natural History Museum, which was fantastic (as was the behind the scenes tour of Darwin's fishes from Karen James: thanks!). And to see with one's own eyes the "I think" image from Darwin's notebook was...Read Full Story