Not surprisingly, most of the events take place in the UK (www.darwin200.org), in particular around Shrewsbury, Cambridge, Edinburgh, London and Kent, which were all places of significance in Darwin's life. Shrewsbury, Darwin's birthplace — on 12 February 1809, at Mount House — celebrates its most famous son every year with the Darwin Festival. This year the celebrations are extended throughout 2009, the events including numerous lectures and exhibitions on Darwin's life and ideas, which have also inspired a lasting memorial entitled Quantum Leap, to be unveiled later this year.
Similar festivals are being hosted throughout the country, not least in Cambridge, where Darwin studied theology between 1827 and 1831, and became interested in botany and natural history. The Cambridge Science Festival (www.admin.cam.ac.uk/sciencefestival/) runs from 11 to 22 March, followed on 5 July by Darwin 2009 (http://www.darwin2009.cam.ac.uk/) — a week-long festival including more than 100 talks, debates, workshops, performances, exhibitions and films exploring Darwin's influence on science, society, literature, history, philosophy, theology, art and music. Endless Forms, at Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum from 16 June to 4 October, is a ground-breaking, cross-disciplinary exhibition exploring the importance of visual imagery in the development of Darwin's ideas, featuring works by Turner, Degas and Monet, among many others.
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