Contact: Leah Barbour
Award-winning Canadian performance artist Baba Brinkman teaches biology by rapping, and he will soon bring his musical classroom to Mississippi State University.
The free, public concert-lecture, "The Rap Guide to Evolution," will take the stage Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. in the McComas Hall theater.
Brinkman uses rap and hip-hop to communicate scientific reasoning behind evolutionary biology. Learn more about him at http://bababrinkman.com.
His appearance is one of many open, free activities organized as part of MSU's second annual Darwin Week.
"The events are important because they promote scientific literacy in our community and foster dialogue about the importance of evolution in our everyday lives, including human health," said Diana C. Outlaw, MSU assistant professor of biological sciences.
From athletic contests to a birthday party, Darwin Week activities are designed to promote interest in science. In addition to Brinkman's performance, events include:
--Feb. 8, 2 p.m., Survival of the Fittest Dodgeball Tournament, MSU Sanderson Center. Teams with five to eight players should register by the close of business Feb. 7 at the biological sciences department office, 130 Harned Hall.
--Feb. 9, 2 p.m., Sunday at the Bluff, Mississippi University for Women's Plymouth Bluff Center, 2200 Old West Point Rd., Columbus. Jerome Goddard, MSU Extension Service professor of entomology, will present "Evolution of Parasitism: From Ticks to Bedbugs."
--Feb. 10, 12:30 p.m., Roundtable Luncheon, 314 Harned Hall. MSU experts will discuss "Microbiology and Epidemiology."
--Feb. 11, 6 p.m., Café Scientifique, The Veranda restaurant, 208 Lincoln Green, Starkville. Janet Donaldson, MSU biological sciences associate professor, will discuss "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: What Gut Microbes Do for Us."
--Feb. 12, 5 p.m., Darwin's Birthday Reception, MSU Cobb Institute of Archaeology, Room 100. Presentation by Michael Galaty, head of MSU's anthropology and Middle Eastern cultures department, will present "Darwinian Evolution Gone Wild! Frontier Effects on Biological and Cultural Diversity" at 5:30 p.m.
--Feb. 13, 3 p.m., Tea Time Roundtable Discussion, 314 Harned Hall. MSU experts will discuss "Biodiversity and Human Health."
--Feb. 14, 2 p.m., Tea Time Roundtable Discussion, 314 Harned Hall. MSU experts will talk about "Humans and Biodiversity: Land Management."
Sponsors for Brinkman's performance include MSU departments of Biological Sciences and Plant and Soil Sciences, the College of Forest Resources and the Institute for Genomics, Biocomputing and Biotechnology.
Darwin Week supporters are MSU's departments of Biological Sciences and Geosciences, the Dunn-Seiler Museum of Geology, the Cobb Institute of Archaeology, the Museum of Entomology and MUW's Plymouth Bluff Center.
For more information about Brinkman or Darwin Week, contact Outlaw at Doutlaw@biology.msstate.edu or Amy Moe-Hoffman, geosciences instructor, at apm105@msstate.edu.