Michael Faraday founded the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children in 1825 in order to present scientific information to youngsters (now broadcast on TV, the lectures have become a holiday tradition for many British families). The five lectures from 1991 compiled here feature Oxford professor and biologist Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), then a spry and youthful 50-year-old, but already an unapologetic proponent of Darwinian theory and debunker of faith-based views about the origin of the natural world. Dawkins outlines the birth and development of life from an evolutionary perspective in a clear, persuasive, and entertaining (though never condescending) fashion, offering numerous examples to buttress his points—using illustrations, fossil evidence, live animals, computer simulations, and experiments (a wide range of wild visual demos) to engage his audience of rapt listeners, some of whom are invited to join him onstage to assist with particular proofs. The treatment is basically serious, but Dawkins also skillfully employs humor to convey the information (such as having the late author Douglas Adams read from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). A splendid introduction to evolutionary science, Growing Up in the Universe is highly recommended. [Note: also newly available for $20 is Discussions with Richard Dawkins—Episode One: The Four Horsemen, a 2007 roundtable talk featuring Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel C. Dennett.] Aud: P. (F. Swietek)
Growing Up in the Universe
(2007) 2 discs. 300 min. DVD: $25. Victory Multimedia (avail. from most distributors). Volume 23, Issue 4
Growing Up in the Universe
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