Just a little bit more on the Symposium - the day before it actually began, we had a public lecture from Chris Darwin, Charles's great great grandson who lives in Australia. A rivetting and entertaining speaker. Then that evening a reception at NT's grandiose Parliament House - it is a smaller replica of Australia's PH, just a bit over the top for a jumped-up shire council was all I could think. After that was a lecture - an introduction to Charles Darwin's life and work, very well done indeed.

Then came the first full day, and it began with four lectures from world authorities in the fields of Darwin's life; latest developments in genetics; ways viruses and other infections demonstrate the usefulness of Darwin's theory of evolution; and how the theory of evolution enables scientists to track the development of new infections. The afternoon was a panel discussion but it was less of a success, with numbers of flaky questions from audience members with their own agendas to push.

The next full day too was brilliant. One of the speakers did in fact mention that he had participated in 8 or 9 similar symposia this year but none of the others came near this one for quality of presentations. First we had 2 speakers talking about the struggle between Darwinians and religious defenders of a creationist theory of species origination. This argument began when Darwin published his work 150 years ago and continues. Then came the afternoon session which was to do with social Darwinism, often used as a justification for the extermination of primitive civilisations, but strongly opposed (cannot imagine why) by indigenous Australians. It was an eye-opener for me at any rate, I thoroughly enjoyed the points of view put forward and the whole thing has been a brilliant success.